"Above this tier is another, containing likewise several groups of chambers of difThrent size and shape ; and below the level of the fosse is a third tier, the chambers of which are, however, in a very ruinous state. Opening from the circular chamber facing the south, is a narrow passage, which winds by many a circuitous route towards the western group of chambers, and then turning again to the south, branches out into many side-passages. These passages were at first thought to form a regularly planned labyrinth, but their lowness being such as barely to allow a man to creep through on all-fimrs, the irregularity of their level, and the circumstance of the passage opening into the western group of chambers, breaking through one of the stone benches with which the walls of the chamber are lined, and on which the dead reclined, have subsequently led to the abandonment of this opinion, and of the idea of this being the site of the far-famed tomb of Porsenna." We must not omit to mention that colour was used in these tombs as a means of decoration. At Tarvinii. they are all painted, but there is one. the Grotta Qaerciola, which in the design and execution of the pictures, surpasses all the others.
The walls are entirely covered with paintings illustrative of the social manners of the Etrurians, the colours of which, though now somewhat dint, must have been originally splendid. In the 1;rotta del Triclinio, hard by, the colours have retained their brilliancy, and the effect is described as perfectly dazzling by those %do have beheld theta in a bright light.
The Etrurians do not seem to have been a people of any great native taste, and arc not to be compared with the ( ;reeks in this respect ; they preferred utility to beauty, and convenience to decoration. Some assert that all that is really beautiful in their monuments, emanates solely from Greece ; but this we cannot suppose ; they were destitute indeed of the creative imagination of the Greeks, and probably borrowed very largely front them, but at the same time we cannot suppose them to have been entirely devoid of originality.
For further information on this sulject, we would refer to and h as also to the recent work of Mr. Dennis on the Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. See