The baths are above. These are several large chambers, divided into different apartments for the men and women, with two subterranean passages leading to the water, which unite at the distance of two hundred yards from the spring. Here the heat is so excessive and insupportable, that it is supposed no longer necessary to continue the separate passages, since even should persons of different sexes advance thus far, there is no danger of their being noticed by each other, for to get here cost us great pain; and all our clothes, in a few seconds, were wet through with perspiration.
This is what they call bathing, for nobody can bear the water. One of our guides, for a pecuniary reward, brought a little in a bucket, and boiled some eggs in it, which were afterwards served at our table in a shady spot on the adjoining classic ground; and we crowned this grateful repast with the health of a favorite fair, in a smiling bumper of real Falernian, from the very vineyards which have been celebrated by Horace. The wine was remarkably good, and the heavenly toast gave it a still higher flavour. I am convinced that it would have found its way to England, had not the Italians lost the art of preserving it. One must therefore either drink it new or sour.
About two miles from Nero's Baths, we were shewn the Temple of Diana, a large dome, one half of which was destroyed by an earthquake, the other remains. The Temple of Mercury is on the opposite side of a modern bridge. The dome is still entire, and is seventy feet in diameter. It has a similar effect to the whispering gallery at St. Paul's. Part of the roof is lined with common mosaic. The walls of the different out-offices are still standing, and the court has been lately planted with lemon and orange trees, which, in time, will add greatly to the beauty of its appearance. This spot seems to have been particularly sacred, for not an hundred yards further is a large octagon tower, the remains of a Temple of Venus Genetrix, but no other vestige of it is left.
Here we again embarked, and after rowing some little way along the shore, landed and walked to the top of a hill, from which we had a view of the Elysian Fields, and of Lake Acheron below us. The lake is changed, like Avernus, but the Elysian Fields are still a beautiful wilderness. On our way we passed several ancient burying-places, and a variety of other ruins--ruins in the truest sense of the word, for the whole is an heap of rubbish.