the prettiest bit of ruin in Rome, consisting of Corinthian columns, which support an architrave adorned with a frieze, and divided by ressauts, and an attic above. On the attic is a colossal figure of Minerva, represented in relief as the patroness of labour; on the architrave the goddess appears engaged in instructing young girls in various female occupations, and in punishing the insolence of Arachne, who had ventured to compete with her in the labours of the loom. The wall upon which this altar stands was also a piece of the wall of the kings: in it was evidently a gateway, which was filled in when the wall was utilized for the altar. In the yard of the large new house opposite remains of a tower can be seen, probably the tower called Turris Mamilia. (See Festus.) _Leaving this ruin on our right, we proceed up the Via Croce Bianca, into the_ VIA MADONNA DEI MONTI, _the district of the Suburra._ (_Carriages must proceed straight on down the Via di Torre di Conti, and turn up the first street to the left._) SITE OF THE HOUSE OF POMPEY. The TORRE DI CONTI, _on the right_, is a massive tower of the middle ages, built as a fortress, and supposed to stand on the site of the Temple of the Earth. "Lenæus, the grammarian, opened a school in the Carinæ, near the Temple of the Earth, where stood the house of the Pompeys" (Suetonius, "Grammarians," xv.). "Tiberius removed from Pompey's house in the Carinæ" (Suetonius, "Tiberius," xv.). "The house of Cassius was demolished; and to this day the place remains void, except that part on which they afterwards built the Temple of the Earth, which stands in the street leading to the Carinæ" (Dionysius, viii. 79). _Going up that street_, we come to some old steps, _on our right_, at the top of which is the lane that led down from the Carinæ to the Vicus Cyprius, across which was the Sister's Yoke (Dionysius, iii. 22). The house at the top of the steps was the HOUSE OF LUCREZIA BORGIA. Here Cæsar Borgia, Francesco, Duke of Gandia, and Lucrezia, supped with their mother Vanozza, on the evening that Cæsar assassinated the duke, and had his body thrown into the Tiber, where it was afterwards found by a fisherman, pierced with nine wounds. _The dark archway leads to the_ CHURCH OF S. PETER IN VINCOLI. (_The Chains of Peter._)