included, the number would be nearly correct. [Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF THE WALL-PAINTINGS] One hundred years later the wall-paintings were still to be seen, though rapidly deteriorating. They are mentioned by Tonjola (1661), who quotes the various inscriptions which accompanied them,[278] and by Patin (1676), who speaks of the three walls of this hall as painted by Holbein. After this all traces of them were gradually lost, damp and neglect almost obliterating them. They were no longer visible in 1796, for Peter Ochs does not mention them in his description of the Council Chamber.[279] Even Bock’s copy seems to have fallen to pieces, and in the end the walls were covered with tapestry hangings, and Holbein’s work was completely forgotten. In 1817, however, when some repairs were carried out in the hall, necessitating the removal of the tapestries, a few remaining traces of the original work were discovered. On the fresco of “Charondas,” on the north wall, the date 1521 was still legible. Seven fragments of considerable size were saved, from the three paintings of “Rehoboam,” “Curius Dentatus,” and “Zaleucus,” and small copies of the chief remains were made in water-colours by Hieronymus Hess for the art firm of Birmann, and these are now preserved in the Basel Gallery (Nos. 328-332). From such inadequate materials as these it is possible to obtain only a very general idea of the original beauty of this great undertaking. It would be supposed that these mural decorations, painted as they were on interior walls, would have long outlived Holbein’s work of a similar nature on the exterior façades of Hertenstein’s mansion and the House of the Dance, whereas the contrary was the case, for in both the last-named instances the paintings remained in fairly good condition until comparatively modern times. This indicates that the cause of the rapid destruction of the Town Hall decorations was not owing to Holbein’s lack of knowledge of the proper methods of fresco painting, but was due solely to bad building on the part of the Council’s architect, and, later on, to neglect at the hands of the authorities, who made no adequate attempt to preserve works which added so great a distinction to their building.