To the couches grouped in the manner indicated the same name was applied as to the dining room, triclinium. Of those in the dining rooms only scanty remains are found. In summer the Pompeians, as the Italians of to-day, were fond of dining in the open air. In order to save the trouble of moving heavy furniture couches of masonry were not infrequently constructed in the garden, and have been preserved; such a triclinium is that in the garden of the tannery (p. 398). The arrangement is in most cases precisely that indicated in Fig. 123, the outer end of the lower couch projecting beyond the corresponding end of the upper one. In the middle stands the base of the table, also of masonry; the top is rarely preserved. Near by is a little altar for the offerings made in connection with each meal. The appearance of such a triclinium may be inferred from that of the triclinium funebre shown in Fig. 245, which has a square table and round altar. [Illustration: Fig. 124.--Plan of a dining room with an anteroom containing an altar for libations. A. Room for the table and couches. B. Anteroom with altar.] In many gardens we find about the triclinium the remains of four or six columns. These supported a frame of timber or lattice-work, upon which vines were trained, making a shady bower, as in the garden of the tavern in the first Region, referred to below (p. 404). The couches were ordinarily not provided with backs, but the outer ends of the upper and lower couches sometimes had a frame to hold the cushions, as indicated in Fig. 123 and shown more clearly in our restoration, Fig. 188. In the dining rooms small movable altars must have been used for the offerings, such as those of terra cotta or bronze not infrequently met with in the course of excavation. A fixed altar has been found in only one instance, in a small dining room in the eighth Region (VIII. v-vi. 16). Here, as our plan (Fig. 124) shows, the front of the apartment is set off as an anteroom, and in this was placed an altar of tufa. In accordance with an ancient custom the children, even those of the imperial family, sat on low stools at a table of their own on the open side of the large table. In an open-air triclinium in the ninth Region (IX. v. 11) the children's seat is preserved, a low bench of masonry about forty inches long connected with the projecting arm of the lower couch (Plate VII.).