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OF THE ANCIENTS

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ſhould front the north. A villa is always properly placed upon the ſea, when ſo near as to be beat and daſhed with the waves. It ſhould never be removed from the bank to a little diſtance from the ſhore; for it is better to retire to a conſiderable diſtance, than only a ſhort way; becauſe the air is groſſer at a little diſtance than at a greater, or immediately on the ſhore^[1]. Neither indeed ſhould a villa be ſituated near a marſh, or by a military road; for the heats exhale from the marſh a noxious vapour, and bring to life inſects armed with ſtings, which fly againſt us in the thickeſt ſwarms; from it likewiſe come for the plagues of water ſnakes nd ſerpents, being deſtitute of the winter pools; theſe, envenomed with mud and putrified filth, often occaſion hidden

diſeaſes,

↑ This paſſage is tranſlated by Mr Caſtell, in his illuſtration of the villas of the ancients, in a ſenſe very different from what it is here tranſlated; he makes Columella fobid the villa to be placed near the ſea; if this is the meaning of the paſſage, very little regard was paid to the direction; for we find, from the younger Pliny, that not only his own villa of Laurentinum, but many other villas in the neighbourhood, were ſituated immediately on the ſhore.

[1] This paſſage is tranſlated by Mr Caſtell, in his illuſtration of the villas of the ancients, in a ſenſe very different from what it is here tranſlated; he makes Columella fobid the villa to be placed near the ſea; if this is the meaning of the paſſage, very little regard was paid to the direction; for we find, from the younger Pliny, that not only his own villa of Laurentinum, but many other villas in the neighbourhood, were ſituated immediately on the ſhore.

[1]