The main street, on entering, is about as wide as Washington street, with sidewalks two feet high. The buildings are mostly of brick, and commonly not more than one story high. The main street is full of shops, with the names of the shopkeepers coarsely painted over the doors. There is a baker’s shop, which contained a great many loaves of bread, rather _overdone_. The loaves are stamped with the baker’s name. The shop also contained a hand-mill, which shows that the labor of grinding was also done by the baker. In one of the liquor-shops you may see on the stone counter the marks of the glasses which were thumped down by _hard_ drinkers. I went into the cellar of one of the houses, where I found the wine-jars left standing just as they were in 79; they were dry, of course. Some of the houses had upper chambers, but without windows. The large rooms, dining-halls, parlors, &c., have the walls painted with landscapes, flowers, drapery, and figures like our paper-hangings. Many of these are of great beauty; and in all of them we are struck with wonder to observe the freshness and brilliancy of the coloring, which, after a lapse of 1700 years, appears as bright as the day it was laid on. These paintings are executed upon plaster, and the composition either of the paint or stucco appears to contain borax, which is known to be one of the most indestructible of all substances. The prevailing colors are bright red and yellow. A great many of these paintings have been cut out of the walls and carried to Naples, where they may be seen at the museum. This indeed is the fact with regard to almost all the movable articles that have been found at Pompeii. In the gateway of a yard to one of the houses is a bolt in the pavement, to which a dog was chained, and on the stone is sculptured the words, _Cave Canem_--“Beware of the dog!” In another part is an apothecary’s shop, which contained a great number of glass bottles and phials, with knives, lancets, and other instruments of surgery. These latter are not of steel, but bronze; and it is singular that hardly any other metal than bronze has ever been found here, which shows either the scarcity of iron at that period, or a great want of skill in working it. Many of the halls and courts are adorned with splendid mosaic pavements, and other ornamental stone-work. There is an immense building, containing a great number of apartments, used for a public bath. Some of these apartments were heated by flues passing between the walls;--a device which was formerly thought to be an invention of modern days. But there are many things at Pompeii which show ingenuity equal, and sometimes superior, to that of our own age. I was struck with a very simple contrivance for making a door swing to, without springs or weights, which I have never seen imitated anywhere.