"Through the eyes of..."
Horace Walpole
In Letters of
Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford,vol. 1, this Grand Tourist had
this to say about Herculaneum:
Horace Walpole
(by Joshua Reynolds)
 “(June 14,
1740): (from Naples) One hates writing
descriptions that are to be found in
every book of travels; but we have seen
something to-day that I am sure you
never read of, and perhaps never heard
of. Have you ever heard of a
subterraneous town? a whole Roman town,
with all its edifices, remaining under
ground? Don't fancy the inhabitants
buried it there to save it from the
Goths: they were buried with it
themselves; which is a caution we are
not told that they ever took. You
remember in Titus's time there were
several cities destroyed by an eruption
of Vesuvius, attended with an
earthquake. Well, this was one of them,
not very considerable, and then called
Herculaneum. Above it has since been
built Portici, about three miles from
Naples, where the King has a villa. This
under-ground city is perhaps one of the
noblest curiosities that ever has been
discovered. It was found out by chance,
about a year and half ago. They began
digging, they found statues; they dug,
further, they found more. Since that
they have made a very considerable
progress, and find continually.”
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