Letters

and without being interrupted in his own devotions, may be conjectured to be one of these separate buildings: as may also the summer Judges iii. 20 and 25. parlour of Eglon, where he was slain by Ehud. The 2d of Samuel, xviii. 33. chamber over the gate, to which David withdrew after the death of his son Absalom, seems to have been a structure very parallel to those already mentioned. I must further observe to you that this place of retirement is distinguished by a peculiar word in the Hebrew, which answers to the hyperōon (upper chamber) of the Greeks, and which Doctor Shaw says, notwithstanding the seeming etymology, is not appropriated only to one high chamber, but to a private apartment of this nature: original: ὑπερῷον pro ὑπερωϊον Atticè dicitur, ab ὑπὲρ et ὤϊον quod fimbriam σignificat et extremitatem—meaning it is derived from "above" and "the extremity." In this sense, the word is often used by classical writers. The hyperōon Homer, Il. Π. l. 184. "Mercury at once ascended to the upper chamber and lay down in secret.", where Mercury carried on his amours, and where Homer Odyss. O. l. 515, 516. "For she does not often appear to the suitors in the house, but stays in the upper chamber weaving her web." Penelope and the young virgins kept themselves at a distance from the solicitations of their wooers, were probably edifices detached from the palace of Ulysses, and are so far answerable as to bear a strong resemblance to Pliny's description of his favorite Diæta (garden apartment). Doctor Shaw assures us that the eastern apartments of privacy often had a door of communication to a gallery; joined, I presume, in the same manner as the Diæta to Pliny's Cryptoporticus (covered gallery).

The Roman luxury appeared nowhere greater, or more extensive, than in their public buildings, particularly in their Palæstra (wrestling schools), the accounts of which are amazing. It will be difficult to give you more than a general, imperfect view of them, because the size,