Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/51

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THE CHIESA MADRE.

the opposite side of the street, a heavy building, well built, and but little damaged, while Don Antonio's, opposite, is demolished. Its long axis is 28° W. of north; the furniture still remains, as it is inhabited by the owner in some parts. The pictures along the middle walls a a a (Fig. 279)


Fig. 279.

are uniformly thrown to the south, in the plane of the wall, and by friction of the backs, remained so, nothing having been disturbed in these large reception rooms, since the shock, as the dust and fragments from the fissures, in the walls and ceilings still unswept, when the rooms were unlocked for my examination, testified. One painting, 6 feet wide by 4 feet high, hung by two nails, and it has drawn or rather dragged and bent down, the projecting part of the nail, at the N.W. end, so that that corner of the picture, is below the level line 2½ inches. All the pictures on the walls a b, at both sides, are gone off out of plumb, towards the east, and those 1 foot inches high by 2 feet 6 inches long, which hung from a single nail, are 1 inch out of plumb, in their length; two others, 4 feet long by 3 feet high, are 1½ inch out of plumb in the height, towards the east.

The pictures on the respective walls are not sufiiciently