In Pompeii, the shops of the baker and
chemist are particularly worthy of attention, for you might really fancy
yourself stepped into a modern _bottega_ in each of these; but, the museum
of Naples, wherein are deposited most of the articles dug from Pompeii,
Herculaneum, and Paestum, is a most extraordinary lion, and one which cannot
fail to affect very deeply the spectators; there you may behold furniture,
arms, and trinkets; and the jewellery is, I can assure you, both in
materials, pattern, and workmanship, very similar indeed to that at present
in fashion, and little injured by the lapse of years, and the hot ashes
under which it was buried.[2] There too, you may behold various domestic
and culinary utensils; and there it is quite curious to observe various
jars and bottles of fruits, and pickles, evidently preserved then, the same
as they are by our notable housekeepers now; of course they are blackened
and incinerated, nevertheless, the forms of pears, apples, chestnuts,
cherries, medlars, &c. &c. are still distinguishable. Very little furniture
has been found in Pompeii; probably, because it was only occasionally
resorted to as a place of residence, like our own summer haunts of the
drinkers of sea and mineral waters; or, the inhabitants might have had
warning of the coming misfortune, and conveyed most of their effects to a
safer place; a surmise strengthened by the circumstance of so few human
skeletons having been found hitherto in the town; in the museum, however,
is a specimen of the inclined couch or sofa, used at meals, with tables,
and other articles of furniture.
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