several months, and the
conflagration extended above ten leagues, consuming an incredible
quantity of timber. The ground is now naked on each side of the road,
or occupied by the black trunks of the trees, which have been scorched
without falling. They stand as so many monuments of the judgment of
heaven, filling the mind with horror and compassion. I could hardly
refrain from shedding tears at this dismal spectacle, when I recalled
the idea of what it was about eighteen months ago.

As we stayed all night at Frejus, I had an opportunity of viewing the
amphitheatre at leisure. As near as I can judge by the eye, it is of
the same dimensions with that of Nismes; but shockingly dilapidated.
The stone seats rising from the arena are still extant, and the cells
under them, where the wild beasts were kept. There are likewise the
remains of two galleries one over another; and two vomitoria or great
gateways at opposite sides of the arena, which is now a fine green,
with a road through the middle of it: but all the external architecture
and the ornaments are demolished. The most intire part of the wall now
constitutes part of a monastery, the monks of which, I am told, have
helped to destroy the amphitheatre, by removing the stones for their
own purposes of building. In the neighbourhood of this amphitheatre,
which stands without the walls, are the vestiges of an old edifice,
said to have been the palace where the imperator or president resided:
for it was a Roman colony, much favoured by Julius Caesar, who gave it
the name of Forum Julii, and Civitas Forojuliensis. In all probability,
it was he who built the amphitheatre, and brought hither the water ten
leagues from the river of Ciagne, by means of an aqueduct, some arcades
of which are still standing on the other side of the town. A great
number of statues were found in this place, together with antient
inscriptions, which have been published by different authors. I need
not tell you that Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, the
historian, was a native of Frejus, which is now a very poor
inconsiderable place. From hence the country opens to the left, forming
an extensive plain between the sea and the mountains, which are a
continuation of the Alps, that stretches through Provence and Dauphine.
This plain watered with pleasant streams, and varied with vineyards,
corn-fields, and meadow-ground, afforded a most agreeable prospect to
our eyes, which were accustomed to