Earldom of Elgin was abundantly earned. By every other estimate, Lord ELGIN had done more than enough to keep ARCHEOLO his name, for ever, in the roll of British worthies. BOOK II, CLASSICAL GISTS AND EXPLORERS. THE MAR BLES OF And, as all men know, he had a worthy successor in that honoured title. The name of ELGIN, instead of ranking, according to BYRON's prophecy, with that of EROSTRATUS, has already become a name not less revered in the Indies, and in America, than in Britain itself. ELGIN was one of the For nearly half a century, Lord Representative Peers of Scotland. ment was completed, he took but little part in public life. The most curious incident of his later years was his election as a Member of the Society of Dilettanti, twenty-five years after his return from the Levant. The election was made. without his knowledge. When the fact was intimated to him, he wrote to the Secretary to decline the honour. After a brief and dignified allusion to his efforts in Greece, he went on to say - Had it been thought-twenty-five years ago, or at any reasonable time afterwards-that the same energy would be considered useful to the Dilettanti Society, most happy should I have been to contribute every aid in my power; but such expectation has long since past. I do not apprehend that I shall be thought fastidious, if I decline the honour now proposed to me at this my eleventh hour.' The Collector of the Elgin Marbles died in England on the fourteenth of October, 1841. During the long period which had thus intervened PHIGALEIA. between the first exhibition to the Public of the sculptures from the Temple of Minerva and their final acquisition for the national Museum, an inferior but valuable series of Greek marbles was obtained from Phigaleia, in Arcadia. Chap. II. ARCHEOLO They were the fruit of the joint researches, in 1812, of the BOOK II, late eminent architect, Mr. Charles Robert COCKERELL, CLASSICAL Mr. John FOSTER, Mr. LEE, Mr. Charles HALLER VON HALLERSTEIN, and Mr. James LINKH, who, in that had become fellow-travellers in Greece, and partners in the work of exploration for antiquities. year, The temple to which these marbles had belonged, and beneath the ruins of which they were found, stands on a ridge clothed with oak trees on one of the slopes of Mount Cotylium. The scenery which surrounds it is of great beauty. The temple itself has long been a ruin. It was the work of IcTINUS, the builder of the Parthenon. One portion of the frieze of its cella represents the battles of the Centaurs and the Lapitha-the subject of the metopes of the Parthenon entablature. The remaining portion illustrates another series of mythic contests-that of the Athenians and the Amazons. The extent of this frieze, in its integrity, was about a hundred and eight feet in length, by two feet one and a quarter inches in height. About ninety-six lineal feet were found, broken into innumerable fragments, but susceptible, as it proved-by dint of skill and of marvellous patienceof almost entire reunion, so that no restoration was needed to bring the subject of the sculpture into perfect intelligibility. Mr. COCKERELL, one of the most active of the explorers of 1812, had to proceed to Sicily whilst his fellows in the enterprise carried on the toils of digging and removal. But it is from his pen that we have a charming little notice of the progress of the work, and of the amusements which enlivened it. I regret,' wrote Mr. COCKERELL, 'that I was not of that delightful party at Phigaleia, which amounted to above fifteen persons. They established themselves, for GISTS AND THE EXCA VATIONS ON MOUNT COTYLIUM. BOOK II, three months, on the top of Mount Cotylium-where there CLASSICAL is a grand prospect over nearly all Arcadia-building, round ARCHEOLO- the Temple, huts covered with boughs of trees, until they EXPLORERS. had almost formed a village, which they called Francopolis. GISTS AND Cockerell to printed by Hughes, Travels in p. 194. When They had frequently fifty or eighty men at work in the 'The success of our enterprise,' continues Mr. COCKERELL, astonished every one, and in all circumstances connected with it good fortune attended us.' One of these Greece, vol. i, circumstances, however-that of the mixed nationality of the discoverers-put, it must be added, some difficulty in the way towards accomplishing an earnest wish, on the part of the English sharers in the adventure, that England should be made the final home of the Phigaleian sculptures. Two Germans, as we have seen, were active partners in the exploration. A third, Mr. GROPIUS, had likewise some interest in it. And there was also a more formidable sleeping partner in the rich digging. VELY Pasha had stipulated that he was to have one half of the marbles discovered, as the price of his licence to explore. But, very fortunately, one of the ordinary changes in Turkish policy at Constantinople removed VELY from his government, just at the critical moment; and so made him anxious to sell his share, and to facilitate the removal of the spoil. The new Pasha had heard of the discoveries, and was hastening to lay hands BOOK II, upon the whole. But he was too late. There was Chap. II. CLASSICAL ARCHEOLO EXPLORERS. But the THE TRANS With his R. FER OF THE MArbles of PHIGALEIA TO ZANTE; The marbles were removed to Zante. The German pro- GISTS AND prietors insisted on a public sale by auction. not time to bring the matter before Parliament. Prince Regent took an active interest in it. sanction, and mainly by the exertions of Mr. W. HAMILTON (afterwards a zealous Trustee of the British Museum), some members of the Government authorised the despatch of Mr. Taylor COMBE to Zante. By him the marbles were purchased, at the price of sixty thousand dollars; but that sum was enhanced by an unfavourable exchange, so that the actual payment amounted to nineteen thousand pounds. It was paid out of the Droits of the Admiralty, a fund of questionable origin, and one which AND TO had been many times grossly abused, but which, on this occasion, subserved a great national advantage. The marbles thus obtained are confessedly inferior to those of the Parthenon; but they possess great beauty, as well as great archæological value. Both acquisitions, in their place, have contributed to increase historic knowledge, not less conspicuously than to develop artistic power, or to enlighten critical judgment, both in art and in literature. It would not be an easy task to estimate to what degree a mastery of the learning which is to be acquired only from the marbles of Attica and of Arcadia, and their like, has tended to make the study of Greek books a living and lifegiving study. To the sculptures brought from Phagaleia into England in 1815, several missing fragments have been added subsequently. A peasant living near Paulizza had carried off a piece of the frieze to decorate, or to hallow, his hut. This fragment was procured by Mr. SPENCER STANHOPE in 1816. ENGLAND. BOOK II, GISTS AND PURCHASE OF THE SECOND TOWNELEY 1814. The Chevalier BRÖNDSTED added other fragments in 1824. Almost contemporaneously with the accessions which came to the Museum as the result of the explorations in 1814 of Mr. COCKERELL and his fellow-travellers in COLLECTION, Arcadia, a considerable addition was made to the Towneley Gallery by the purchase of a large series of bronzes, gems, and drawings, and of a cabinet of coins and medals, both Greek and Roman, all of which had been formed by the Collector of the Marbles. These were purchased from Mr. TOWNELEY'S representatives for the sum of eight thousand two hundred pounds. Among other conspicuous additions, made from time to time, a few claim special mention. Among these are the Cupid, acquired from the representatives of Edmund BURKE; the Jupiter and Leda, in low relief, bought of Colonel de BossET; and the Apollo, bought in Paris, at the sale of the Choiseul Collection. MINOR OF THE LECTION. Among the minor Greek antiquities which came to the British Museum in 1816, along with the sculptures of the ELGIN COL- Parthenon, are the fine Caryatid figure, and the very beautiful Ionic capitals, bases, and fragments of shafts, from the double temple of the Erectheium and Pandrosos at Athens, —part of which, like the Temple of Neptune, was used by the Turks, in Lord ELGIN's time, as a powder-magazine. Acquisitions still more valuable than these were the grand fragment of the colossal Bacchus in feminine attire, which Lord ELGIN brought from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus; the statue of Icarus (identified by comparison with a well-known low-relief in rosso antico formerly preserved in the Albani Collection); and the noble series of casts from the frieze of the Theseium and from that of the |