Chap. II. ARCHEOLO GISTS AND ards the close of his career, Sir William would some- BOOK II, ay to his intimates, when conversation turned upon CLASSICAL tle of life: I had to begin the world with a great and one thousand pounds for all my fortune.' But EXPLORERS. orld never used him very roughly. Whilst still a man (1755) he married Miss BARLOW, the wealthy of Hugh BARLOW, of Laurenny Hall, in PembrokeShe brought him an estate, in the neighbourhood nsea, worth nearly five thousand pounds a year; but his happy lot to have married a true wife, not a bag ey. DUCLOS, who saw much of the HAMILTONS in mily circle at Naples in after years, was wont to hey are the happiest couple I ever saw.' HAMILTON was sent to the Court of Naples in 1764. 1764-1800. st, in that day, was not overburdened with business. r some years to come the new Ambassador found apolitan society little to his taste. He was inteland, in the truest sense, an English gentleman. e of society at that time in Naples was both frivod dissolute. He had to form, by slow degrees, a 1 which a man of cultivated tastes might enjoy social The public duties of the embassy could employ but portion of his time, and the temper of the man mployment to him a necessary of life. He threw gies into hard study. And he possessed that hapmental characteristics, an equal love of the natural , and of the world of art and of books. He could ith like enjoyment, on the deep things of Nature, the secrets of the antiquary times.' And in both e knew how to make his personal enjoyments teem blic good. first labours were given to the exhaustive research nic phenomena. He amazed the fine gentlemen of BOOK II, Chap. II. CLASSICAL GISTS AND EXPLORERS. Naples by setting to work as though he had to win his bread by the sweat of his brow. He laboured harder on ARCHEOLO the slopes of Vesuvius than an exceptionally diligent craftsman would labour in a factory-had Naples possessed any. Within four years he ascended the famous mountain twenty-two times. More than one of these ascents was made at the risk of his life. He made, and caused to be made, innumerable drawings of all the phenomena that he observed, showing the volcanic eruption in all its stages, and under every kind of meteorological condition. He formed too a complete collection of volcanic products, and of the earths and minerals of the volcanic district. When he had studied Vesuvius under every possible aspect, he went to Etna. THE MUSEUM OF The results of these elaborate investigations were sent, from time to time, to the Royal Society (of which Mr. HAMILTON was made a Fellow, after the reading of the first of his papers in 1766), and they were published in the Philosophical Transactions, between the years 1766 and 1780. They were afterwards collected, and improved, in the two beautiful volumes entitled Campi Phlegræi, and were lavishly illustrated from the drawings of F. A. FABRIS, who had been trained by HAMILTON to the work.* The collection of volcanic geology and products was given to the British Museum in 1767. These geological labours had been diversified, at intervals, by the collection of a rich archæological museum, and by the establishment of a systematic correspondence on antiquarian subjects with men of learning in various parts In a copy of this work now before me, the original drawings are bound up with the engravings, and later drawings are added. They serve to show that Sir William's scientific interest in the subject lasted as long as his life. Chap. II. ARCHEOLO kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This correspondence Book II. r its object, not merely the enrichment of his own CLASSICAL m, but the awakening of local attention throughout ntry to its antiquities and history; matters which eretofore been but too much neglected-in the Neafashion. of the earliest and choicest acquisitions made by TON in the early years of his residence at Naples was tion of vases belonging to the senatorial family of ARI, many of which had been gathered from sepulnd excavations in Magna Græcia. This purchase, 1766 and afterwards largely increased, may be as the substantial beginning of the noble series ES now so prominent a part of our National 1. had been formed, by degrees, at Naples, a museum _t the beginning of the year 1772, included seven and thirty fictile vases; a hundred and seventy-five tas; about three hundred specimens of ancient ncluding three of the most perfect cinerary urns at that time, to have been discovered); six hundred nty-seven bronzes, of which nearly one-half illuse arms and armour of the ancients; more than two specimens of sacrificial, domestic, and architectonic, ents and implements; fourteen bassi-relievi, busts, and inscribed tablets; about a hundred and fifty eous pieces of ancient ivory, including a curious tessaræ; a hundred and forty-nine gems, chiefly ; a hundred and forty-three personal ornaments, of inds, in gold; a hundred and fifty-two fibulæ in materials; and more than six thousand coins and comprising a considerable series from the towns of ræcia. EXPLORERS. Book II, The first fruits of this noble collection was the publication, commenced in the year 1766, of the work entitled Antiquités Etrusques, &c., with admirable illustrations, and EXPLORERS. with a descriptive text, written in French by D'HANThe first edition of this costly book was issued GISTS AND PUBLICA TION OF THE CARVILLE. ANTIQUITÉS at Naples. ETRUSQUES.' It naturally attracted great attention. No such collection of fictile vases-in their combination of number and beauty-had been theretofore known. The two volumes published at Sir William's cost in 1766, were followed by two other volumes in 1767. All of them were executed with great care and with lavish expenditure. But the later edition, printed at Florence-long afterwards is in many points superior.* Whilst the volumes were still incomplete, Mr. HAMILTON circulated proof plates of the work with great liberality. Some of these proofs were lent to our famous English potter, Josiah WEDGWOOD, and gave a strong impulse to his taste and artistic zeal. But they excited an eager longing for access to the vases themselves, as the only satisvol. ii, p. 72. factory models. Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood to Bentley, 10 May, 1770. When WEDGWOOD wrote to his friend and partner, BENTLEY ;—' Mr. HAMBLETON, you know, has flattered the old pot-painters very much,' one feels that for the moment that excellent man's prepossessions had been rubbed a little, against the grain. But he shows directly that there is no real intent to impeach the Editor's honesty in the matter. He has, no doubt,' adds WEDGWOOD, 'taken his designs from the very best vases extant,' which was precisely what it was his duty to do, since selection was the task in hand, not the publication of seven hundred specimens. That superiority, however, is only partial. The original Naples edition, along with many errors, contains much valuable matter omitted in the reprint. Chap. II. GISTS AND Collection-far more remarkable than any, of its BOOK II, hich had yet come to England-was brought over CLASSICAL - and offered to the Trustees of the British Museum. ARCHEOLO cal was made to Parliament, and the first grant of EXPLOREES money, worthy of mention, was now made in order quisition. The sum given to Mr. HAMILTON was ousand four hundred pounds. soon one of the incidental results of the acquisition I to the Public much more than its cost-leaving account altogether the best returns which accrue ch Collections-is among the familiar annals of our ce. Josiah WEDGWOOD told à Committee of the f Commons that, within two years, he had himself into England, by his imitations of the Hamilton his manufactory at Etruria, about three times the ch the Collection had cost to the country. THE EX PLORATIONS AT POMPEII AND HERCU e beginning of the year 1772 Mr. HAMILTON was Knight of the Bath. He returned to Naples soon transfer of his antiquities to the Museum, and ere LANEUM. was busily engaged in new explorations at Pompeii Herculaneum. He sent to the Society of Antiin 1777, an interesting account of the discoveries eii, which is printed in the fourth volume of the gia. At Herculaneum he employed, during many ather Antonio PIAGGI to superintend excavations e drawings, and gave him an annual salary equal dred pounds sterling, after vainly endeavouringime-to urge on the Neapolitan Government its to carry on the task in an adequate manner for ir of the nation, and to publish the results of the ons for the general benefit of learning. illiam's services as an ambassador were rendered and with credit, as opportunity offered. But the |