CHAP. XI - House of the Second Fountain

Summary

The house of the second fountain of shells is fully equal in interest to the former, and, in some respects, superior. The entrance is from the street of the Mercuries, and the staircase ascends from the vestibule.

There is a second entrance, from the same street, by which a person might arrive at the garden, and the inmost recesses of the house, without passing through the atrium—rather a peculiar circumstance at Pompeii. There is also a second staircase; but the ornaments of this second entry are, by no means, inferior to the rest of the house, so as to render it probable that it was the entry for the domestics.

The compluvium of the atrium is furnished with two mouths for cisterns, and, from one, the communication with the inner fountain, by means of leaden pipes, is visible, probably receiving the water after it had performed its part at the fountain. We have here only one ala on the right, but, on the left, is the faux, and, in the centre, a small tablinum, the size of which is, however, amply compensated for by a deep inner portico of four columns placed on two sides of a court or garden, at the further side of which is a second fountain of vitreous mosaic and shells, in form, taste, and workmanship, very like that in the house adjoining.