e is gone. From the portico
we ascend by three steps to the xystus. Its small extent, not
exceeding in its greatest dimensions seventy feet by twenty, did not
permit trees, hardly even shrubs, to be planted in it. The centre,
therefore, was occupied by a pavement, and on each side boxes filled
with earth were ranged for flowers; while, to make amends for the want
of real verdure, the whole wall opposite the portico is painted with
trellises and fountains, and birds drinking from them; and above, with
thickets enriched and ornamented with numerous tribes of their winged
inhabitants.

The most interesting discoveries at Pompeii are those which throw
light on, or confirm passages of ancient authors. Exactly the same
style of ornament is described by Pliny the Younger as existing in his
Tuscan villa. "Another cubiculum is adorned with sculptured marble for
the height of the podium; above which is a painting of trees, and
birds sitting on them, not inferior in elegance to the marble itself.
Under it is a small fountain, and in the fountain a cup, round which
the playing of several small water-pipes makes a most agreeable
murmur." At the end of this branch of the garden, which is shaped like
an L, we see an interesting monument of the customs of private life.
It is a summer triclinium, in plan like that which has been mentioned
in the preceding chapter, but much more elegantly decorated. The
couches are of masonry, intended to be covered with mattresses and
rich tapestry when the feast was to be held here: the round table in
the centre was of marble. Above it was a trellis, as is shown by the
square pillars in front and the holes in the walls which enclose two
sides of the triclinium. These walls are elegantly painted in panels,
in the prevailing taste; but above the panelling there is a whimsical
frieze, appropriate to the purpose of this little pavilion, consisting
of all sorts of eatables which can be introduced at a feast. When
Mazois first saw it the colors were fresh and beautiful; but when he
wrote, after a lapse of ten years, it was already in decay, and ere
now it has probably disappeared, so perishable are all those beauties
which can not be protected from the inclemency of the weather by
removal. In front a stream of water pours into a basin from the wall,
on which, half painted, half raised in relief, is a mimic fountain
surmounted by a stag. Between the fountain and triclinium, in a line
between the two pilaster