5S SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



limits* : it has since taken ample revenge, and recovered much more 

 than it ever lost. 



From being a place of resort for a season, Baiae now grew up to 

 a permanent city ; whoever found himself disqualified by age, or 

 infirmity, for sustaining any longer an active part on the political 

 theatre; whoever, from an indolent disposition, sought a place where 

 the pleasures of it town were combined with the sweets of a rural 

 life; whoever wished to withdraw from the dangerous neighbour- 

 hood of a court, and the baneful eye of informers; flocked hither, 

 to enjoy life untainted with fear and trouble. Such affluence of 

 \vealthv inhabitants rendered Baiae as much a miracle of art as it 



\/ 



was before of nature ; its splendour may be inferred from its innu- 

 merable ruins, heaps of marbles, mosaics, stucco, and other preci- 

 ous fragments of taste. 



It flourished in full glory down to the days of Theodoric the 

 Goth ; but the destruction of these enchanted palaces followed 

 quickly upon the irruption of the northern conquerors, who overturn* 

 ed the Roman system, sacked and burnt all before them, and de- 

 stroyed or dispersed the whole race of nobility. Loss of fortune 

 left the Romans neither the means, nor indeed the thought, of sup. 

 porting such expensive establishments, which can only be enjoyed in 

 perfection during peace and prosperity. No sooner had opulence 

 withdrawn her hand, than the unbridled sea rushed back upon its 

 old domain ; moles and buttresses were torn asunder and washed 

 away; whoie promontories, with the proud towers that once crown, 

 ed their brows* were undermined and tumbled headlong into the 

 deep, where, many feet below the surface, pavements of streets, 

 foundations of houses, and masses of walls, may still be descried. 

 Internal commotions of the earth contributed also largely to this ge- 

 neral devastation ; mephitic vapours and stagnated waters have con- 

 verted this favourite seat of health into the den of pestilence, at least 

 during the estival heats ; yet Baiae in its ruined state, and stripped of 

 all its ornaments, still presents many beautiful and striking subjects 

 for the pencil. 



As we rowed under the lofry headlands, a Cicerone, whom I had 

 met with at Baiae, pointed to vaults and terraces, and allotted them 



* Marisque Baiis obstrepentis urjes 

 Suniaiovcie littora. Jlop.% 



