ed to those apartments which were frequented by the philosophers.

Such was the arrangement, such the chief apartments of a Roman house;
they were on the ground-floor, the upper stories being for the most
part left to the occupation of slaves, freedmen, and the lower
branches of the family. We must except, however, the terrace upon the
top of all (solarium), a favorite place of resort, often adorned with
rare flowers and shrubs, planted in huge cases of earth, and with
fountains and trellises, under which the evening meal might at
pleasure be taken.

The reader will not, of course, suppose that in all houses all these
apartments were to be found, and in the same order. From the confined
dwelling of the tradesman to the palace of the patrician, all degrees
of accommodation and elegance were to be found. The only object of
this long catalogue is to familiarize the reader with the general type
of those objects which we are about to present to him, and to explain
at once, and collectively, those terms of art which will be of most
frequent occurrence.

The reader will gain a clear idea of a Roman house from the
ground-plan of that of Diomedes, given a little further on, which is
one of the largest and most regularly constructed at Pompeii.

We may here add a few observations, derived, as well as much of the
preceding matter, from the valuable work of Mazois, relative to the
materials and method of construction of the Pompeian houses. Every
species of masonry described by Vitruvius, it is said, may here be met
with; but the cheapest and most durable sorts have been generally
preferred.

Copper, iron, lead, have been found employed for the same purposes as
those for which we now use them. Iron is more plentiful than copper,
contrary to what is generally observed in ancient works. It is
evident from articles of furniture, etc., found in the ruins, that the
Italians were highly skilled in the art of working metals, yet they
seem to have excelled in ornamental work, rather than in the solid and
neat construction of useful articles. For instance, their lock-work is
coarse, hardly equal to that which is now executed in the same
country; while the external ornaments of doors, bolts, handles, etc.,
are elegantly wrought.

The first private house that we will describe is found by passing down
a street from the Street of Abundance. The visitor finds on the right,
just beyond the back wall of the Thermae Stabianae, the entrance o