J42 subterraneous 'WONDERS, jjl 
by garlands of flowers ; and within the basin, 
baked earth, the very cinders left from the last 
(nearly two thousand years ago,) are seen as fresh as 
had been the remains of yesterday’s fire ! . 
Ftom the above court, you enter another somewhat f 
with a stone pulpit in the centre, and stone seats 
walls. This spot, therefore, was either the auditoU^ 
philosopher, or tlie place where the public orators t 
tn presence of the people. Every thin<r here ** 
highest order and preservation. ^ ■„ -ei Ka 
The great amphitheatre proudly rears iLs walls . 5 / 
other edifice on the same elevated spot. It is a 5'“^/ 
structure, and has twenty-four rows of seats, the 
ference of the lowest of which is about 750 feet. \ 
timated to have contained about 30,000 spwtatot^'^^j^" 
upper walls are much injured, having partially P 
above ground long before 'the discovery of PompeH' ^li! 
A corn-field leads to the excavated upper end ot {f 
street, which consists of a narrow road for carts, l)f 
pavements on each side. The middle is paved 'ajjf’, 
blocks of marble, and the ruts of the wheels 1 ' 
antiquity, even at the time of its being ovcrwheln'^^^l^ 
foot-paths are elevated about a foot and a half frotu 
of the carriage-road. The houses on. each side, y. 
shops or private buildings, have not any claim , ^ 
elegance : they consist of a ground-floor only, “ 
the exception of the door, have not any openmSjy > 
the street. The windows of tlie private Iwtises ^ t 
an inner square comt, and are in general very /, 
apartments themselves are, with the exception , 
each house, which probably served as a drawing- ^ 
low and diminutive. In point of decoration they^^^jjyy 
and, in many instances, elegant : the floors 
sist of figured pavements, either in larger stones ^ 
colours, regularly cut and symmetrically dispo^^y, ^ 
formed of a beautiful mosaic, with a fanciful p°j y ; 
an animal or figure in the centre. The geometric" 
figures in the design of the borders, have an y 
nay of the most pleasing shapes, to display yjp 
imagination of the artists. Their tesselatcd sy 
alone must convince us that the ancients wefo 
in geometry. The ground is luually white, f*’ 
