[ 256 ]
design, and happily designate the festal purposes to which the vase was dedicated; the emblems of the rosy god, his Nebris, and his Thyrsus; the heads and claws of his panther, and the comic countenance of his inebriated attendants. What renders this grand antique the more valuable, is its admirable preservation; no parts are wanting, nor have any been added by a modern hand as we discovered, except an head of one of the satyrs. The base, on which the vase stands bears the fol- lowing inscription:
HOC PRISTINJE ARTIS ROMANiEQUE MAGNIFI- CENTLY MONUMENTUM RUDERIBUS VILLiE TI- BURTINiE KADRIANO AUG. IN DELICIIS HABITUE EFFOSSUM RFSTITUI CURAVIT EQUES GULIEL- MUS HAMILTON, A GEORGIO TERTIO MAGN/E BRITANM.E REGE AD SICIL. REGEM. FERDI NANDUM QUARTUM LEGATL'S, ET IN PATRIAM TRANGMISSUM PATRIO BONARUM ARTIUM GE- NIO DICAVIT AN. AC. N. MDCCLXXIV.
A wooded serpentine walk led us from the green- house to the Avon, opening into occasional glades, and admitting passing peeps at the towers of the castle and the churches, rising sublimely above the groves, which, wisely allowed to retain their un- hewn primaeval grandeur, produce a gloom that well assimilates with the character of the building. This walk is crossed at. right angles by another path,
�� �
