ind this, in place of a peristyle, is a
court or garden, the wall of which is painted with a figure bearing a
basin. At the bottom is a handsome mosaic fountain, from which the
house derives one of its names, with a figure of Neptune surrounded by
fishes and sea-fowl; above are depicted large wild boars.

On the opposite side of the way, at the eastern angle of the Street of
the Lupanar, is the House of the Rudder and Trident, also called the
House of Mars and Venus. The first of these names is derived from the
mosaic pavement in the prothyrum, in which the objects mentioned are
represented; while a medallion picture in the atrium, with heads of
Mars and Venus, gave rise to the second appellation. The colors of
this picture are still quite fresh, a result which Signor Fiorelli
attributes to his having caused a varnish of wax to be laid over the
painting at the time of its discovery. Without some such protection
the colors of these pictures soon decay; the cinnabar, or vermilion,
especially, turns black after a few days' exposure to the light.

The atrium, as usual, is surrounded with bed-chambers. A peculiarity
not yet found in any other house is a niche or closet on the left of
the atrium, having on one side an opening only large enough to
introduce the hand, whence it has been conjectured that it served as a
receptacle for some valuable objects. It is painted inside with a wall
of quadrangular pieces of marble of various colors, terminated at top
with a cornice. In each of the squares is a fish, bird, or quadruped.

This closet or niche stands at a door of the room in which is an
entrance to a subterranean passage, having its exit in the Via del
Lupanare. There is nothing very remarkable in the other apartments of
this house. Behind is a peristyle with twelve columns, in the garden
of which shrubs are said to have been discovered in a carbonized
state.

Further down the same Street of the Augustals, at the angle which it
forms with the Street of Stabiae, is the house of a baker, having on
the external wall the name Modestum in red letters. For a tradesman it
seems to have been a comfortable house, having an atrium and fountain,
and some painted chambers. Beyond the atrium is a spacious court with
mills and an oven. The oven was charged with more than eighty loaves,
the forms of which are still perfect, though they are reduced to a
carbonaceous state. They are preserved in the Museum.

The narrow street to which w