From hence we drove to Portici, to see the museum, where every thing taken out of Pompeia and Herculaneum is collected. It consists of sixteen rooms, in which the different articles are arranged with very great taste. The floors are paved with mosaic, taken up from the recovered towns, and the walls of the court are lined with inscriptions. Exclusive of busts and statues, medals, and intaglios, lamps and tripods, innumerable; there is not an article used by the ancients, of which a specimen may not be seen in this museum. We were shewn some Household Gods, and every implement used in worship, or sacrifice, agriculture, and cookery. A kitchen completely furnished, in a style that would do justice to a London Alderman. Several scales, weights, and measures, and different instruments of music and surgery. Some loaves of bread, with the maker's name. Different kinds of shell fruit. Tickets of admission for the theatre, and, what rather lessened our veneration for the ancients, some loaded dice, and a box of rouge. They had mirrors too, which were of brass highly polished, for they had not the art of making glass reflect by quicksilver. One of the apartments is filled with obscene devices, particularly rings, which were worn by the chastest matrons, as charms against sterility; for the Romans accustomed their women to this kind of objects, just as they did their youth to danger, that they might learn to behold them unmoved. This accounts for the very great number that have been found. Some of them are highly laughable. But the moderns have learned more delicacy; and this apartment is never exposed to the ladies. The _Satyr and She Goat_ was thought so dangerous a representation, that it was very properly removed to a separate house; and nothing but its exquisite workmanship prevented its being destroyed. It is much to be lamented that the article which might be of most service to mankind, is the most difficult to be recovered, I mean the ancient books. These were written on scrolls rolled up, and by the heat of the ashes, were burnt into the appearance of charcoal. No pains have been spared to unfold them, but the operation is attended with such immense difficulty, that as yet but four have been brought to light, and these in so mutilated a state, that though the letters which are left are perfect, I fear they can never be of any real use. But this by no means lessens the merit of Padre Piaggi and his pupils. It is miraculous that they have succeeded so well; and their ingenuity and perseverance cannot be too much applauded. Several of the rooms in the Palace of Portici, which is adjoining to the museum, are lined with the paintings cut out of Pompeia; but though they are reckoned the best, they do not appear to me to equal those that remain on their native walls.