CLASSIC PLEASURE GROUNDS 



living rooms. All over the town, gardens filling the 

 courtyards have been excavated, some of these enriched 

 with a great variety of beautiful objects both useful 

 and ornamental. Fountains (fontes surgentes), statuary 

 of bronze and marble, besides stone sun-dials, tables, 

 and couches, are to be seen in their original positions. 

 Fish-ponds (piscina) lined with blue stucco, niches 

 covered with shell-work or gayly-coloured mosaics, 

 and little pavilions formed of marble columns are 

 among the interesting features. The walls are cov- 

 ered with frescoes, often representing landscapes with 

 gardens. 



The Casa Nuova, or house of the Vettii, contains The house 

 the best examples of a xystus and peristyle. Re- vettii. 

 cently excavated, it has been left as 

 far as possible in its former shape, 

 and judiciously restored to complete 

 the original effect. Even the pattern 

 of the flower-beds was traced from 

 the patches of richer earth, outlined 

 by brick copings, showing the original 

 design. At one corner of the quad- 

 rangle a little bronze boy squeezes 

 under his arm a goose from whose 

 bill water spouts into a circular basin. 

 Similar infants, each holding a different 

 bird or beast, stand beside corresponding basins at the 



