After passing the bridge, at a little distance from the road, there are two monuments, called the Sepolcri de’ Sereni, each of which has consisted of a basement of squared blocks of travertine, with an arched recess in front and behind, and a small doorway in the arch, opening into a little chamber. The upper part consisted of a pedestal adorned with a bas-relief; one of them has been removed or destroyed, but the other still exists, though damaged more by violence than by time. These monuments are supposed by some persons (Nibby says, _bizzarramente_) to have adorned the entrance to Hadrian’s villa; and their perfect correspondence of form and position, with the direction of their sides towards the villa, incline me to subscribe to this opinion. The prince Borghese has imitated them in the entrance to his villa, by the Porta del Popolo, at Rome. Beyond these, on a hill nearly detached, amidst tall cypresses, magnificent stone pines, and other products of a luxurious vegetation, appear the ruins of the Villa Adriana. The extent is immense. We walked for above a mile among arches, great semi-domed recesses, long walls and corridors, and spacious courts; through an immense number of small apartments, and some large halls. In many places the painted stucco remains, with the ornaments upon it in relief. The rich marbles and porphyries which encrusted the walls, the marble columns and cornices, and the numerous statues which once adorned the spacious porticos, are all gone; much has been taken to Rome, much has been burnt to lime; and a great deal has been carelessly or wantonly destroyed. The varied forms of the remaining masses, the pines, the cypresses, the olives, the ilices, and the deciduous trees, with the different shrubs growing on the ruins themselves, and by which they are more or less shaded, and whose colouring contrasts admirably with the warm brown of the buildings, together with the advantages of the natural situation, form a succession of the most beautiful and picturesque scenery. All the magnificence of this spot does not however seem to have been merely for one individual. Besides the imperial apartments, and the habitations of the officers and guards, there were apartments provided for men of science, and everything necessary for study and instruction, as well as for amusement. Here were three theatres, besides a circular building, which is called, on account of some figures of seamonsters found there, a maritime theatre. Nibby pronounces it a bath for swimming; to me it seems a little amphitheatre, and I saw no indication that it had ever contained water. There were also a stadium, baths, public libraries, and places of exercise, an academy, and I will not pretend to tell you how many temples; at least, you are shewn ruins which go by these names, and there is no deficiency of room, or of fragments of masonry, to be assigned to each. You must add to these a _canopus_, which as nobody