132 Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples. 



and animals in the cornices, but in a coarse style, as indeed 

 are all the paintings of Stabia. In a corner we found the 

 brass hinges and locks of a trunk ; near them part of the con- 

 tents, viz. ivory flutes in pieces, some coins, brass rings, scales, 

 steelyards, and a very elegant silver statue of Bacchus, about 

 two inches high, represented with a crown of vine-leaves, bus- 

 kins, and the horn of plenty." * 



In this description we may remark, that the extremely shat- 

 tered state of the walls here mentioned, could not have been 

 the consequence of the earthquake of a. d. 63, otherwise the 

 houses could not have been sixteen years after in the habitable 

 state which the utensils and papyri buried among the volcanic 

 ashes prove them to have been. We must, therefore, ascribe 

 it to the tremendous earthquake described by Pliny, as ac- 

 companying the eruption. If it be asked why the walls of 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii are not in the same condition, (for 

 in general they are sufficiently secure) we may reply, that this 

 circumstance, so instrumental to the marvellous preservation of 

 these two cities, is owing to their situation upon a porous and 

 ill-compacted foundation, which deadened the terrestrial vibra- 

 tions ; while Stabiae, seated on firm rock of a branch of the 

 Apennines, niust necessarily have experienced the shock in 

 a far more powerful degree. The testimony of this extract 

 has formerly been alluded to in support of my opinion of the 

 pre-existent condition of Stabiae. From it we distinctly gather 

 that the eruption of Vesuvius was the decisive cause of its de- 

 struction, — a position which we have seen Breislak and others 

 deny, — and thatit appears to have existed rather as avillage than 

 a town, with which the inferiority of its paintings agrees. The 

 description of Swinburne, on the whole, is to be considered a 

 valuable one, as supplying a link in the history of the Buried 

 Cities, which, in the sources I have consulted, is generally 

 awanting. 



I have now completed the sketch I proposed of the present sub- 

 ject, and perhaps I have filled it up with as much minuteness 

 as most of my readers would be disposed to follow me through. 

 I am not aware of having omitted any material fact which has 

 come to ray knowledge, relating to the Physical History of Her- 

 * Swinburne, vol. i. p. 127 — 129. 



