to Gallus' he particularly describes a chamber so contrived that neither sun nor noise of any kind could reach it. The mosaic pavements of these rooms bore such inscriptions as BENE. DORMIO. &c. In others, the walls were painted in Opera Topiaria, resembling bowers composed of green branches with birds perched, or on the wing. One chamber also had windows so situated, as to receive the rays of both the rising and the setting sun.

The Hibernaculum, or small winter apartment, was circular in its plan, and had the

acknowledged to be that published at Leipsic in 1806; but there are English translations by Lord Orrery and by W. Melmoth, the last said to be one of the best versions of a Latin author which has appeared in the language.

1 Book ii. epist. 17.

2 On a part of a curiously carved bedstead of the time of King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the collection of an antiquary in London, was a flowing scroll bearing the words COM. TO. BEAD. and over the doors of the richly carved screen in the old hall at Halnaker, in Sussex, are labels inscribed LE. BIEN. VENVE.-COME. IN. AND. DRINCE. Inscriptions, it is needless to say, have been applied to internal decoration in all ages.

lights so contrived as to receive the sun at all hours of the day'. The beds were usually placed in recesses called Zotheca, and the bedsteads were made of citron wood or of bronze, and even covered with the tortoise' shell, which rivalled the precious metals in estimation. Juvenal mentions

The foreign tortoise and that clouded shell,
Which future times were destined to employ,
To build rare couches for the sons of Troy4.

The coverings of the cushions, like every other article, were tastefully ornamented: the cushions were filled with light feathers, and

A bedchamber in the Villa Suburbana at Pompeii was so constructed.

2 The Museum at Portici exceeds all others in ancient bronze. Bronze, though dearer, more difficult to be wrought, more tempting to be destroyed, and less beautiful than marble, forms most of the statuary. Bronze is preserved here in all the various shapes of kitchen utensils, implements of worship, and articles of dress. Even in early Greece bronze was applied to the same variety of uses.-Forsyth's Italy.

3 Pliny's Natural History, book xvi. chap. 43. 4 Badham's Juvenal, sat. 11.

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".

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 them, 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.