And now, I should not have hazarded the imputation of being too minute in this detail, if I had not proposed to lead you into every corner of my house and gardens. You will hardly, I imagine, think it a trouble to read the description of a place which. 1 am persuaded, would please you were you to see it ; especially as you have it in your power to stop, and, by throwing aside my letter, sit down, as it were, and rest yourself as often as you think proper. I had, at the same dine, a view to my own gratification ; as, I confess, I have a very great aGetion for this villa, which was chiefly built or finished by myself. a word (for why should I conceal from my frient1 my sentiments, whether right or wrong ?) I look upon it as the first duty of every writer frequently to throw his eyes upon his title-page, and to con sider well the subject he has proposed to himself; and he may be assured, if' he precisely pursues his plan, he cannot justly be thought tedious ; whereas, on the contrary, if he sutlers himself to wander from it, he will niost certainly incur that censure, 11 outer, you know, has employed many verses in the description of the arms of Achilles, as Virgil also has in those of tEneas; yet neither of them are prolix, because they each keep within the limits of their original design. Anatus, you see, is not deemed too circumstantial, though he traces and enumerates the minutest stars; for he does not go out of his way tor that purpose, he only follows where his subject leads hint, In the same manner (to compare small things with great) if endeavouring to give you an idea of my house, I have not deviated into any article fitreign to the purpose, it is not my letter which describes, but my villa which is described, that is to be considered as large. But not to dwell any longer upon this digression, lest I should myself be condemned by the maxim I have just laid down ; have now informed you why I prefer my Tuscan villa to those which I possess at Tusculum, Tiber, and Prteneste. Besides the advantages already ineutioned. I here enjoy a more profound retirement, as I am at a further distance from the business of the town, and the interruption of troublesome avocations. All is calm and composed ; circumstances which contribute, no less than its clear air and unclouded sky, to that health of body and cheerfulness of mind which 1 parti cularly enjoy in this place; both which I preserve by the exercise of study and hunting. indeed, there is no place which agrees better with all may family in general ; I am sure, at least, 1 have not yet lust one (and I speak it with the sentiments 1 ought) of all those I brought with me hither : may the gods continue that happiness to me, and that honour to my villa ! Farewell !" This villa in Tuscany was Pliny's principal seat, lying about 150 miles from Rome, and in which he usually resided during the summer season. The reader will observe, there fore, that he considers it in a very different manner from that of Laurentinum (his winter villa,) both with respect to the situation and the house itself. (laver, in his has placed this villa a little above Tijernum Tiberium, now called Cale di Castello, where our author built a temple at his own expense. This has given room to imagine that possibly there may be vet some remaining trace. of this house to be discovered in Tuscany, near a town which the Italians call Sthaiunanog in the neighbourhood of Tonle di Sun Ste:fizno, about ten miles north of an episcopal city now called Boryo di Sun Sepulehro.
Amongst the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, heases were flat at top, so that persons might walk upon them ; and usually had stairs on the outside, by which they might ascend and descend without coming into the house. Each house, in filet, was so laid out that it enclosed a quadrangular area or court. This court was exposed to the weather, and being opeu to _ _ the sky, gave light to the house. This was the place where company was received, and t it that purpose it watt strew ed with mats or carpets for their better accommodation. It was paved m ith marble or other materials. aceording to the owner's ability, and provided with an umbrella of vellum, to shelter them from the heat and inclemencies of the weather. This part of their houses, called by the Romans implueinm or race «fawn, was provided with channels to carry off the water into the common sewers. The top of the house was level, and covered with a strong plaster, by way of terrace. especially amongst the Jews, it was customary to retire for meditation, private converse, devotion, or the enjoyment of the evening breezes.
Some examples of the domestic buildings of the Romans still exist at Herculaneum and Pompeii, but they by no means equal those above described. At the former place the houses are small, and only one story in height ; but at the latter we have a few on a somewhat grander scale. There are about 80 houses standing in this town, of which those of Diomedes, Sallust, and Pansa, are the finest ; the second standing upon a plot of ground about 40 yards square ; and the latter occupying, with its court and garden, a space of about 100 yards by 40.
Towards the close of the last, and commencement of the present century, some few examples have also been discovered in our own country. The mest important is that at Wood chester, in Gloucestershire, which was discovered by Mr. Lysons in 1795, and consists of a large open court or atrium, an inner court, and a smaller one in the wine.—the whole being surrounded with offices and apartments about sixty in number. The length of the apartments is about 25 feet. Another example in the same county was discovered in 1818, at Great Witemnbe. Another example is that at Bignor,
Sussex. discovered by N r. Lysens in 1811, of w hick we give the following description, extracted from the original account, and from Stuart's Dictionary :— " The first discovery of this villa occurred in 1S11. A farmer who occupied the land, in removing the earth, dis covered a fine mosaic pavement, which was afterwards found to have fitrined a part of the floor to one of the rooms. In the centre of this apartment was an hexagonal piscino, or cistern, formed of a hard white sort of stone, 4 feet in diameter and 1 foot 7-1- inches in depth, with a border of stone round it 91 inches wide, and a step within it, at nearly halt' its depth, 51 inches wide ; at the bottom is a round hole, inches in diameter, from which a leaden pipe for carrying off the water was afterwards discovered on the outside of the south wall, running in a southern direction. The room appeared to have been heated by an hypocaust, and, in clear ing away the earth, part of a small Doric column was found. In the next room discovered, the walls remained to the height of more than two feet at the north•east corner, where was a funnel above the pavement, communicating with the hypo canst below. The pavement was in good preservation ; and the dimensions of the room were 40 feet 4 inches by 17 feet. The first room, 31 feet 11 inches by 19 feet. The walls on the east. west, and north sides, were •-.! feet 6 inches thick ; that on the south, 3 feet. This is conjectured to have been the triclinium, or grand banqueting room. Another pave ment w as found in a third room. at the end of which, opposite from the room last mentioned, was a doorway 3 feet 31 inches wide, leading into ;mothe• 22 feet by 10 feet 4 italics —the pavement !brined of coarse red tesseme. On the south side of the great pavement, the foundations of a eryptopor liens were discovered, which appeal's to have been of much larger dimensions than any one hitherto discovered in this island; it was 10 feet wide, and 157 feet 6 inches long. Its tessellated pavement was destroyed, except at the west end; on the north side of this gallery the fimndation-walls of a range of rooms was discovered, running eastward, in a line with the great room first discovered. The one which adjoined that room on the east side was 19 feet 2 inches by 18 feet I) inches, and had a floor of terras of a light red colour. The next room to the eastward was nearly of the same dimensions, and had a coarse tessellated pavement. Adjoining the two last-mentioned rooms on the north side, were the foun dations of one 16 feet square, containing a mosaic pavement. The praturnium of the hypocaust, by hick the great room and others had been heated, was discovered on the north side of the north wall of the third-mentioned room, and consisted of two walls 18 inches thick and 18 inches asunder, project ing 16 inches from the wall of the building; between them was a kind of arch formed by bricks projecting beyond each other, and communicating with the flues under the diGrent pavements ; about 30 feet north of the room, marked 5, in Mr. Lysons' plan, a very tine mosaic pavement was dis covered, and a magnificent apartment, marked 3, was traced, to \which 5 was found to have served as an ante-room. The wall on the north side of this room was found to continue 32 feet towards the west, where it terminated with a projec tion or buttress of two feet, forming two sides of what appeared to have been a kind of court, enclosing an area of 30 feet, filled with great quantities of stones, bricks, and tiles. At a small distance from the west wall of the great room, last described, the base and part of the shaft of a small column were discovered. At the west end of the ante-room, 5, was a very small room, 4, (0 feet by 12 feet,) having two doorways, one on the east, opening into 5, and the other on the north, communicating with the square area marked 1. The continuation of the east wall of the room 11, at the west end, or rather the continuation of the cryptoportieus, was next explored to the southward, and traces of it were found to the extent of 100 feet. The room 27, adjoining 26, had its walls still remaining on the east, north, and south sides, to about two feet high, which were covered with stucco two inches thick, painted red, with a skirting of plaster at two inches high, projecting two inches and a half from the wall. On the east side was found, in good preservation, a fireplace wide in front, 17 at the back, and S deep, with a hearth fbrined of 8 bricks, each about 7 inches square. The fireplace was formed by two brick tiles on each side, which had been cramped together with iron, and were placed on the sides of the stove introduced by Count 1Zumfo•d. I am not aware, Mr. Lysons observes, of any open fireplace of this kind having been discovered elsewhere in the remains of a Roman building, though it is certain, from various pas sages in the Roman writers, that other means were employed by the ancients fin- warming their apartments, besides hypo enlists. The caminus is mentioned by Cicero, 1-lorace,Vitruvius, and others; but the learned commentators on these authors are by no means agreed as to its farm or situation, and it has been much questioned by some of them, on the authority of several passages in ancient writers, and from none having been discovered in Roman buildings, whether there was any chimney, or other means of conveying away the smoke, though it is hardly to be conceived that a room could have been habitable under such circumstances at times, NVIIVI1 it was necessary to close the doors and windows.