the mattresses were stuffed with wool obtained from Gaul'.:

To the Hibernaculum was attached a small room forming a Heliocausinus, which was a kind of solar stove, imparting a gentle warmth by means of widely glazed windows which collected the sun's rays. All other rooms connected with the Hibernaculum were heated by means of tubes fixed in the thickness of the walls 2.

The suite of private apartments in a Roman mansion also contained a small dining-room, several cabinets and Cellæ Familiariæ, or rooms for persons immediately in attendance upon the master of the house. To several of the apartments discovered by the excavations at Pompeii, a small room was found attached which no doubt was destined for the attendant on the master's chamber.

1 Ursinus in the Appendix to Ciaconius "De Triclinio," and Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. plate 10, fig. 2.

2 Winkelman's Rémarques sur l'Architecture des Anciens, p. 74, and several baths of the houses of Pompeii engraved in Ruines &c. vol. ii.

The windows of these rooms were all small, but it is supposed they produced a more agreeable effect to the eye on that account'. The most common material of ancient windows was thin canvas; but light was also admitted by a very transparent species of stone called speculum, which Seneca speaks of as an invention of his time. This material was used by the younger Pliny in his country-houses, and was found at Segobriga in Spain; it was afterwards discovered in Cyprus, Cappadocia, Africa, and in Sicily. The Emperor Nero built a temple solely of this stone within the precincts of his Golden House, which in the daytime received sufficient light without the aid of windows. It was probably a kind of alabaster, but more transparent than the species now used, which does not become pellucid till cut very thin. The lapis specularis of the ancients was undoubtedly talc, a species of fossil, com

1 Cicero, Ad Attic. lib. 2, epist. 3. 2 Arbuthnot's Tables, p. 153.

mon in Cyprus, the Alps, Apennines, and mountains of Germany. It is still used instead of horn for lanterns, &c. Of Venetian talc, another kind', a beautiful pellucid greenish yellow glass is made by fusion.

The windows upon the ground-floor of the house were closed with clathri, iron gratings either turning on a pivot, or fixed to the wall; one of which has been discovered at Herculaneum', and many at Pompeii.

The windows of the upper stories had boxes with flowers in them3, imparting a cheerful and rural aspect; while shutters painted of a light blue colour were not only considered most pleasing to the eye, but harmonized with the azure sky*.

1 Not found at Venice, but bearing the name in consequence of being an article of commerce with the Venetians.

2 Winkelman Sur l'Architecture des Anciens, p. 64.

3 Pliny, Natural History, book xix. chap. 4.

♦ This colour, called Colon, used in painting shutters, was manufactured at Puteoli.

The furniture of the private apartments, although made of the richest materials, derived more value from the gracefulness of the forms employed in the various designs, than from the preciousness of the articles themselves, particularly when it is considered that this series of rooms was entirely destined for one man, and that only for his occupation during a few hours of sleep. A door covered by drapery led from this suite into a small court, the portico of which was closed with glass. It is now no longer doubted that the Romans were acquainted with the use of glass windows, numerous fragments of glass panes having been discovered at Pompeii; these frail memorials confirm all previous conjectures upon the subject. That entire corridors were sometimes glazed may be inferred from Pliny's description of his villa at Laurentum, where the Atrium is represented as formed by glass windows'.

1 See also the painting representing the Baths of Faustina, published by Bellori and by Winkelman, Monum. Inedit.

In this court was the Venereum, or, as the Greeks called it, Aphrodision, a division of the house comprising apartments dedicated to the Cyprian goddess. No crevices were suffered to appear in the doors of these rooms, and they were completely protected from prying eyes by curtains on the inside. The subject of the painting on the wall opposite to the door would be the punishment of the rash and curious Acteon'. The gallery surrounding this court was most in character when painted with figures on a black ground, a mode of decoration which gave a fine relief to the fairness of women's complexions, and also to their dress; the quantity of gilded ornaments, spread upon this black ground, destroyed whatever gloominess might otherwise prevail. Here also was placed a statue of Venus, with an altar at the foot of it. This, indeed, was the temple of the goddess, and had the greatest profusion of ornament bestowed upon it. Columns remark1 Pitture de Pompeii, plate 1.

2 Pitture, and Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii.