A handbook for travellers in southern Italy; being a guide for the continental portion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 Excerpt: ...the lower part presents to the street a blank wall divided into square panels painted red; the upper floor had windows opening on the street 6£ ft. above the pavement, and measuring 3 ft. by 2; at the side of each window is a wooden frame in which the shutter worked. The door turned on pivots, the bronze sockets of which still remain. At the threshold was the mosaic of a dog chained, with the inscription Cave Canem, Beware of the dog, now in the Museum. The internal arrangement of the house is not different from the others we have described, but its walls were decorated with an unusual number of first-class paintings. The atrium, the gynseceum, the triclinium, and several of the principal apartments, were covered with pictures, and many of the rooms were paved with rich mosaics. One of the walls of the principal apartment is divided into squares by perpendicular lines decorated with festoons and arabesques, and supporting a rich frieze representing a Combat of Greeks and Amazons. A very interesting restoration of this house will be found in the 2nd series of Sir W. (Jell's Pompeiana. Prom the disturbed state of the ground near the house, it is certain that search had been made after the eruption for the treasures it contained. Inns.--Two large inns terminated the street at this end. In one of them were found, in 1845, 206 large copper coins of Galba, Vespasian, and Titus, and 42 of silver. VII. We now enter the Street of Mercury, and return to the N. to commence our examination of the houses, as usual, at the end nearest to the city wall. House of Inachus and Io (1829), has a fine marble table in the compluvium. House of Meleager (1829), called also the House of the Nereids. The occurrence of vessels filled with lime in different rooms, and the freshne...