e found, still blackened with smoke.
In the centre of the base, or third side of the court, is placed a
bath, 20, about six feet square, lined with stucco, the edge of which
is faced with marble. It was covered with a roof, the mark of which is
still visible on the walls, supported by two pillars placed on the
projecting angles. The holes in the walls to admit the three principal
beams are so contrived that each side is lined with a single brick.
Under this covering the whole wall was painted to represent water,
with fish and other aquatic animals swimming about. The water was
blue, and rather deep in color: the fish were represented in the most
vivid and varied tints. Some years ago this painting recovered, on
being wetted, the original freshness and brilliancy of its coloring;
but exposure to the weather has done its work, and now scarce a trace
of it remains. In the middle of it there is a circular broken space to
which a mask was formerly attached, through which a stream gushed into
the basin below. Two or three steps led down to this _baptisterium_,
where the cold bath was taken in the open air. This court and portico
were paved in mosaic. 21. Apodyterium. 22. Frigidarium. 23.
Tepidarium. These two rooms, in neither of which was there a bathing
vessel, show that frequently rooms thus named were not intended for
bathing, but simply to preserve two intermediate gradations of
temperature, between the burning heat of the caldarium or laconicum
and the open air. In fact, no trace of any contrivance for the
introduction or reception of water has been found in No. 22. It was
simply a cold chamber, cella frigidaria. Nor was the little chamber,
23, large enough to receive conveniently a bathing vessel; but seats
of wood were found there for the convenience of those who had quitted
the bath, and who came there to undergo the discipline of the strigil,
and a minute process of purification and anointing. This room is not
above twelve feet by six: the bath, therefore, could not have been
calculated for the reception of more than one, or, at most, of two
persons at once. Here the great question relative to the use of glass
windows by the ancients was finally settled. This apartment was
lighted by a window closed by a movable frame of wood, which, though
converted into charcoal, still held, when it was found, four panes of
glass about six inches square. A more elaborate and curious glass
window was found at a later period in the p