" By Signor Fiorelli's careful and ingenious restorations, we can now, for the first time, picture to ourselves the appearance of a Roman town. Previously we only had the bare walls, forming nothing but a collection of shapeless ruins. Had his plan been adopted from the commencement, had the position of every fragment been noted at the time of its discovery, and had the doors, windows, and other woodwork been restored by the process we shall describe, instead of wandering amidst a confused mass of crumbling walls, we should have found ourselves in a Roman town, the houses of which might still have almost harboured its population. As far as we can now judge, Pompeii must have nearly resembled in its principal features a modern eastern city. The outside of the houses gave but little promise of the beauty and richness of the inside. The sudden change from the naked brick walls facing the narrow street to the spacious court- yard, adorned with paintings, statues, and coloured stuccoes. ornamented with flower-beds and fountains, and surrounded by alcoves and porticoes, from which the burning rays of the sun were warded off by rich tapestries and embroidered hangings, will remind the eastern traveller of Damascus or Ispahan. The overhanging galleries, with the small latticed windows; the mean shops mere recesses in the outer walls of the houses : the brick-built counter, with the earthen jars and pans let into it; the marble slabs, on which the tradesman exposed his wares and received his cash; the awning stretched across the street (the holes by which it was fastened are still visible); the caravanserai or khan, outside the city gate, with its many small rooms opening into a stable behind and a court-yard in front (the skeletons of horses and their metal trappings were found in the ruins of such an hostelry on the Herculean way), are all characteristic of a modern eastern town,"

We shall conclude this account of the disinterment of Pompeii with a short general sketch of the progress of the excavations. The amphitheatre was first partially excavated in 1748. Before the end of the last century, the quarter of the theatres, the Temple of Isis, and the northern portion of the town, from the Gate of Herculaneum to the first fountain, had been disinterred. During the first ten years of the present century the work proceeded very slowly : but the years from 1811 to 1824 were marked by considerable activity. In this period were excavated the Forum and the adjoining temples and houses, the whole of the amphitheatre, the Street of Abundance or of the Merchants, the old,baths, the Temple of Fortune, the houses of Pansa, Sallust, &c. In 1825 was uncovered the adjoining house of Pansa on the east, comprising the Louse of the tragic poet and the Fullonica. During the next five years the excavations were pursued in the Street of Mercury and its vicinity. The principal discoveries in this period were the houses of Meleager, of the Centaur, of Castor and Pollux, of Flora and Zephyrus, of the Anchor, and of the five skeletons.

The Street of Mercury having been cleared, though not all the adjoining buildings, excavations were begun in the autumn of 1830 in the street called the Strada della Fortuna, leading from the Temple of Fortune toward the Gate of Nola. Researches in this direction were rewarded before the end of the year by the discovery of the house of the Faun, one of the finest private houses in Pompeii, without excepting even that of Pansa. Behind it was excavated in 1832 the house of the Labyrinth. Further discoveries in this direction about this period were the houses of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the black walls, and of the figured capitals, oil the south side of the Street of Fortune. Operations were also pursued in the Street of the Augustals. On this side was discovered (1832-33) the House of the Coloured Capitals, better known as the House of Ariadne, adjoining the Vice Storto, and extending from the Street of the Augustals to that of Fortune. The Casa di Apollo, at the bottom of the Street of Mercury, 1835. In 1837 and following years, a good deal was done in the Street of the Tombs; but down to 1843 the excavations were principally continued in the northernmost part of the, town, near the house of Apollo. In that and the following year the street which leads from the Porte. Marina to the Forum, between the Basilica and Temple of Venus, was cleared. Subsequently, till 1851, the excavations were chiefly continued in the neighbourhood of the Forum and the Vice Storto. In 1847 was discovered the house of M. Lucretius, or of the Suonatrice. The excavations in this direction along the Street of Stabi were resumed in 1851, and continued during several subsequent years, as well as in the Street of Holconius, which leads out it to the Street of Abundance. The Porta Stabiana was discovered in 1851, and, soon after, the Stabian, or Great Baths. Since the appointment of Commendatore Fiorelli as director of the works in 1860, operations have been chiefly carried on in the block of buildings formed by the Street of Holconius on the north, that of Isis on the south, that of the theatres on the west, and that of Stabi on the east; and the district lying to the north of this, and comprised between the Street of the Augustals, that of Abundance, the eastern side of the Forum, and the Street of Stabi . The researches in these two districts have been rewarded by many important discoveries. In the former have been excavated the house of Cornelius Rufus, and that commonly called the house of Holconius; while in the latter have been discovered the house of the Nueva Caccia, of the Balcone Pensile, of the New Fountain, the Lupanar, and other objects which we shall have occasion to mention in the sequel.