There Is A
Large Building And Court Yard Near One Of The Gates Of The City Supposed To
Have Been A Barrack For Soldiers; Three Skeletons Were Found Here With
Their Legs In A Machine Similar To Our Stocks.
The scribbling and
caricatures on the walls of this barrack are perfectly visible and legible.
When one wanders thro' the streets of this singularly interesting city, one
is tempted to think that the inhabitants have just walked out.
What a
dreadful lingering death must have befallen these inhabitants who could not
escape from Pompeii at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius which covered
it with ashes. The air could only be exhausted by degrees, so that a
prolonged suffocation or a death by hunger must have been their lot.
Four skeletons were found upright in the streets, having in their hands
boxes containing jewellery and things of value, as if in the act of
endeavouring to make their escape: these must soon have perished, but the
skeleton of a woman found in one of the rooms of the houses close to a bath
shews that her death must have been one of prolonged suffering.
What a fine subject Pompeii would furnish for the pen of a Byron! As I have
before remarked, all the valuables and utensils of all sorts found here
have been removed to Portici; it is a great pity that everything could not
be left in Pompeii in the exact situation in which it was found on its
first discovery at the excavation.
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