style of architecture, which
is so common, and a row of scenic masks fills the place of a cornice.
The ceiling is richly fretted.

The compluvium also was ornamented with a row of triangular tiles
called antefixes, on which a mask or some other object was moulded in
relief. Below, lions' heads are placed along the cornice at intervals,
forming spouts through which the water was discharged into the
impluvium beneath. Part of this cornice, found in the house of which
we speak, is well deserving our notice, because it contains, within
itself, specimens of three different epochs of art, at which we must
suppose the house was first built, and subsequently repaired.

It is made of fine clay, with a lion's head moulded upon it, well
designed, and carefully finished. It is plain, therefore, that it was
not meant to be stuccoed, or the labor bestowed in its execution would
have been in great part wasted. At a later period it has been coated
over with the finest stucco, and additional enrichments and mouldings
have been introduced, yet without injury to the design or inferiority
in the workmanship; indicating that at the time of its execution the
original simplicity of art had given way to a more enriched and
elaborate style of ornament, yet without any perceptible decay,
either in the taste of the designer or the skill of the workman.

Still later this elegant stucco cornice had been covered with a third
coating of the coarsest materials, and of design and execution most
barbarous, when it is considered how fine a model the artists had
before their eyes.

In the restoration, the impluvium is surrounded with a mosaic border.
This has disappeared, if ever there was one; but mosaics are
frequently found in this situation, and it is, therefore, at all
events, an allowable liberty to place one here, in a house so
distinguished for the richness and elegance of its decorations.

Beside the impluvium stood a machine, now in the National Museum, for
heating water, and at the same time warming the room if requisite. The
high circular part, with the lid open, is a reservoir, communicating
with the semi-circular piece, which is hollow, and had a spout to
discharge the heated water. The three eagles placed on it are meant to
support a kettle. The charcoal was contained in the square base.

In the preceding pages we have taken indiscriminately, from all
quarters of the town, houses of all classes, from the smallest to the
most splendi