364 ?HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1747. 



doe. It is remarkable how delicately the doe seemed to dispose of her legs, not 

 to hurt the child; while at the same time she is licking his knees, as a mark of 

 her tenderness for him. This picture is equal to the first mentioned; being exqui- 

 sitely drawn and coloured, and well composed. 



7. There is a little picture, which seems extremely odd for its composition. 

 It is about 14- foot long, and 8 or Q inches high: it is a parrot drawing a chariot 

 something like our modern chaises. In the chariot sits a sort of large horse-fly, 

 whose two horns serve for the bridle and reins to guide the parrot. 



8. Two pictures of about 44- feet long, represent the stage of a theatre, with 

 comedians playing their parts on it. The perspective in these pictures is very 

 well observed. 



9. A wedding, consisting of 3 figures only. They are much in the same taste 

 of those of Aldobrandini's marriage at Rome. There are besides numbers of 

 little frizes representing sacrifices, and other ceremonies, of the ancient Pagans ; 

 most of them on black or red grounds. 



These pictures show, that the ancients understood perspective and landscape, 

 I mean, the keeping particularly, which I have heard strongly disputed; but no 

 one that has seen these pictures will, I believe, make any doubt of it. 



It would be impossible to give you an exact description of all the pictures; as 

 there are so many entire, besides the bits and fragments of others. Of some, 

 the heads only remain; and of others, pieces of figures; numbers of small land- 

 scapes; views of architecture, flowers, and fruit, painted extremely light and 

 elegantly. There are even some grotesque pictures, something in the taste of 

 India painting. Most of the small ones have been taken out of compartments ; 

 the guardian showed me several places whence they had been taken. They still 

 preserve a beauty superior to any thing we see now-a-days ; the colouring, draw- 

 ing, and liberty of pencil, may vie with the works even of Raphael himself. 



There are two rooms full of them. And they are continually finding more 

 pictures every day; and had I a month to spare, I would willingly go on foot to 

 Naples, to have the pleasure of studying those I have already seen, and seeing 

 those which have been discovered since.* 



N. B. Cardinal Albani, at Rome, has an antique group of Theseus and the 

 Minotaur; where the Minotaur has the head only of a bull, as in the picture 

 abovementioned. 



j4 Letter from Mr. G. Stovin to his Son, concerning the Body of a Woman, and 

 an Antique Shoe, found in a Morass in the Isle of Axholm in Lincolnshire. 

 By Mr. G. Stovin. N" 484, p. 571. 



The beginning of June last (1747) a labouring man, of Amcotts in the isle 

 • See more of these curiosities in these Trans. N" 456 and 458. — Qrig. 



