Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7 | Page 7

a great deal of
difference in the make, not only of the several kinds of instruments, but
even among those of the same name. The syringa, for example, has
sometimes four, and sometimes more pipes, as high as the twelve. The
same variety of strings may be observed on their harps, and of stops on
their tibiæ, which shows the little foundation that such writers have
gone upon, who, from a verse perhaps in Virgil's Eclogues, or a short
passage in a classic author, have been so very nice in determining the
precise shape of the ancient musical instruments, with the exact number
of their pipes, strings, and stops....
Tho the statues that have been found among the ruins of old Rome are
already very numerous, there is no question but posterity will have the
pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture which are still
undiscovered; for, doubtless, there are greater treasures of this nature
under ground, than what are yet brought to light.[5] They have often

dug into lands that are described in old authors, as the places where
such particular statues or obelisks stood, and have seldom failed of
success in their pursuits. There are still many such promising spots of
ground that have never been searched into. A great part of the Palatine
mountain, for example, lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of
the imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound with more
treasures of this nature than any other part of Rome.
But whether it be that the richest of these discoveries fall into the
Pope's hands, or for some other reason, it is said that the Prince Farnese,
who is the present owner of this seat, will keep his own family in the
chair. There are undertakers in Rome who often purchase the digging
of fields, gardens, or vineyards, where they find any likelihood of
succeeding, and some have been known to arrive at great estates by it.
They pay according to the dimensions of the surface they are to break
up; and after having made essays into it, as they do for coal in England,
they rake into the most promising parts of it, tho they often find, to
their disappointment, that others have been beforehand with them.
However, they generally gain enough by the rubbish and bricks, which
the present architects value much beyond those of a modern make, to
defray the charges of their search.
I was shown two spaces of ground, where part of Nero's golden house
stood, for which the owner has been offered an extraordinary sum of
money. What encouraged the undertakers, are several very ancient trees,
which grow upon the spot, from whence they conclude that these
particular tracts of ground must have lain untouched for some ages. It is
pity there is not something like a public register, to preserve the
memory of such statues as have been found from time to time, and to
mark the particular places where they have been taken up, which would
not only prevent many fruitless searches for the future, but might often
give a considerable light into the quality of the place, or the design of
the statue.
But the great magazine for all kinds of treasure, is supposed to be the
bed of the Tiber. We may be sure, when the Romans lay under the
apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, as they

have done more than once, that they would take care to bestow such of
their riches this way as could best bear the water, besides what the
insolence of a brutish conqueror may be supposed to have contributed,
who had an ambition to waste and destroy all the beauties of so
celebrated a city. I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome,
which ran from all parts of the town with the current and violence of an
ordinary river, nor the frequent inundations of the Tiber, which may
have swept away many of the ornaments of its banks, nor the several
statues that the Romans themselves flung into it, when they would
revenge themselves on the memory of an ill citizen, a dead tyrant, or a
discarded favorite.
At Rome they have so general an opinion of the riches of this river, that
the Jews have formerly proffered the Pope to cleanse it, so they might
have for their pains what they found in the bosom of it. I have seen the
valley near Ponte Molle, which they proposed to fashion into a new
channel for it, until they had cleared the old for its reception. The Pope,
however, would not comply with the proposal, as fearing the heats
might advance too far before they had finished their work, and produce
a pestilence among his people; tho I do not