The Diary of an Invalid Author:Henry Matthews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 58 ROME—PALACE OF THE CAJSARS. [DEC. he had intended to make a triumphal entry into the eternal city, and to be crowned in St. Peter's. The Palace of the C... more »cesars. The whole of this region, comprehending all that remains of the residence of the emperors, and the golden house of Nero, is now a desert, full of ruins, and fragments of temples-, and baths —presenting an awful picture of fallen greatness. The spot is beautiful, and commands a fine view of Rome. The soil seems rich, if one may judge from the crops of cabbages and artichokes, which it is now made to produce. Great part, however, of this vast tract is covered with wild brushwood, where you may easily lose yourself, if you will. In my last stroll through this wilderness, I encountered a fox, who paused for a moment to stare at me —as if he were doubting which of the two was to be considered as the intruder. This fox seems to be the gefnius- of the place, and delights to show himself to all travellers. There are some remains of a terrace, overlooking the Circus Maximus, from which the emperors gave the signal for the commencement of the games. In another quarter are three rooms, discovered about forty years ago. These chambers are in good preservation, and afford a sample of the ancient Roman taste in the construction and proportions of their apartments. They seem to have received their light, like the Pantheon, from a hole in the ceiling; and instead of the formal square which so much prevails in modern rooms, each of the four sides in these is broken into a circular recess or bow. The same accumulation of soil seems to have taken place here, on the Palatine Hill, as elsewhere ; for these chambers, which must have been once on the surface, are now thirty feet below ground. These rooms appear to me to be l8l7.1] ...« less