II.] YOUTHFUL TRAVELS, 1826-27. 27 



by doubting its authenticity. The building is a square 

 chamber, at the side of the entrance to the grotto of 

 Pausilippo ; it is surrounded with niches for urns rising 

 upwards straight to a flat roof, though most of the 

 exterior stones have been removed. In the interior are 

 ten niches for urns, and in the centre was one containing 

 the ashes of the poet, supported by nine small pillars, as 

 some believe ; on it was the inscription dictated by 

 Virgil immediately before his death, and so well known. 

 ******* 



* Dec. IQth. I shall add one or two remarks as to the 

 authenticity of this famous spot. In the first place, 

 tradition is unanimous in marking this place, which on 

 such a point is of no small importance ; but the most 

 distinct written account of antiquity is that of Silius 

 Italicus, to whom the spot actually belonged ; that 

 passage is in his obscure style, and has been well dis- 

 cussed by Eustace. ... On the whole, it is my clear 

 opinion that we may not only frequent the place now 

 pointed out with the fond credulity of imagination, but 

 that there are sufficient grounds for recognizing it on an 

 unprejudiced consideration/ 



' POMPEII, March 22nd, 1827. 



'March 22nd. In Pompeii we see what could not 



have been presented to us without some very peculiar 



deviation from ordinary events, such as an eruption of 



Vesuvius overwhelming a city not with lava but with 



s. In Rome, as in other cities of Italy and those of 



DC, we see the remains of antiquity as Time has left 



i. destroy in;: all the mean or individual houses, 



preserving only the finest fragments of the noblest 



edifices. What would I'uinpeii have been under such 



ite? Nothing probably ini^ht have remained, as it 



eniitains nothing of singular notice in an architectural 



nd all illicit now have lieen levelled with the 



ground. But in Rome what li^lit have we into the 



manners of the ancients ? What we know of their 



