NEWTON MANOR. 53 



leading from the entrance hall may be noticed ; the balustrade of 

 this is an elaborate specimen of Flemish carved oak of about 1650. 

 It came, I think, from a house at Antwerp ; fortunately, it fitted 

 its new situation with very little alteration, and it goes to the top 

 of the house. 



There are a good many specimens of ancient sculpture placed 

 about the garden, many of them authentic " stones of Venice." 

 In front of the house the old well, which still serves, has a 

 " pozzo," or well head, above it. This came from one of the old 

 palaces in Venice ; it is in Lstrian stone, finely carved, and it bears 

 the coat of arms of the family to whom it originally belonged ; it 

 is of about 1490. Another, also in front of the house, is a more 

 interesting piece. This is the capital of an antique Roman 

 Corinthian column in white marble, which, in the Middle Ages, 

 was hollowed out and made to serve as a well head ; it came from a 

 village on the site of the Roman City of Aquileia, near Venice, and 

 it was probably from a portico of one of the temples, or the basilica 

 of the city. One side is well preserved ; this evidently went against 

 a wall, but the other side is much defaced and worn, evidently 

 from centuries of abrasion from buckets and pails. Near the 

 vinery will be found an antique Roman marble altar with a finely 

 cut inscription. This also was brought from Aquileia. The 

 purport of the inscription is to record the dedication of some 

 monument or other, probably a roadside shrine, to the local god 

 Belenus by an " Evocatus," or pensioned legionary soldier, by 

 permission of the authorities of Aquileia. 



It is interesting to note that this altar, which was obtained by 

 the late Mr. Cavendish Bentinck in Venice, must have been pre- 

 served in some one of the palaces of that city ever since the 

 early part of the 16th century, inasmuch as the inscription was 

 published and known to scholars in the year 1548. A number of 

 sculptured capitals of columns, mostly from Venice, are about the 

 grounds ; these form a series dating from the 8th or 9th down to 

 the end of the 16th century. There remains now only one other 

 object to be noticed this is an old Italian marble life-sized statue 



