its ancient proprietor; and we plucked roses, and wallflowers, and sweet-scented violets from amid the ruins.

From Herculaneum we drove to Pompeii. The distance is about seven miles, perhaps fourteen from Naples. Our road lay along the margin of the bay, at the base of Mount Vesuvius, crossing numerous beds of lava, poured out at different periods, running in vast ridges down the mountain-side, and here and there jutting far out into the sea. We passed through Torre del Greco and Torre del Annonciata-towns, each of about fifteen thousand inhabitants. They have both been several times destroyed by eruptions, evidences of which are everywhere apparent. Many of the present houses are built upon the lava which buried the old; and others, which were not entirely covered, were so surrounded by the rolling mass, that they are now entered at the second story, and the way into one of the churches is through the great window over the ancient door. It was a festa day, and the air was musical with the voice of bells; and men, women, and children thronged the streets, the neat and gaily-dressed mingling with the ragged and filthy rabble that swarm in all Italian towns; and the places of worship were so thronged, that the kneeling crowds overflowed at the portals, and down the broad steps into the public ways; for there were relics to be shown!

Reaching the little inn at Pompeii, we took a hasty luncheon; and then one of the government guides conducted us through the 'Sea Gate' into the silent city. It was with a feeling like that which one experiences on entering a vast cemetery by moonlight, that I first looked along the deserted streets, and the walls of palaces and temples, parched by volcanic fire-a pale ghost of the mighty past a dead city, untimely disinterred from its ashy sepulchre! Pompeii was destroyed not by a stream of lava, or a deluge of mud, but by showers of ashes and pumice-stone, the loose nature of which rendered its excavation comparatively an easy work; and many of its streets and forums, dwellings and theatres, laid entirely open to the day, sun themselves amid vineyards and flowery fields-a pleasant contrast to the darkly-buried Herculaneum.

The largest temple, and the first shown us, was that of Venus. It consists of an area paved with marble, surrounded by a portico, and having at one end a raised platform, with an altar upon it, and rooms in the rear for the priests. Near this is a spacious forum, also paved with marble, and showing the bases of several statues. At its northern end is the temple of Jupiter, raised upon a lofty basement, having a portico of Corinthian pillars, some small chambers at one extremity, and part of a staircase that led to an upper story. Then we came to the temple of Augustus, called also the Pantheon, in which was found the statue of Augustus, with the statues of Livia and her son Drusus, now in the Neapolitan Museum. It was built around an atrium or court, in the midst of which are twelve pedestals arranged in a circle, and believed to have sustained the statues of twelve divinities, and on the south side are twelve small chambers for the twelve priests.

We passed through a long street, sometimes called 'the Street of Abundance,' from a statue of that goddess which was found at one end of it; and sometimes the Street of the Silversmiths,' from the quantities of jewelry discovered in its houses. The buildings are nearly all of the same size and form, and painted in the same manner. They were chiefly of one story, built around an open court. The apartments, especially the sleeping-rooms, were very small. Some of the frescoes and mosaics were beautiful, and in a good state of preservation. In this street are several large fountains or reservoirs, evidently intended for public use. At one end of it was found a skeleton with a sack, containing a large number of silver coins, with some of bronze and gold.

The theatre, which was found entire, lies fairly open to the day; but its statues and other ornaments have all been removed to the metropolis. It stood on the slope of the hill facing the bay, the stage and the orchestra being at the foot, and the seats rising in semicircular ranges up the acclivity. The seats were divided and numbered, and it is calculated that five thousand people could have found accommodation there. It was well furnished with means of ingress and of egress; and as it was without a roof, there

was no want of ventilation; and the audience might enjoy a glorious view of the outspread waters before them, with Stabiæ and Surrentum beyond, and the mountain heights of the promontory, while they sat witnessing the play.

We now passed through several streets, visiting numerous shops and dwellings, some of them quite remarkable for their contents and decorations. There were stores for wine and oil, with the great earthen vessels still standing in which those things were kept. There were restaurants and baker-shops, with ovens and flour-mills exactly like those now used in Naples and Rome. There was the custom-house, where weights and measures were found, and a great pair of scales. There was a basilica, with a raised tribune for the judges, and dungeons beneath for criminals. There were the barracks, with the names and jests of the soldiers scribbled on the walls, as fresh as if it had been done but yesterday. There were the public baths, with all the appurtenances of such an institution complete, and separate apartments for hot water and cold. Men evidently shaved in those days, for there was the barber-shop, though its occupant appeared to have stepped out for a moment or two. Two houses, standing side by side, were remarkable for their beautiful fountains, with large semicircular niches fronting the atriums, and elaborately ornamented with mosaics, shell-work, basreliefs, and statuary. In many of these places, when they were opened, skeletons were discovered, with coins of various metals, and quantities of gems and gold.

The Via Appia runs through the centre of the city. It is rather narrow, but has side walks three feet wide, and elevated about twenty inches above the central pavement. The stones are worn into deep ruts by the wheels, about four feet apart; showing that the carriages of the Pompeians were much narrower than ours, and that they generally kept the same line. We passed through this street, leaving the city at the 'Porta Herculanea.' Here was found the skeleton of a soldier who was on guard when the fiery tempest came down, and here he had stood at his post nearly two thousand years. Some distance without the gate, on the Street of Tombs, is the

superb villa of. Diomede-the largest and finest establishment hitherto discovered, and which has furnished more than any other of the curiosities and works of art now in the museum at Naples. Close by the garden gate were found the skeletons of the master and an attendant-the one grasping a key, the other a purse of gold. In the vaulted basement, whither the household seem chiefly to have fled for shelter, seventeen skeletons were discovered, principally of women and children; and on the side of one of the subterranean passages is still to be seen, as distinct as if painted there, the outline of the nurse's form, with an infant in her arms.

But what avail such details? The reader must see and survey these ruins for himself. He must walk these silent streets, and enter these tenantless houses, before he is prepared to appreciate any description of them from another. We spent four or five hours here, but needed as many days. As we wandered about, it seemed difficult to realize that Pompeii had been hidden under ground for so many centuries; and at every corner I almost expected to see some old Roman patrician sweep by in his toga, or hear the children chattering Latin to one another in their sports. But all around is silence-the silence not of solitude and repose, but of devastation and deaththe silence of a great city without a single inhabitant, and there, hanging its white signal-vapour in the sapphire sky, stands the destroyer, looking down upon the destroyed!

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CHAPTER XVI.

THE SORRENTINE PROMONTORY.

Nocera La Cava-Beautiful Scenery-The Convent-Charming Drive-Amalfi-Its History-Beggars and Begging-Wild Nightscene-Monte Sant Angelo-Courage, Maccaroni, and CheeseGlorious Prospect-Castellamare-Plan of Sorrento-The Town and its Antiquities-Poetic Curiosity.

Know ye the land of the cypress and vine,

Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gull* in their bloom;

Where the citron and orange are fairest of fruit,

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;

Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky,

In colour though varied, in beauty may vie,
And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye;

Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all but the spirit of man is divine?

BRIDE OF ABYDOS.

To

WE had communed with the ghost of antiquity in the dark vaults of Herculaneum. We had wandered many hours through the silent streets of Pompeii, amid ruined palaces and theatres, forums and temples, baths and tombs. this dreary and deathlike solitude, the bustle of a railway station and the rapid motion of the train afforded a refreshing contrast; and as we rushed past villa and vineyard up the sweet valley of the Sarno, it was delightful to find ourselves once more surrounded by the realities of the living world.

A visit to Pestum, the brief time we had allotted ourselves would not allow us to enjoy ; but we determined to see all we could of Southern Italy, especially of the classical localities and incomparable scenery of the Salernian and Sorrentine coasts. It was nearly sunset when we left the little inn at Pompeii; and before we reached the railroad terminus at Nocera, the gray evening had mantled the plain, and hung a soft veil over the mountains. It was a festa day in honour

* The rose.