Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/525

 13 P.S. — Since lilt' al)uvL' was "vvritteu I have seen a statement iu a Koman iiewspaiicr ut' March L'i'ud that Sigiior Kosa has ^'ivcn pcrmissiou for the ilemuHtiuu ur tlio burying again ut" the must perfect part of the Forum of Trajan, iu order to please a certain Marquis who is a friend of his, and who w ishes to enlarge his gardens iu that manner. .Signer liosa has already given his perniissiou for the demolition of the remains of the " Lavacrum of Agrippina," which were dated by an inscription found upon them. Tlie two objects which interested Mr. CJladstone the most, when 1 had the honour and the pleasure of showing him the antiquities of Rome some years since, were first, the western clitl' of the Viminal Hill (oppo- site S. Vitale), where could then be seen at one point of view walls of the time of the kings of Rome, part of the Citadel of the Viminal, when that Avas a separate fortified village, before the luiion of the Seven Hills into one city by Servius Tullius ; walls of the liepublic, consisting of one site of a house of the time of Sylla, built up agaiust the cliti' of the Viminal, and walls of the time of the Early Kmpire, consisting of the lavachum or AGitiPPiNA, now destroyed. And secondly, the remains of the louuM of trajan, consisting of a double row of sho])s, one on the level ground, and the other on a ledge of the Quirinal Hill, cut for the purpose. Tliis arrangement Mr. Glad- stone considered as the origin of the double row of shops in the Roman City of Chester. This part of the Forum of Trajan was always open to foreigners in Rome on the payment of a trifling fee, but has been studiously kept lucked up by Signer Rosa since the possession of Rome by the liberal Italian Coverument, and as the English and American people did not know that they were to go half a mile to the Palatine to ask leave to have the key, and call again the next day for an answer, they did not bee at all this interesting part of Rome. It now appcarg that all this was arranged to make the ilinisters be- lieve that foreigners did not care about it, and that it might be destroyed without any notice being taken of it. If this very interesting part of ancient Rome is to be preserved, the money must be forthcoming to compensate the Marquis. Thi.s statement of the Roman newspaper of a collusion between Signer Rosa and the Marquis is now officially contradicted; the Marquis wished to enlarge his garden in this maimer, but the permission has not been granted, probably because public attention was called to it. The Editor of the JJiin rerlonriiin, who is generally remarkably well-infonned, had pood reason for what he stated. The lower line of sho) s fur a considerable distance is now bm-ied under part of the garden of the Marquis, the upper line is used as a series of jjreenhouscK, and a doorvay has just been made into the end one of this