Part 8

The _superbus index_ in the last verse, curiously illuminated with scarlet, was undoubtedly the title of the book; but to what part of it it was annexed has hitherto been difficult to ascertain: for as (according to the paintings under consideration) it was inscribed on a detached piece of paper or parchment, it must soon have been lost from the book; especialty if the latter had suffered by damps, or any other injuries similar to those, that have affected the volumes found in Herculaneum, of which not only the title, but even the ends of the umbilici, tho’ consisting of more solid materials, as horn, ivory, _&c._ are intirely destroyed: so that no light could be had from the original antiquities with relation to this point. The only means, whereby the connoisseurs could form any conjectures in this case, must have been, I presume, from the fashion of books among the ancients, _viz._ their being long scrolls rolled round upon a stick with ornaments at each end, as described in the epigram produced above. This form required, that the books should be laid at their length upon the shelves, where they were deposited with either their side, or one of their ends, appearing outwardly. Now of these two positions the latter, which exposed the extremity of the umbilicus to view, might be thought (all circumstances duly considered) the most convenient. To this part therefore it might with probability be conjectured, that the index or title was fastened; but the paintings mentioned above plainly demonstrate, that it actually was so.

Mons. Dacier says[45], that the titles of books were anciently inscribed upon the leathern covers, wherein they were wrapt, and which, by the means of thongs fastened to them, kept the volumes close and compact together. If that learned gentleman had supported this fact by proper evidences, then it must have been concluded, upon the joint authority of such evidences, and of the antiquities under consideration, that the practice of the ancients was, besides the title on the sides of the volume, to affix another on a label at one of its extremities. And indeed this additional notation (whatever we determine concerning its usefulness, while the books lay on a shelf in a library) must have been very necessary, when such books stood upright in a _capsula_ (like those in the painting before us), where no part of them, but one end alone, could possibly be seen.

VIII.

Some pieces of fine paper, coloured red on one side, and black on the other, found upon the breast of a skeleton. Signor Paderni told me, that they had been viewed with great admiration by such of the virtuosi, as he had shewn them to; and that their admiration proceeded from those fragments appearing not to be of the _charta papyracea_, but of that of silk, cotton, or linen. And indeed, if they should prove to have been made of any of the materials last mentioned, it would contradict the generally received opinion (according to [46]Montfaucon), that paper of silk or cotton, denoted by the common appellation of _charta bombycina_, was first found out in the 9th century; as that composed of linen rags (_ex linteolis contritis et aquâ maceratis_, as Pancirollus[47] expresses it) was about the 12th; and that the former supplied the place of the _charta papyracea_ in the east, as the latter superseded the use of it in the western parts of the world.

IX.

A flat piece of white glass, taken off from towards the extremity of the sheet, as appears from the curvature and protuberant thickness of one of its sides above the other parts. I have several observations by me, with regard to this fragment, which I have not yet had leisure to digest. I shall therefore proceed to the other parts of this collection.

* * * * *

To enter into a detail of the paintings found at Herculaneum, and deposited in a different part of the palace at Portici, would be tedious, as their number, when I saw them, exceeded 800; and it would be superfluous, as the principal of them will soon make their appearance in the world by prints taken from them, and executed in a manner, which (as far as I could judge by the specimens shewn me) will in no-wise discredit the originals, I shall therefore only mention two of them, _viz._

I.

Theseus with the Minotaur dead, and lying on his back at his feet, while several Athenian youths are embracing the knees, and kissing the hand, of their deliverer. We may observe, that the fabulous being above-mentioned appears in this piece with the intire body of a man, and only the head of a bull, which agrees with the manner, in which he is represented in an antique sardonyx of Greek sculpture in the cabinet at Vienna, and in most of the works of the ancient artists. Tho’ I have by me the copy of an antique gem, wherein the Minotaur is exhibited as standing in the center of the famous labyrinth, and having below the body of a bull as far as to the waist, and from thence upwards an human form: which representation is further countenanced by Ovid, who describes that monster, as

_Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem._ Art. Am. L. ii. _v._ 12.

II.

Chiron and Achilles. The latter of these is standing, and has a _plectrum_ in his right hand: the former seems to embrace his noble pupil with his left arm, and with his right hand to strike the lyre, as teaching him to play upon that instrument. But the most remarkable circumstance in the figure of Chiron is his reposing his hinder parts on his left haunch upon the ground. Yet this attitude, as well as the other particulars mentioned above, is expressed in an antique gem, of which I have seen a copy at Rome.

* * * * *

I shall conclude this paper with an account of the statues, which stand in several rooms adjoining to the unfinished part of the palace, and were found (as to the far greater number) at or near Herculaneum.

_In the First Room._

An equestrian marble statue of M. Nonius Balbus the elder, which is intended to be placed in a large entrance on the east side of the palace, to answer to that of his son, which is already set up on the other side, facing the bay of Naples.

_In the Second._

Nero and Germanicus, considerably larger than the life, but squeezed somewhat flat by the weight of the lava, or other ruins, with which they were once overwhelmed.

A man in a sacrificing habit.

Two others in the toga, and two women in the palla.

All these are of bronze.

Statues of marble deposited here are the following, _viz._

At the entrance, a matron larger than nature, with strong expression in her face.

Two colossal trunks in a sitting posture.

Three statues of one of the Agrippina’s.

A Roman matron, or empress, with remains of red painting on the extremities of her palla.

Three other matrons.

_In the Third Room._

Bacchus. A muse. A fragment of a statue in the pallium. A fine statua togata with the head veiled, larger than the life.

Another very remarkable figure, whose face resembles in beauty that commonly attributed to Venus, tho’ the dress and other insignia plainly indicate a Pallas: for her head is covered with an helmet, below which her hair falls down long and dishevelled. Her left arm is enveloped with her ægis, which is large and expanded, so as to form a kind of mantle. Her garments are thin, and fit close to her body in strait plaits. She is in a posture of running, or striding, with her feet at a considerable distance from each other, and her arms extended different ways; an attitude strongly marking the utmost eagerness and haste.

Next appears a Vertumnus. A fine figure of a philosopher. Volumnia and Veturius. A lady with a thin stola. A Venus. A boy of exquisite workmanship. A small statua togata.

In another part is a Faun of bronze, reclined, with his right hand lifted up, and his leg extended. This figure (as we were informed) was found accompanied with seven others of the same metal, which now stand in another chamber, _viz._ two young men in a running a posture; four females somewhat resembling vestals in their habit, excepting that all their heads were uncovered, and those of two of them were adorned with _vittæ_, or filets. Lastly, a young man of a small size, cloathed, with his arms somewhat extended.

There remains but one more figure to be taken notice of in this collection, _viz._ that of Serapis, with Cerberus at his right hand. Ancient writers[48] enable us to account for this appearance, by informing us, that Serapis (besides his other characters of Æsculapius, Sol, Osiris, and Jupiter) was accounted the same as Dis Pater, or Pluto. Upon this hypothesis none can doubt of the propriety of Cerberus’s attending upon this deity in the figure before us, as well as in three others given us by Montfaucon[49].

If we desire to enter into the mystical reason of this representation, we may learn it from Porphyry, _viz._ that Serapis[50], being the same as Pluto, had dominion over the evil dæmons; and that those beings were figured by a dog with three heads; meaning the dæmon subsisting in the three elements of water, earth, and air.

Give me leave to add further, that I find, by my journal, that upon viewing this figure, I took notice of a dissimilitude in the heads of it: but as it did not then occur to me, that they were ever expressed in any other form than the canine, I did not examine minutely into the difference: but, upon recollection, I am now inclined to think, that that monster might have the heads of three several animals in this piece, as he has in another, given us by [51]Montfaucon: which mode of exhibiting him was (according to that learned[52] antiquary) invented by the Egyptians; a circumstance not to be wondered at in a people, whose imagination teemed so plentifully with monstrous ideas of all kinds, as theirs is known to have done.

To the same original we may refer the serpent twisting round Cerberus in this monument; as we see two of the same species encircling his heads and body in that mentioned above[53]. As I know no particular relation, that the serpent bears to Serapis, considered as Pluto, I can regard it here only as a sacred symbol in the theology of the ancient Egyptians; and, as such, properly attributed to an attendant of one of their chief divinities.

I shall trouble you but with one more observation upon this article, _viz._ that (if I may trust my memory for a particular omitted in my notes) this is the statue, which being the principal one found in an ancient magnificent building discovered about seven years ago at [54]Pozzuoli (in conjunction with other circumstances) occasioned it to be called The Temple of Serapis. As this place seemed greatly to merit the attention of the curious in antiquity, we procured a plan of it, drawn by a native, who has free access to it and (if I thought it would be acceptable to that learned Society, of which I have the honour to be a member) the said plan should wait upon them, accompanied with some observations upon it by,

SIR, Your most obedient, humble Servant John Nixon.

London. Feb. 24. 1757.

_P.S._ A long room is designed to be fitted up in the King’s palace at Portici, for the reception of all the antiquities found at Herculaneum, _&c._ This apartment will be lighted by thirteen windows on the side towards the Cortile, and adorned with forty columns, partly of verde antique, partly of alabaster with brownish veins, and other beautiful marbles, found in divers parts of the King’s dominions. Between every two of these columns will be placed a group, statue, or bust. The compartments in the walls will contain the ancient paintings. The other curiosities are to be deposited in cases made for that purpose; and the pavement will consist intirely of the finest pieces of Mosaic work, that have been found in Herculaneum, or any places within the Neapolitan state.

XIV. _An Account of the Effects of a Storm of Thunder and Lightning, in the Parishes of_ Looe _and_ Lanreath, _in the County of_ Cornwall, _on the 27th Day of_ June, 1756. _Communicated to the Rev._ Jeremiah Milles, _D.D. F.R.S. in two Letters, one from the Rev. Mr._ Dyer, _Minister of_ Looe, _and the other from the Rev. Mr._ Milles, _Vicar of_ Duloe, _in_ Cornwall.

[Read Feb. 24, 1757.]

ON Sunday the 27th of June last it grew on a sudden as dark as a winter evening: soon after, the lightning began to flash, and the thunder to roar. The claps were near, and extremely loud; and the lightning was more like darting flames of fire, than flames of enkindled vapour. Happily no damage was done to the town of Looe, which lies very low; but at Bucklawren, a village situated on the top of a hill, about two miles from hence, a farm-house was shattered in a most surprising manner. The house fronts the south. The windows of the hall and parlour, and of the chambers over them, which are in the front of the house, are sashed. The dairy window is the only one on the west side of the house. The chimnies are on the north side; and at the south-west corner there is a row of old elms on a line with the front, the nearest of which is ten feet distant from the house. The lightning seems to have had a direction from the south-west to the north-east. It first struck the bevilled roof of the south-west corner, near the eaves of the house; made a large breach, and tore up the floor of the garret, near the place where it entered, and descended by the west wall, in oblique lines, into the chamber over the parlour; but not having sufficient vent that way, it darted in a line from S.W. to N.E. against the north wall of the garret, where meeting with resistance, it broke down the floor near the north wall many feet wide, and carrying the ceiling of the parlour-chamber before it, ran down by the wall of that room in direct lines. Where it descended on the west and north walls it made large and deep furrows in the plaister, and even tore out the stones and mortar. A large splinter was struck off from the bed-post contiguous to the north wall, and the bed was set on fire. The chimney-piece was broken into many parts; the window-frame was moved out of the wall, every pane of glass was broken, the under sash was torn in pieces, and a large piece of the chimney-board was thrown out of the window against an opposite garden wall, about 20 feet from the house. As the lightning shot thro’ the window, it found a small cavity between the wall and the slating with which the wall is covered, where it burst off the slates as far as it continued in a direct line downward, and threw them at a great distance from the house. Notwithstanding this dreadful havock, the force of the lightning was not spent; the window gave it not a sufficient discharge. From the chamber over the parlour, it descended by the north wall to the room under it, which is wainscotted, tore off the cornice the whole breadth of the room, and some mouldings from the wainscot; broke the glasses and Delft ware in the beauffet; shivered the shelves of a bottle-room; and, ripping off a small stock-lock from the door, burst it open, and made its way chiefly thro’ the window, the frame of which was moved from the wall, and the glass shattered to pieces. Near the bottle-room there was a hole struck in the partition-wainscotting, which divides the parlour from the hall, about eight inches long and an inch broad: through this crevice the lightning entered the hall, which serves at present for a kitchen, and meeting with some pewter in its way, it flung it from the shelf about the room; threw down a large iron bar, that stood in a corner and which seemed to have a trembling and desultory motion; carried the tongs into the chimney, and threw a tea-kettle, that stood there, into the middle of the floor; moved a large brass pot out of its place, which was under a table; and then darted thro’ the windows, carrying away a pane of glass intire out of the upper sash to the distance of many feet. The mistress of the house and her son were sitting at this window. They were the only persons in the house, and providentially received no hurt. Some part of the lightning found a way between the door and door-case of the hall. The door is pannelled: and the lightning, in passing thro’, penetrated into a close mortise, and split off a large splinter from the outside of the door, close to the tenon. In its course it left a smoaky tinge on the wall and timber, like that of fired gunpowder. A sulphureous smell remained in the house many hours. Another (or probably a part of the same) flash of lightning struck the dairy window, melted the lead, and burnt the glass where it penetrated, and set the window-frame on fire. From thence it darted in a line from S.W. to N.E. downward, made a large hole in a plaistered partition near the floor into the barn, shattered a large paving rag-stone in pieces, and tearing up the ground, I suppose, sunk into the earth. The elms were affected with the lightning, particularly that nearest the house, from the top of which to the root appeared large furrows in the moss, which grew on the bark, in some places in an irregular spiral, but for the most part in a perpendicular line; and from the root of it the ground was torn up in furrows, as if done with a plough-share, about six feet long, the furrows gradually lessening according to their distance from the tree. All this was done instantaneously. How amazingly swift, subtle, and powerful is the force of lightning! I am,

Reverend Sir, Your most obedient Servant, James Dyer.

_A Letter from the Rev. Mr._ Milles _on the same Subject_.

ABOUT four of the clock on Sunday afternoon, the same day that the lightning struck the farm-house at Bucklawren, it fell upon another house called Pelyne, in the parish of Lanreath, about six miles distant. The house fronts the east. The chimney, which is at the north end, is cracked, and opened about two or three inches wide, from the top to the roof, where it entered the slating thro’ a small hole on the eastern side; forced its way thro’ the upper chamber, where it melted an old copper skillet, a pair of sheepshears, and some odd brass buckles and candlesticks that lay on the wall; consumed the laths adjoining, and then made its way thro’ a small crevice in the upper part of the window. Another and more severe part of the same lightning descended the chimney; struck two women down who were sitting on each side of it, without any further hurt; overturned a long table, that was placed before the window in the ground room, upon two men, who were sitting on the inside, with their backs towards the window. One of these men was miserably burnt in his right arm. The lightning seems to have struck him a little above the elbow, making a small orifice about the bigness of a pea; the burn from thence to the shoulder is near an inch deep. His right thigh was likewise burnt on the inside, and the outside of his right leg, from a little below the knee, quite over the ancle to his toes. Both knees were burnt across slightly, and his left thigh. His shirt-sleeve, and the upper part of his waistcoat, were reduced to tinder: the buckles in his shoes were melted in different parts, and in different directions. He has not been able to use his arm since; and is under the care of a surgeon, who has reduced the wound to a hand’s breadth, which was in the beginning advancing fast towards a mortification. The other man was but slightly wounded. The lightning afterwards found its way thro’ the window in three different places; melted the glass, leaving a smutty tinge, like that of fired gunpowder. A boy, about ten years old, son to the under-tenant, was also struck down, as he was standing at the door, but not hurt. The father and his daughter felt no ill effects; but saw the lightning roll on the floor, and thought the room was on fire.

XV. _An Account of the Peat-pit near_ Newbury _in_ Berkshire; _in an Extract of a Letter from_ John Collet, _M.D. to the Right Reverend_ Richard _Lord Bishop of_ Ossory, _F.R.S._

[Read Feb. 24, 1757.]

Newbury, Decemb. 2, 1756.

My Lord,

NOW I am mentioning the peat, I beg leave to assure your Lordship, that tho’ some persons have asserted, that after the peat has been cut out, it grows again after some years; yet this is not true of the peat found here, none of the peat-pits, which were formerly dug out, and have lately been opened again, affording the least reason to justify such an opinion; but, on the contrary, the marks of the long spade (with which they cut out the peat) are still plainly visible all along the sides of the pits, quite down to the bottom; and are now as fresh as if made but yesterday, tho’ cut above fifty years ago: which shews also, that our peat is of too firm a texture to be pressed together, and to give way, so as to fill again the empty pits: which perhaps may be the case in some of the mosses, where the pits are found after some years to be filled up again.

The town of Newbury lies north and south, in the shape of a Y, cross a valley; which valley runs east and west, and is here about a mile broad, the river Kennet running along the middle of it. The peat is found in the middle of this valley, on each side of the river, extending in all from between a quarter of a mile to about half a mile in breadth and in length, along the valley, about nine miles westward, and about seven eastward; and I believe much further tho’ not yet discovered, and perhaps with some intermissions.

The ground it is found in is meadow land; and consists chiefly of a whitish kind of earth: under this lies what they call _clob_, being a peat-earth, compounded of clay, of a small quantity of earth, and some true peat: it is from four to eighteen inches thick; and where the earth above it is but thin, it is sometimes full of the roots of plants, that grow on the surface of the ground: and if the meadow also be moorish, the sedge and flags will shoot their roots quite thro’ it into the true peat, which lies directly under this clob.

The top of the true peat is found at various depths, from one foot to eight feet below the surface of the ground; and the depth or thickness of this peat is also very different, from one foot to eight or nine feet, the ground below it being very uneven, and generally a gravel. My friend Mr. Osgood has dug two feet into this gravel, to see if any peat lay below it, but could not find any.

The truest and best peat has very little (if any) earth in it; but is a composition of wood, branches, twigs, leaves, and roots of trees, with grass, straw, plants, and weeds; and lying continually in water makes it soft and easy to be cut thro’ with a sharp peat-spade. The colour is of a blackish brown; and if it be chewed between the teeth it is soft, and has no gritty matter in it, which the clob has. It is indeed of a different consistence in different places, some being softer, and some firmer and harder; which may perhaps arise from the different sorts of trees it is composed of.