Carding a Tunic; from a painting in the Fullonica.

Another man carries a frame and pot, meant probably for fumigation and bleaching; the pot containing live coals and sulphur, and being placed under the frame, so that the cloths spread upon the latter would be fully exposed to the action of the pent-up vapour. The person who carries these things wears something on his head, which is said to be an olive garland. If so, that, and the owl sitting upon the frame, probably indicate that the establishment was under the patronage of Minerva, the tutelary goddess of the loom. Below is a female examining the work which a younger girl has done upon a piece of yellow cloth. A golden net upon her head, a necklace and bracelets, denote a person of higher rank than one of the mere work people of the establishment : it probably is either the mistress herself, or a customer inquiring into the quality of the work which has been done for her.

These pictures, with others illustrative of the various processes of the art, were found upon a pier in the peristyle of the Fullonica. Among them we may mention one that represents a press, similar in construction to those now in use, except that there is an unusual distance between the threads of the screw. The ancients, therefore, were acquainted with the practical application of this mechanical power. In another is to be seen a youth delivering some pieces of cloth to a female, to whom, perhaps, the task of ticketing, and preserving distinct the different property of different persons, was allotted. It is rather a curious proof of the importance attached to this trade, that the due regulation of it was a subject thought not unworthy of legislative enactments. A. U. 354, the censors laid down rules for regulating the manner of washing dresses; and we learn from the digests of the Roman law, that scourers were compelled to use the greatest care not to lose or to confound property. Another female, seated on a stool, seems occupied in cleaning one of the cards. Both of the figures last described wear green tunics : the first of them has a yellow under-tunic, the latter a white one. The resemblance in colours between these dresses and those of the male fullers above described may perhaps warrant a conjecture that there was some kind of livery or prescribed dress belonging to the establishment, or else the contents of the painter's colour-box must have been very limited.

The whole pier on which these paintings were found has been removed to the museum at Naples. In the peristyle was a large earthenware jar, which had been broken across the middle, and the pieces then sewn carefully and laboriously together with wire. The value of these vessels, therefore, cannot have been very small, though they were made of the most common clay. At the eastern end of the peristyle there was a pretty fountain, with a jet d'eau. The western end is occupied by four large vats in masonry, lined with stucco, about seven feet deep, which seem to have received the water in succession, one from another.

Small Painting in the Tragic Poet's House.