The ancient pictures of Herculaneum are of the utmost interest, not only from the freshness and vividness of co lour, but from the nature of the subjects they represent. All are executed in fresco ; they are exclusively on the walls, and generally on a black or red ground. It has hcen supposed, from passages in the classics, that the ancients used only four colours, white, black, yellow, and red ; but here are added blue and green.* Some are of animated beings, large as life, but the Majority are in miniature. Every different subject of antiquity is depicted here : dei ties, human figures, animals, landscapes foreign and domes tic, and a variety of grotesque beings. Sports and pastimes, theatrical performances, sacrifices, all enter the catalogue. Having occasion afterwards to speak cursorily of some or these subjects, we shall content ourselves with observing, that they are more remarkable for variety than for their in trinsic quality. One of larger size found in a temple, and the most celebrated, represents Theseus vanquishing the Minotaur, which lies stretched at his feet, with the head of a bull and the body of a man. A female, supposed to be Ariadne, and three children, form part of the group. This, along with a picture, composed of several figures as large as life, of which Flora is the most conspicuous, adorned a temple of Hercules; each is six or seven feet high and five broad. Another represents Chiron teaching Achilles the lyre ; and female centaurs are seen suckling their young. The interior of a shoemaker's shop is exposed on a smaller scale; a feast, baskets of fruit, a grasshopper driving a par rot yoked to a car, a cupid guiding swans in the same manner, and many allegorical subjects are represented. It is impossible within these limited bounds to enumerate their varieties, but we shall immediately refer the reader to a specific work upon the subject, from which much en tertainment will be derived. The king, desirous of pre serving these pictures, directed them to be sawed out of the walls, a work of great labour and perseverance, after which they were put in shallow frames and kept in the museum.
It is said that a triremis or vessel, with three banks of oars, was discovered, with the iron or copper tackle and wood work complete, and that a drawing was taken of it; but the more material parts immediately fell to dust. A sea piece with vessels is among the paintings.
• It is extraordinary, that numbers of perishable sub stances should have resisted the corrosions of time. Many almonds in the shell, imprinted with all the lines and fur rows characterising their ligneous envelope, were dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum ; figs and some kinds of wild apples were in preservation ; and a sort of pine cone yet growing in the woods of Italy, the seeds of which are now ate, or used for culinary purposes. Grain, such as bar ley, and also beans and peas, remained entire, of a black colour, and offering resistance to pressure. The stones of peaches and apricots are common, thus denoting the fre quency of two trees reputed indigenous in Armenia and Persia. But what is still more singular, a loaf, stamped with the baker's name in Roman characters, or the quality of the wheat, was taken from an oven, and was apparently converted to charcoal. Different parts of plants, prepared for pharmacy, were obtained from the dwellings of those who had been apothecaries. After such an amazing lapse of time, liquids have been found approaching to a fluid state —an instance of which cannot be sufficiently admired in a phial of oil conceived to be that of olives. It is white,
greasy to the touch, and emits the smell of rancid oil. An earthen vase was found in the cellars containing wine, which now resembles a lump of porous dark violet colour ed glass. We acknowledge, however, that them e is great difficulty in comprehending how this change should have taken place. The ancients speak of very thick wines, re quiring dilution previous to use, which would keep 200 years, and would then acquire the consistence of honey. Eggs are also said to have been found whole and empty. Solid pitch was found at the bottom of a vessel, wherein it had probably melted, as it afterwards did from heat in the museum at Portici, which stands near the entrance to the subterraneous city.
An entire set of kitchen furniture has been collected, which displays several utensils exactly similar to our own.
The copper pans, instead of being tinned, arc internally coat ed with silver, probably a bett r precaution, as more of the poisonous metals are expelled from the latter. These have not been attacked by verdigrease, whence the ancients per haps understood some branches of metallurgy as as the moderns. Here is a large brass cauldron, three feet in diameter, and Fourteen inches deep, an urn or boiler for hot water similar to those on our tables, and also having a cylinder in the centre for a heater. There are pestles and mortars, and all kinds of implements for cutting out and figuring pastry ; and, in short, a complete culinary appara tus. Utensils of finer quality were likewise collected, which had been employed at tables, as silver goblets, and vases, silver spoons, and the remnants of knives. But front the absence of forks, both among the other remains and in pic tures, it is doubtful how far they were known to the an cients. It is probable, indeed, that their invention and com mon use are to be dated several centuries later.
Several articles belonging to personal ornament and de coration occurred : We shall not speak of the colours still in a condition fit for painting, because it is questioned whe ther they were such as it is known the ladies of that gene ration were accustomed to use for more mdinary purposes. Besides, they are red, blue, and yellow. Those with which females heightened their complexion were prepared both from minerals and vegetables, the latter being chiefly ma rine plants. Two silver bodkins, with which they pinned up their hair, eight inches in length, are preserved ; the end of one appropriately sculptured with a Venus adjust ing her tresses before a looking-glass held by Cupid. Gold armlets, bracelets, necklaces with pieces of plate gold sus /retitled to them as a locket, are preserved. Small nets al so with fine meshes, which some have supposed the la dies employed to tie up their hair; and others of coarser texture, which must have been used for other purposes. Pieces of cloth, coloured red on one side, and black on the other, were found on the breast of a skeleton ; the texture of which, whether silk, woollen, linen, or cotton, antiquaries have not been able to decide. Very few jewels are discovered, which favours the idea of the inhabitants having had time to escape. There was a wooden comb, with teeth on both sides, closer on one of them than on the opposite ; and portions of gold lace fabricated from the pure metal. Sandals of laced cords are seen, though it is more commonly believed that leather was in general use among the Italians ; and a folding parasol, absolutely similar to what we-esteem a mo dern invention, was likewise discovered.