36 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



pitched, holding 31,000 gallons of water, under lock and 

 key ; by the side of this reservoir, and fed from it, was 

 a pond, also made of planks, lined with lead, and care- 

 fully covered; it was filled with sea- water, in which a 

 great number of fish were constantly kept.* 



It is from the Romans, however, that our chief infor- 

 mation concerning ancient vivaria is derived, and the 

 copious details given us by Columella, Varro,t and 

 PHny, show that these ponds left little for posterity 

 to improve. There are, says Varro, two sorts of stews, 

 one supplied by fresh, the other by salt water : the 

 first, in which advantage is taken of neighbouring land- 

 springs, is the poor man's pond ; the other, or sea pre- 

 serve (where Neptune furnishes both the water and the 

 fish), none but a very rich man can enjoy, for though 

 pleasiag to the eye, it is a very expensive speculation, , 

 and one much better adapted to empty the fabricator's 

 purse (marsupium) than to fill his stomach; so that. 



* 'Hv Sc Koi vhpoBrjKr) Kara Tfjv irpapav KKeicrTr) bicrxi'^iovs jieTprjTas 

 b€-)(op.evi) CK (ravlbtov Koi Trtm/s koi odovioiu' KaTeaKevaa-ixevTj' irapa de 

 TavTTjv KaTC<rK€va(rTO 8ia ^o\ij38aifiaTOs KoX a'avlhcav KkfioTov l^Ovo- 

 Tpo(f)e7ov. rovTO S'rjv irXTJpes BakdTnjs, iv S ttoXXoI Ix^vcs everpe^ovro. 



t M. T. Varro was a vigorous old Roman Coke of Norfolk, 

 who, in place of daUying with the Muses, at eighty, like Ana- 

 creon, turned his bald head to better account, and gracefully be- 

 queaths, with youthful and affectionate gallantry, a practical 

 treatise, ' de re rustica, ad Fundaniam nxorem,' with intent that 

 she may make a good thing of her farm, when he shall have been 

 removed from her ; and, adds the old gentleman, in concluding his 

 dedication to her, ' we have no time, my dear, to lose : if man's 

 estate be, as we are told it is, a soap-bubble at the best, much it 

 behoves an old fellow like me, whose eightieth birthday is at 

 hand, speedily to put his house in order, before he departs out 

 of Ufe.' The veteran agriculturist then proceeds, in hearty prose, 

 to give advice on every matter connected with agriculture, on 

 tilling and cropping the ground, on the management of horses 

 and cattle, of fowls and bees, and, lastly, on the advantages to be 

 derived from econonnc fish-ponds. 



