HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
15 
amongst their number, had insufficient space for the complete peristylium; these had, perhaps, courts 
with three porticoes, or, where the peristylium was placed on one side of the site, with only two. In 
these cases pilasters were painted on the walls opposite the columns, with garden scenes between to 
deceive the eye, as in the house of Jucundus at Pompeii, where there is a graceful marble basin and 
fountain of water between two central columns. Several such are reproduced in Niccolini’s work on 
Pompeii, where we see hills covered with pines and 
cypresses, fountains, and birds. 
Sometimes the open court was laid out as a 
viridarium, with beds of flowers and flowering shrubs, 
ornamented with piscinae, mosaic fountains, and 
water-towers, with niches or statuettes of cupids, 
and cascades of rockwork or shellwork. On a level 
with the fountains there were cement basins, which 
may also have been used as fishponds, with circular 
openings fitted with perforated plugs of terra-cotta, 
their outer walls painted with ducks, fish, &c. Leaden 
pipes serving to water the flowers may still be seen 
in the house of Marcus Lucretius. Tables and basins 
of marble, terms and bronzes, adorned this charming 
spot, which was the favourite rendezvous of the 
household. 
In the peristylium of the house of Aulus 
Vettius at Pompeii the marble basins, tables, terms, 
and fountains have all been set up in their original 
positions, from which some of them have never been 
moved, and the beds have been laid out on the lines 
suggested by the wall-paintings that have been 
discovered in the house of Sallust and elsewhere. 
At various points of the garden are cones of basket- 
work overgrown with creepers, an idea also copied 
from the frescoes. In the centre are two ivy-carved stelae, with heads of Dionysus with Ariadne, 
and Silenus with a Bacchante, back to back. The fountains on either side of the foreground are 
bronze boys holding geese, from whose beaks the water flowed. Behind the columns are frescoes 
representing garland-makers. In the Museum at Naples are preserved many garden ornaments, 
fountains, and statuettes that originally adorned the courtyards of these town gardens. On account 
of the restricted area of many of these gardens, the fountains were frequently placed against a blank 
wall and consisted of a niche often executed with some charming design of birds and flowers. One 
of these niches is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington ; and both in 
