Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
The present year, 1916 A.D., is the centenary of the acquisition by the public of the Elgin Collection of ancient sculptures, inscriptions, casts and drawings. It has therefore seemed a suitable moment to print a fuller account than has hitherto been attempted of the formation and purchase of that collection.
I should state that I have been engaged on this subject for some time past, by desire of the Earl of Elgin, who has put all his papers bearing on the subject into my hands. It was the wish of Lord Elgin that the episode of the marbles should appear in its due proportion in a full biography of his distinguished grandfather. The other aspects of that career are being studied by Sir Harry Wilson, K.C.M.G. But the call of other duties and the distractions of the time have made it doubtful whether the biography can be completed at an early date. The present narrative is therefore offered now, by way of a centennial commemoration.
1 The papers at Broomhall include many that must have been handed over by Lusieri's representatives, by Hamilton or his representatives and by others. For extracts from the papers at Biel I have to thank Mrs. Nisbet Hamilton Ogilvy and Sir Harry Wilson.
2 Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin's Collection of Sculptured Marbles, etc. (London, J. Murray), p. 31. I refer throughout to Murray's reprint of the Report of the Committee.
3 The collection of original drawings was recently offered at forty guineas, in the Catalogue of Mr. T. Thorp, Bookseller.
4 Ainslie to Elgin, ‘Sunday night.’
5 Spon, , Voyage (ed. 1679), I., p. 200Google Scholar.
6 He was a distant cousin of the then Lord Belhaven and Stenton, but in consequence of a failure in the direct succession, was the grandfather of the present holder of that Barony.
7 Elgin to Dowager Lady E., Oct. 19, 1799.
8 Sunday, May 29th (1813). To-day we dined with Signor Lusieri, who shewed us, nailed to the wall, an unfinished drawing of Constantinople, in five large sheets. The view which it embraced, extended from the Seven Towers about eight miles up the Bosphorus, and was most faithfully and beautifully delineated. Unfortunately he had left it in the chancellerie of Pera, when he left Constantinople (in Lord Elgin's time), and there it was soiled and spoilt. Turner, , Tour in the Levant, i. p. 368Google Scholar; cf. Lusieri to Lord Elgin, March 24, 1810: ‘They have sent me recently the drawings that I began of the general view of Constantinople, but they are in a pitiful state. Heaven knows when I may finish them as I wish.’
9 Williams, H. W., Travels in Italy, Greece, etc. (1820), vol. ii. pp. 331–334.Google Scholar
10 Hamilton to Elgin, Nov. 14, 1799.
11 Hamilton to Elgin, Dec. 12, 1799.
12 B.M. Sculpt. No. 2714.
13 Lord Elgin's evidence, Report, p. 33.
14 Logotheti to Elgin, Aug. 13, Sept. 16, 1800.
15 Hobhouse, , Travels, i. 293Google Scholar. Walpole's, Memoirs, i. p. 481Google Scholar. The plan in Walpole, here reproduced, is taken from that in Olivier's Voyage, Atlas Pl. 49. Olivier received it from Fauvel in June, 1798. (Voyage III. p. 517.)
16 Hobhouse, i. p. 302.
17 Hobhouse, i. p. 301; Dodwell, , Tour, i. p. 290Google Scholar.
18 Hobhouse, i. p. 289.
19 Hobhouse, i. p. 298.
20 Dodwell, , Tour, i. p. 358Google Scholar.
21 Smith, A. H., Yarb. Cat., p. 2Google Scholar.
22 Hobhouse, i. p. 292.
23 Dodwell, i. 294.
24 Logotheti to Elgin, Sept. 10, 1800.
25 This had been the experience of Chandler's Dilettanti expedition of 1765. Mr. Pars [the artist] generally had his post' on the architrave of the colonnade, many feet from the ground, where he was exposed to gusts of wind, and to accidents in passing to and fro. Several of the Turks murmured, and some threatened, because he overlooked their houses; obliging them to confine or remove the women, to prevent their being seen from that exalted station.' Chandler, , Travels in Greece, 3rd ed. ii. p. 58.Google Scholar
26 Logotheti to Elgin, Feb. 7, 1801.
27 Logotheti to Elgin, March 15, 1801.
28 Report, p. 33.
29 B.M.Sculpt., No. 789.
30 Letter of July 31, 1718.
31 If the story is true the mutilation took place before 1764.
32 Chandler, , Travels in Asia Minor, p. 39.Google Scholar
33 Hunt, in Walpole's, Memoirs, i. p. 97Google Scholar.
34 See B.M. Inscr. No. 1002.
35 Lusieri to Elgin, May 16, 1801.
36 Hunt, in Report, p. 140Google Scholar.
37 Hunt, in Walpole's, Memoirs, i. p. 84Google Scholar.
38 Carlyle to the Bishop of Lincoln, in Walpole's, Memoirs, i. 177Google Scholar.
39 Walpole, Memoirs, i. 194, 198Google Scholar.
40 Hunt to Elgin, May 22, 1801.
41 Lusieri to Elgin, March 11, 1800.
42 Ann. of Brit. School at Athens, xviii. p. 277.
43 Lusieri to Hamilton, April 7, 1801.
44 Lusieri to Elgin, May 16, 1801.
45 Hunt to Elgin, May 22, 1801.
46 Compare also Michaelis, , Parthenon, p. 29Google Scholar, for the first of the above, taken from Semper, , Der Stil. ii. p. 270Google Scholar. It is also given, in Daremberg, Fig. 1334.
47 Logotheti to Elgin, May 16, 1801.
48 Cf. Hunt's, evidence, Report, p. 140Google Scholar.
49 Report, p. 40.
50 Report, p. 40.
51 Report, p. 40.
52 Report, p. 141.
53 Report, p. xxvi.
54 Report, p. 33.
55 Report, p. 40.
56 Elgin to Lusieri, July 10, 1801.
57 Hunt to Hamilton, July 8, 1801.
58 In the Windham papers a letter of Lord Elgin's (Sept. 3, 1801) refers to Frotté as ‘a young man who had served with distinction on board the Tigre’ and whose ‘departure had been hastened by an incident in which he behaved very handsomely’ (Br. Mus. Add. MSS. 37, 880, fo. 145).
59 Mubàshir, a government commissary or agent.
60 Corpus Inscr. Graecarum, 2012.
61 C.I.G. 495, Gr. Inscriptions in the B.M., No. 59, erroneously assigned to Attica.
62 Hunt to Elgin, July 31, 1801.
63 Revue Archéologique, 3rd Ser. xxx. p. 196.
64 Dodwell, i. p. 354. ‘During my first visit to Athens, the Caryatides were nearly concealed by a modern wall, the removal of which has very much improved the appearance of the monument, and was done by the dilapidators, not with any intention of benefitting this singular edifice, but merely to examine which was the most entire of the statues, and to facilitate its removal.’
65 See the Guide to the Sculptures of the Parthenon, 1908, p. 26, for the controversy as to this figure.
66 In justice to the Disdar, Dodwell's anecdote should be quoted. ‘During my residence at Athens, the work of devastation having been begun by the Christians, was imitated in a humble manner by the Turks, and a large block of the epistylia of the Erechtheion at the south-west angle, contiguous to the Pandroseion, was thrown down by order of the Disdar, and placed over one of the doors of the fortress! As I imagined that he intended to demolish other parts of this elegant edifice, which seemed doomed to destruction, I took the liberty of remonstrating on the impropriety of his proceedings. He pointed to the Parthenon! to the Caryatid portico! and to the Erechtheion! and answered, with a singularly enraged tone of voice, “What right have you to complain? Where are now the marbles which were taken by your countrymen from the temples?”’ (Dodwell, i. p. 352).
67 ‘The fountain in the courtyard of our Consul Logotheti's house was decorated with a. Bas-relief of Bacchantes in the style called Graeco-Etruscan, which he presented to his Lordship.’ (Hunt to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet, Feb. 26, 1805).
68 Lusieri to Pialc, Aug. 6, 1801.
69 Hunt to Elgin, Aug. 21, 1801.
70 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 4, 1801.
71 Hunt to Elgin, Sept. 3, 1801.
72 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 30, 1801.
73 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 30, 1801.
74 Elgin to Lusieri, Oct. 8, 1801.
75 Lacy to Elgin, Oct. 6, 1801.
76 Lacy to Elgin, Oct. 25, 1801.
77 Lacy to Elgin, Oct. 30, 1801.
78 Lacy to Elgin, Nov. 17, 1801.
79 Lacy to Elgin, Dec. 8, 1801.
80 Lusieri to Elgin, Dec. 7, 1801.
81 Lacy to Elgin, Feb. 15, 1802.
82 Lacy to Elgin, Mar. 18, 1802.
83 Lacy to Elgin, Mar. 28, 1802.
84 Hunt to Pisani, Dec. 8, 1801.
85 Hunt to Elgin, Jan. 8, 1802.
86 This is probably the altar of Caius Castricius in the Elgin Collection. B.M. Sculpt. No. 2287, Gr. Inscr, in B.M. 1123A.
87 There are two inscriptions connected with Artemidoros of Cnidos in the Brit. Mus. (Nos. 787, 792). One of them may be the inscription seen by Hunt.
88 Elgin to Lusieri, Dec. 26, 1801.
89 Lusieri to Elgin, Jan. 11, 1802.
90 Lady Elgin to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet, April 10, 1802.
91 Elsewhere Lady Elgin speaks of ‘Both the Paramanas, Calitza and Fatty,’ whose real name seems to have been Helena (p. 275). One may conjecture that Bruce's Paramana was no longer needed in that capacity. There is a picture at Biel of the children with their Greek nurses. The latter were sent home by way of Malta and Smyrna, in the spring of 1807.
92 Lady Elgin to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet, April 15, 1802.
93 A view of the courtyard of the house of Nicolas Logotheti, the Consul of Stuart's time, is given in Stuart and Revett, i. chap. v. pl. i. We know that the house was the same, since Spiridion Logotheti gave Lord Elgin the Bacchant relief, placed in it by Stuart in the time of Nicolas.
94 Lady Elgin to Lady Robert [Manners] for Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet, May 11, 1802.
95 Elgin to Lusieri, May 5, 1802.
96 See Unedited Antiqs. of Attica, chap. iv. pl. 7.
97 Lady Elgin to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet (continued).
98 Young Logotheti is one of the chief figures in the view of the Bazaar, in Dodwell's Views in Greece.
99 Schliemann, writing in 1877, says that by local tradition it is agreed ‘that the excavation took place in 1810, and that the sole objects found in the Treasury were some half-columns and friezes, a marble table, and a long bronze chain suspended from the top of the dome, at the end of which was hanging a bronze candelabrum. I have heard this account repeated so many hundred times by the old people of the Argolid that I believe it to be perfectly correct, except of course, as to the candelabrum.’ Mycenae, p. 50. Lady Elgin's letter of 1802 shows that tradition confused Lord Sligo's excavation of 1810 (cf. p. 281) with some older enterprise.
100 For drawings of the nails see Gell's, Argolis, Pl. 7Google Scholar.
101 Elgin to Lusieri, May 7, 1802.
102 Perhaps the torso of a Muse, Br. Mus. Sculpt. No. 1688.
103 Lusieri to Elgin, May 7, 1802.
104 Lusieri to Elgin, May 10, 1802.
105 The relief of Aristocles (Brit. Mus. Sculpture, 638) had been seen by Chandler ‘fixed in a wall at the door of the Greek school.’ I cannot identify the vase.
106 Memorandum, p. 10.
107 Father Urban, of Genoa, head of the Capuchin Monastery, detected in 1806 in an intrigue with the wife of a Greek servant, and sent in disgrace to Constantinople. Legrand, , in Rev. Arch. 3rd ser. xxx. p. 387Google Scholar.
108 The legend soon sprang up that these were the pillars mentioned by Pausanias in memory of the fallen in the battle of Marathon. ‘We now rode to the west and saw the small columns (about three feet high) which were placed to the memory of the heroes who fell in the battle. Of these there are six standing, and six thrown down; one of the former has the appearance of an altar; near them are some stones which look as if they had belonged to some edifice. It is necessary to remark that these are not in their proper place, having been unclassically moved to make a tent for Lord and Lady Elgin by the captain of the frigate which brought that nobleman from Constantinople to Athens.’ (Turner, W., Tour in the Levant, i. p. 347).Google Scholar The writer was at Marathon in May, 1814.
109 For Fauvel's excavation in Oct. 1788, see Rev. Arch. 3rd ser. xxx. p. 55.
110 This eminent topographer, perhaps with designed obscurity, mentions a rising ground ‘in which I found several cippi or sepulchral columns standing in a certain regular order, together with the remains of a sarcophagus, the fragments of a female statue seated in a chair, some shafts of columns and a Corinthian Architrave.’ Leake, , Demi of Attica, 2nd ed., p. 88Google Scholar. Cf. Squire in Walpole, i. p. 336.
111 Aug. 31, 1801.
112 Hamilton's, obituary notice in the Annual Register, 1859, p. 430Google Scholar, contains a statement adopted in the Dict. of National Biography, doubtless based on an inaccurate family tradition, that he rowed out with a small escort to recover the stone from a feverstricken French ship, where it was concealed. A contemporary account is given by Clarke, E. D., The Tomb of Alexander, 1805, pp. 38, 40Google Scholar. The Rosetta stone was surrendered in Alexandria to Hamilton, Cripps and Clarke by a Member of the Institute, from the warehouse in which they had concealed it covered with mats. The famous sarcophagus of Nekht-heru-heb (formerly called the Tomb of Alexander) the same persons found ‘in the hold of a hospital ship, in the inner harbour’ ‘half filled with filth, and covered with the rags of the sick people on board,’ Compare Hamilton's, less detailed account of the affair in Aegyptiaca (see note 113), p. 402.Google Scholar
113 Hamilton's, account of the journey (with an obituary notice of Hayes) is published in his Remarks on several Parts of Turkey, I. Aegyptiaca, 1809 (with etchings from Hayes's drawings)Google Scholar. Leake's papers were lost in the Mentor.
114 Walpole II. p. 352.
115 Hamilton to Elgin, June 3, 1802.
116 There are two altars in the Elgin Collection, hitherto assigned to Delos, Nos. 2480, 2481 in the British Museum. The former seems to answer best to the description. The small sepulchral altar, No. 2287, to which no place of origin is assigned, is of a more suitable size, but being inscribed, we have already appropriated it to Hunt, p. 206 supra.
117 Choiseul-Gouffier, , Voyage Pittoresque I. Pls. 36, 37, 38.Google Scholar
118 Lady Elgin to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet.
119 See p. 214.
120 Elgin to Lusieri, June, 1802.
121 Hamilton to Elgin.
122 A topographical draughtsman, who had been attached to General Koehler.
123 Lusieri to Elgin, July 7, 1802.
124 A list of the marbles disembarked is extant.
125 Hamilton to Elgin, Aug. 1, 1802.
126 Hamilton to Elgin, Aug. 8, 1802.
127 Lusieri to Elgin, Aug. 8, 1802.
128 Elgin to Lusieri, Aug. 9, 1802.
129 Lusieri to Elgin, Aug. 30, 1802. Lord Elgin had previously warned Lusieri (July 7) of Prince Dolgorouki's intended visit. He was a deserving young man, to be received with all courtesy, but it would be well to keep watch on his relations with the Calmuck.
130 Presumably Mertrude, André, who is mentioned as dead in 1816. Rev. Arch. 3rd Ser. xxx. p. 385Google Scholar.
131 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 8, 1802.
132 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 16, 1802.
133 This probably refers to the incident described by Clarke, who was at Athens at the time. ‘After a short time spent in examining the several parts of the temple, one of the workmen came to inform Don Battista that they were then going to lower one of the Metopes. We saw this fine piece of sculpture raised from its station between the triglyphs; but the workmen endeavouring to give it a position adapted to the projected line of descent, a part of the adjoining masonry was loosened by the machinery; and down came the fine masses of Pentelican marble, scattering their white fragments with thundering noise among the ruins.’ (Clarke, Travels, ii. 2. p. 483.) Clarke supplements this with the additional detail ‘The Disdar who beheld the mischief done to the building, took his pipe out of his mouth, dropped a tear, and in a supplicating tone of voice said to Lusieri Τέλος. I was present at the time.’ Letter of Clarke, E. D. to Byron, , in Prothero's ed. of Byron's, Letters and Journals, ii. p. 130.Google Scholar Quoted by Byron in a note to Childe Harold II. xii.
134 The Elgin Collection contains two important inscriptions from Orchomenos (B.M. Inscr. 158, 159). They were shipped in November by Consul Strane from Patras. For others, less fortunate, cf. p. 238. The inscription from Daulis is no doubt the long inscription (Boeckh, C.I.G. 1732) which was copied by Leake, but was not acquired.
135 Lusieri to Elgin Oct. 4, 1802.
136 Hunt to Elgin, Nov. 23, 1802.
137 Hunt to Elgin, Nov. 28, 1802.
138 Lusieri to Elgin, Nov. 16, 24, 28, 1802.
139 Hunt to Elgin, Dec. 11, 1802.
140 Hunt to Elgin, Dec. 22, 1802.
141 Svoronos, , Athener National Museum, p. 85Google Scholar, refers also to Elpis, No. 1323 (Feb. 18, 1901). Apart from the Caluci papers the materials used by Myliarakis are for the most part already accessible to Western readers.
141a So Myliarakis (p. 714), but perhaps by error, as one of the seamen was called Wigton.
142 Hamilton, Aegyptiaca, p. 407.
143 Marsden, Memoir, p. 12.
144 The name is variously spelt, but the owner signs thus.
145 Taragano to Elgin, Oct. 29, 1802.
146 Werry to Elgin, Nov. 1, 1802.
147 Hunt to Elgin, Nov. 23, 1802.
148 Hamilton to Elgin, Dec. 9, 1802.
149 ‘I have been anxiously waiting for some satisfactory information relative to the Mentor; but I have hitherto only received a letter from Vice-Consul Basilio of Spezzia, repeating the reason of his not having sent the two large Ships to Cerigo, agreeable to his Instructions. He then informs me that he has since had a letter from Mr Hamilton dated on board the Victorieuse in Avlemona Roads, expressing his surprise that no Ship had yet come to him from Spezzia and requesting Mr Basilio to send him one instantly with fifteen or twenty men, to aid Captain Richards in weighing the Mentor. Mr Basilio informs me that he sent a Ship immediately to Cerigo with Sixteen men, and that he waits the result with anxiety, promising to write to me as soon as he hears from thence.
‘His account increases my surprize at Pierre's having told Basilio, and having written to me that the wreck of the Mentor had gone to pieces etc. I have since written to Mr. Basilio a strong Philippick, telling him how improperly he had acted in following any other person's advice when he had Your Excellency's written instructions for his guidance; and warning him against similar conduct with regard to his mode of fulfilling the other part of his contract about taking the cases of Marble from hence to Christendom. I have also written to Hamilton a statement of Pierre's conduct.’
Hunt to Elgin, Dec. 22, 1802.
150 On this date Captain Richards wrote in Caluci's Letterbook a certificate that the Consul had ‘been very attentive and assiduous’ during his stay, and that he commended and highly approved ‘his zeal and activity for his Majesty's Service.’
151 Hamilton to Elgin, Jan. 29, 1803.
152 A copy of the despatch is in the Nelson letterbook, Br. Mus. Add. MSS. 34919, fo. 78.
153 Ibid.
153a Hestia, l.c. p. 729.
154 Lusieri to Piale, Feb. 3, 1803.
155 Dept. of Antiquities, Letters on Antiquities.
156 Hamilton to Hawkins, July 25, 1834.
157 Elgin to Lusieri, March 16, 1803.
158 Elgin to Hamilton, Jan. 3, 1821. In 1812 Ittar published a Raccolta degli antichi edifici di Catania. Obl. fol. Catania.
159 Memorandum (1815), p. 39.
160 Sir William Drummond (1770?–1828).
161 Lusieri to Macaulay, May 11, 1803. Lusieri to Elgin, May 12, 1803.
162 In this letter, which is extant, Lord Elgin wrote ‘Au milieu de toutes les chances de cet époque memorable, celle de réunir le caractère d'Ambassadeur et la situation de prisonnier de guerre, n'avoit guères entré dans mes calculs. Me voici cependant arreté à Paris, en qualité de Prisonnier de Guerre.'
163 Lusieri to Hamilton (?), Oct. 24; 1804.
164 The letter is printed in Marsden's, Memoir of William Martin Leake, p. 12Google Scholar.
165 Caluci's Letlerbook. His letter to Hamilton and the answer are printed in Hestia, l.c. p. 731–2.
166 Lusieri to Hamilton (?), Nov. 7, 1804.
167 This letter is missing.
168 Lusieri to Elgin, Oct. 8, 1805.
169 Lusieri to the Dowager Lady Elgin (?), Feb. 24, 1806.
170 Lusieri to Lady Elgin (?), Aug. 30, 1806.
171 Lusieri to Elgin, Oct. 10, 1806.
172 Sir John Francis Edward Acton (1736–1811), Prime Minister of Naples.
173 Lusieri to Elgin, Feb. 3, 1807.
174 Lusieri to Morier, April 14, 1807. John Philip Morier (1776–1853), afterwards Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Envoy Extraordinary to Saxony.
175 Fauvel's papers, quoted by Legrand, , in Rev. Archéologique, 3rd series, xxx. p. 389Google Scholar. In 1814 Pouqueville informed Foresti that the vases had been sent to Napoleon by Ali, in July 1807, in the care of a renegade monk turned Mahometan, one Mahomet Effendi, who left them behind him at Spalatro, when he learnt that he must seek Napoleon at Vilna.
176 Lusieri to Elgin, April 14, 1807.
177 Lusieri to Elgin, July 4, 1807.
178 Hamilton to Elgin, April 5, 1808.
179 Hamilton to Elgin, April 30, 1808.
180 Morier to Elgin, March 4, 1808.
181 Lusieri to Elgin, March 24, 1808.
182 Maltass to Elgin, June 30, 1808.
183 Lusieri to Elgin, July 7, 1808.
184 Stuart to Elgin, July 14, 1808.
185 Lusieri to Elgin, Aug. 4, 1808.
186 Lusieri to Elgin, Aug. 16, 1808.
187 David Richard Morier (1784–1877).
188 See The Negociations for the Peace of the Dardanelles in 1808–9, by Sir Robert Adair, G.C.B. 2 vols. 1845.
189 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 2, 1808.
190 Ali Pasha to Elgin, Nov. 24, 1808.
191 Hayes to Elgin, Jan. 27, 1809.
192 Lusieri to Elgin, Feb. 4, 1809.
193 Marsden, , Memoir of William Martin Leake, p. 31Google Scholar.
193a Lusieri to Elgin, April 12, 1809.
194 Lusieri to Elgin, May 17, 1809.
195 Elgin to Lusieri, July 28, 1809.
196 Lusieri to Hayes, June 13, 1809.
197 Lusieri to Elgin, July 21, 1809.
198 Papiers de Fauvel, Bibl. Nat. MS. français 22871, folio 162, verso.
199 Lusieri to Leake; Sept. 7, 1809.
200 Leake to Elgin, Oct. 14, 1809.
201 Adair to Elgin, Sept. 25, 1809.
202 Lusieri to Leake, Oct. 7, 1809. Byron reached Athens on Christmas Day.
203 Maltass to Hamilton, Jan. 4, 1810.
204 Wellesley to Croker, Feb. 14, 1810.
205 Lusieri to Elgin, March 24, 1810.
205a Compare Byron, Appendix to Childe Harold, Canto 2, note A: ‘At this moment (Jan. 3, 1810), besides what has been already deposited in London, an Hydriot vessel is in the Pyraeus to receive every portable relic.’ Under this date Byron records ibidem ‘Between this artist [Lusieri] and the French Consul Fauvel, who wishes to rescue the remains for his own government, there is now a violent dispute concerning a car employed in their conveyance, the wheel of which—I wish they were both broken upon it!—has been locked up by the Consul, and Lusieri has laid his complaint before the Waywode.'
206 Adair to Wellesley, Feb. 27, 1810.
207 Morier to Elgin, March 17, 1810.
208 Lusieri to Elgin, March 25 and 26, 1810.
209 Lusieri to Elgin, March 28, 1810.
210 Lusieri to Elgin, April 30, 1810.
211 Hayes to Elgin, April 17, 1810.
212 Hayes to Elgin, May 1, 1810.
213 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 2, 1810.
214 Lusieri to Clarke and to Walpole, Sept. 30, 1810.
215 Hayes to Elgin, April 2, 1811.
215a Byron had written The Curse of Minerva a few days earlier. It is dated ‘Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 17, 1811.’ It was not published till 1828. Cf. note 287.
216 Hayes to Elgin, May 15, 1811.
217 Hayes to Elgin, July 30, 1811.
218 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 4, 1811.
219 Michaelis, , J.H.S. v. p. 154Google Scholar, No. 22.
220 Papers on the Aegina Marbles (Brit. Mus. Dept. of G. and R. Antiq.).
221 Lusieri to Elgin, Sept. 4, 1811.
222 Lusieri to Elgin, Dec. 11, 1812; April 10, June 3, Sept. 3, 1813.
223 Hamilton to Elgin, Nov. 25, 1813.
224 Lusieri to Elgin, Oct. 2 and Dec. 10, 1813.
225 The inscription ran
Thomas Comes
De Elgin
Athenien. Horol. D.D.
S.P.Q.A. Erex. Colloc.
A.D. MDCCCXIV.
Breton, , Athènes, p. 104Google Scholar. A distant view of the clock tower is given, ibid. p. 221.
226 Lusieri to Elgin, June 3, 1815.
227 Lusieri to Elgin, June 18, 1817.
228 Lusieri to Elgin, July 31, 1817.
229 Lusieri to Hamilton, Sept. 20, 1817.
230 Lusieri to Elgin, April 8 and 12, 1818.
231 Captain Murray was himself a collector. In June, 1818, he removed the toes of the Naxian Apollo (B.M.Sculpt. No. 130) and the Triton torso (B.M.Sculpt. No. 2220) from Delos, and presented them to the British Museum. Kinnard, W., in Stuart, and Revett, , 2nd ed. iv. Antiqs. at Athens and Delos, p. 24Google Scholar, claims that the fragments were brought on his suggestion. This does not appear in Captain Murray's letter of presentation, Aug 5, 1818, written from Malta.
232 The reliefs are published by Michaelis, , J.H.S. v. Pl. 48, p. 146Google Scholar. For a general view of the chair, see Stackelberg, , Graeber d, Hellenen, p. 33Google Scholar.
233 Lusieri to Elgin, May 7, 1819.
234 Brown, G. Baldwin, J.H.S. vi. p. 16Google Scholar.
235 Quoted in Lusieri's letter to Hamilton,. Aug. 16, 1819.
236 Hamilton to Elgin, Nov. 9, 1819.
237 Elgin to Hamilton, Oct. 15, 1820.
238 Probably Bond, John Linnell, who was in Greece and Italy in the years 1818–1821. Gent. Mag. New Series, viii. p. 655Google Scholar.
238a I cannot reconcile the date given here, with that of the epitaph, Jan. 30.
238b Hestia, l.c. p. 798.
239 Hamilton to Elgin, Feb. 16, 1824.
240 Elgin to Hamilton, March 20, 1824.
241 I am indebted to Mr. G. W. Perrin, the Admiralty Librarian, for these details.
241a The fortress of Karabusa crowns the high cliff on the left. The view by Schranz is based on a sketch by Admiral Spratt, which also formed the basis for the lithograph (after Schranz) in Spratt's Travels in Crete, II., pl. facing p. 222.
242 Townley to Harrison, Feb. 8, 1803; Report, Appendix, p. xxii.
243 Cust, , Hist. of the Soc. of Dilettanti, p. 130Google Scholar.
244 Gentleman's Magazine, lxxiii, p. 725.
245 E. Antrobua (of Messrs. Coutts) to Dowager Lady Elgin, Jan. 6, 1804.
246 Elgin to Bankes, March 13,1816; Memorandum of Feb. 1816 in Report, appendix.
247 Hunt to Lord Upper Ossory, Jan. 9, 1805.
248 Elgin to Dowager Lady Elgin, Jan. 13, 1805.
249 A third copy was sent to Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet.
250 Report, p. 43.
251 Elgin to Ball, Aug. 5, 1806.
252 Haydon to Elgin, March 10, 1819.
253 I am indebted to Mrs. Frederick Pepys Cockerell for leave to reproduce this interesting sketch.
It was shown in the Loan Collection of Greek Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1904. It is described by error in the Catalogue (p. 260, No. 10) as a view of the marbles at Old Burlington House.
254 Life of B. R. Haydon, i. pp. 82–86.
255 Ibid. p. 87.
256 Mulgrave to Elgin, May 21, 1808.
257 Br. Mus. Add. MSS. 36,297 H, fo. 29.
258 Memorandum, p. 29. The original draft is in the Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 36,297 H, fo. 31.
259 Lawrence to Elgin, Oct. 4, 1808.
260 Hamilton to Elgin, Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, 1808.
261 Hamilton to Elgin, March 29, 1809.
262 Haydon to Elgin, Sept. 23, 1809.
263 Hamilton to Elgin, May 13, 1809.
264 Lawrence to Elgin, Sept. 26, 1809.
265 Memorandum (1811), p. 42.
266 Porden to Elgin, Jan. 16, 1810.
267 Hamilton to Elgin, Jan. 22, 1810.
267a On Feb. 10, 1810, Lord Elgin again wrote to Christie, as to selling or letting the house, and as to the employment of a competent packer, that the wines and books might be sent by Leith packet to Broomhall, , Br. Mus. Add. MSS. 35, 057, fo. 91Google Scholar.
268 Hamilton to Elgin, May 19, 1810.
269 Abbot to Planta, July 21, 1810.
270 Planta to Elgin, July 21, 1810.
271 Planta to Ramsay, July 21, 1810.
272 Ramsay to Elgin, Aug. 10, 1810.
273 Three issues of the Memorandum were printed in all.
1. Memorandum on the subject of the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, 4to, Edinburgh, Balfour Kirkwood and Co. 1810. This consists of the Memorandum, with West's letter of Feb. 6, 1809, annexed.
2. The same, 8vo edition, London, 1811, printed for William Miller, Albemarle Street, by James Moyes, Greville Street, Hatton Garden. A few corrections are made in the text. Annexed are West's letter of Feb. 6, 1809; another letter of March 20, 1811; ‘Notes on Phidias and his School, collected from ancient authors,’ and Millin's ‘Description ďun bas-relief du Parthénon actuellement au Musée Napoléon’ (i.e. the slab from the East side, now in the Louvre).
3. The same, 8vo edition. ‘Second edition corrected.’ London printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, by W. Bulmer and Co., Cleveland Row, 1815. This contains the same matter as No. 2, together with ‘Lettre de E. Q. Visconti à un Anglais’ [Hamilton], Nov. 25, 1814, and the anonymous letter (cf. p. 319) on purchase considerations.
274 Hamilton to Elgin, Dec. 15, 1810.
275 Hamilton's acumen was not at fault. Both the terms to which he objects were due to Hunt.
276 Cust, , Hist. of the Soc. of Dilettanti, p. 133Google Scholar.
277 Lord Colchester's Diary, ii. p. 326.
278 Ibid. p. 328.
279 Report, App. p. vii.
280 Report of the Committee, p. 54.
281 Lord Colchester's Diary, ii. p. 330. A somewhat different draft is in the Elgin papers.
282 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 330Google Scholar.
283 Ibid. p. 331.
284 Elgin to Flaxman, April 19, 1811. (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 36, 652, fo. 132.)
285 Cf. Lord Colchester's Diary, loc. cit.
286 Duke of Devonshire to Lord Elgin, no date.
287 Hamilton to Lord Elgin, Aug. 2, 1811. In this letter Hamilton remarks, ‘I return you many thanks for the perusal of Lord Byron's letters] apparently lost] which are herewith enclosed. I do not consider him a very formidable enemy in his meditated attack, and I shall be much surprized if his attack on what you have done do not turn out one of the most friendly acts he could have done. It will create an interest in the public, excite curiosity, and the real advantage to the country, and the merit of your exertions will become more known, and felt as they are more known.’ Byron (cf. p. 282) had reached England in the middle of July. The Curse of Minerva was kept back from publication in consequence, Moore suggests, of ‘a friendly remonstrance from Lord Elgin, or some of his connexions.’ (Moore, i. p. 352). Canto II of Childe Harold appeared in the following March.
288 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 349Google Scholar.
289 Catalogue of the Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art, p. 261, Nos. 12 a, b, 13 a.
290 Haydon I, pp. 139, 151.
291 Lord Elgin's sister.
292 Sic, error for 68.
293 Elgin to Hamilton, Sept. 7, 1812.
294 West to Elgin, Sept. 15, 1812. Compare Smith's, J. T.Nollekens, p. 293Google Scholar. ‘They (the marbles) were shortly afterwards moved to the side premises of Burlington-house, where they remained until a temporary gallery could be prepared for them in the British Museum by Government, which had purchased them for the use of the public, and the advancement of Art. During the time these marbles were Lord Elgin's property, Mr. Nollekens, accompanied by his constant companion, Joseph Bonomi,—a truly amiable youth to whom from his birth he had intended to be a benefactor—paid them many visits; and indeed at that time, not only all the great artists, but every lover of the Arts, were readily admitted. The students of the Royal Academy, and even Flaxman, the Phidias of our times, and the venerable President West,. drew from them for weeks together.’
295 Hamilton to Elgin, Dec. 17, 1812.
296 Woods to Elgin, Feb. 16, 1814.
297 Elgin to Hamilton, March 7, 1814.
298 Stuart and Revett, iv. p. 25; Michaelis, p. 82.
299 See biographical notice by Labus in vol. i. of Visconti's collected works, Milan, 1818.
300 Elgin to Hamilton, Aug. 24, 1814.
301 Visconti to Elgin, Aug. 17, 1814.
302 Labus, , Oeuvres de Visconti, Milan, 1818, i. p. 50Google Scholar.
303 Elgin to Hamilton, March 4, 1815.
304 Some such paragraph as the following must have caught Lord Elgin's eye:
Burlington House came to the hammer a few days ago, and was knocked down for £75,200. The purchaser is supposed to be a Nobleman, who means to make this princely mansion his own residence, without any alteration in its present magnificent order or structure.—News, March 5, 1815. The papers of the same day contain the announcement of Guy Mannering.
305 Elgin to Hamilton, March 16, 1815.
306 Elgin to Hamilton, March 17, 1815.
307 Hamilton to Elgin, March 21, 1815.
308 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 534Google Scholar.
309 Hamilton to Elgin, March 21, 1815.
310 Elgin to Hamilton, March 21, 1815.
311 ‘She had purchased a fine old mansion with extent of ground well walled in, and there she had brought exotics from the Cape.’—Foot, Lives of A. R. Bowes and the Countess of Strathmore, p. 13. The house is serving at this moment as the Officers' mess of a General Military Hospital. It has attached to it a large hall or library built by Hamilton, which I have been permitted to visit by Col. Eustace M. Callender, R.A.M.C. It measures some 42 × 26 feet. Casts from the frieze run round three sides of the room, below the ceiling, and casts of metopes surmount the doors and fireplace.
312 Elgin to Hamilton, March 24, 1815.
313 Elgin to Hamilton, March 28, 1815.
314 Elgin to Hamilton, April 14, 1815.
315 Elgin to Hamilton, April 18, 1815.
316 Elgin to Hamilton, May 13, 1815.
317 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 546Google Scholar.
318 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 547Google Scholar.
319 This was of course untrue.
320 Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, x. p. 453.
321 Ibid. xi. p. 12.
322 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 21905, fo. 1. Hamilton to George Canning, Jan. 16, 1825.
323 Hamilton to Elgin about Oct. 15, 1815.
324 Elgin to Hamilton, Oct. 21, 1815.
325 Hamilton to Elgin, Dec. 14, 1815.
326 Hamilton, , Second Letter to the Earl of Elgin, on the propriety of adopting the Greek style of Architecture in the new Houses of Parliament (1836), p. 25Google Scholar.
327 Haydon to Thomson, Dec. 12, 1815.
328 Colchester's, LordDiary, ii. p. 564Google Scholar.
329 Report, p. xxiii.
330 Hansard, xxxii. p. 577.
331 Hansard, xxxii. p. 824.
332 Hansard, xxxiv. pp. 1027–1040.
333 Carrey's drawing of 1674.
334 Richard Dalton's drawing.
335 Compare Fauvel's Journal ‘Etant sous le fronton de devant da temple de Minerve, Mahomet Ali Aga … homme de 60 ans, m'a dit se ressouvenir d'y avoir vu beaucoup de figures … qu'une de ces figures étant tombée, les autres, crainte d'accident, ils les mirent en morceaux pour bâtir … il en tomba une l'hiver de 1790; elle était sans tête ni bras, et, excepté le dos, c'était une masse informe,’ Rev. Arch. 3rd Series, xxv. p. 29.
336 Frieze, East Side:
Slab VI. 41–48. Broken up after Fauvel's mould (say 1790) and before 1800.
Slab VII. Taken to Paris for Choiseul-Gouffier (1789).
Slab IX. Drawn by Stuart. Lost. North Side:
Slab I. Left half drawn by Stuart. Lost.
Slab V. Drawn by Stuart. Two-thirds lost.
Slab XXII. Drawn by Stuart. Broken up.
Slab XXV. Drawn by Stuart. Only a small fragment survived.
337 Compare the remark of a Turkish official at Olympia to the bearer of Choiseul-Gouffier's firman, ‘Tu enlèveras des pierres dont tu sauras tirer de l'or; le Sultan croira que tu m'as fait partager tes richesses, et ma tête tombera.’ Dubois, Catalogue Choiseul-Gouffier, p. iii.
338 Hobhouse, , Travels, 2nd ed. i. p. 347Google Scholar.
339 Ibid. p. 318. Another witness of the phenomenon gives it a different interpretation. ‘An illiterate servant of the Disdar of Athens ‥‥ assured me that when the five other χοριτζια (girls) [κορίτσια] had lost their sister, they manifested their affliction by filling the air at the close of the evening with the most mournful sighs and lamentations, that he himself had often heard their complaints, and never without being so much affected as to be obliged to leave the citadel till they had ceased; and that the ravished sister was not deaf to their voice, but astonished the lower town where she was placed, by answering in the same lamentable tones.’—Douglas, , An Essay on certain points of resemblance between the Ancient and Modern Greeks (1813), p 85Google Scholar. Douglas was a member of the Select Committee of 1816.
340 Michaelis, , Parthenon, p. 79Google Scholar. This incident seems to be the only foundation for the charge made in the German Apology for the destruction of French churches: ‘Die Engländer brauchen nicht weit zu gehen, um sich darüber Rechenschaft zu geben, wie ihre Kanonen das schönste Heiligtum menschlicher Kunst zerstörten: sie brauchen nur ins britische Museum zu gehen, und sich die berühmten “Elgin Marbles” anzusehen, diese verehrungswerten Ruinen des Parthenons in Athen, die sie nicht nur stahlen, sondern auch zerstörten.’ Lang, , in Kunstverwaltung in Frankreich und Deutschland (1915), p. 61Google Scholar.
341 Elgin to Hamilton, Aug. 17, 1816.
342 Brit. Mus. Dept. of Prints and Drawings, 1858, 1–13. 1.
343 The following is the list of persons who can be identified:
1. Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846).
2. Sir Charles Long(?), afterwards Lord Farnborough (1761–1838), Paymaster-General.
3. The Rev. Bean, James, Assistant Librarian, 1812–1826.Google Scholar
4. The Rev. Maurice, Thomas (1754–1824), Assistant Librarian in the Dept. of MSS., 1799–1824.Google Scholar
5. SirEllis, Henry (1777–1869), Assistant Librarian, 1805Google Scholar; Secretary, 1814; Principal Librarian,. 1827–1856.
6. Children, John George (1777–1852), F.R.S., Assistant Librarian, 1816Google Scholar.
7. Benjamin West, P.R.A. (1738–1820).
8. Planta, Joseph (1744–1827), Under Librarian (Keeper of MSS.), 1776Google Scholar; Principal Librarian, 1799–1827.
9. Combe, Taylor (1774–1826), Assistant Librarian, 1803Google Scholar; Under Librarian (First Keeper of the Department of Antiquities), 1805–1826.
10. Rev. Baber, Henry Harvey (1775–1869), Assistant, 1810Google Scholar; Under Librarian (Keeper Dept. of MSS.), 1812–1837.
11. Smith, John Thomas (1766–1833), Extra Assistant Librarian (Prints), 1816–1833, Author of ‘Smith's NollekensGoogle Scholar.’ ‘It has often of late years, given me pleasure to observe that the same class of persons, who in my boyish days would admire a bleeding-heart-cherry painted upon a Pontipool tea-board, or a Tradescant-strawberry upon a Dutch table, now attentively look, and for a long time too, with the most awful respect at the majestic fragments of the Greek Sculptor's art, so gloriously displayed in the Elgin Gallery.’ Smith, i. p. 276.
12. Gray, John Edward (1800–1875), Assistant in Natural History Dept. 1824Google Scholar; Keeper, 1840–1874.
13. A. Archer, the artist.
14. Eberhard Konig, Charles Dietrich (1774–1851), Assistant Librarian (Dept. of Natural History), 1807–1813Google Scholar; Under Librarian, Natural History (Minerals), 1813–1851.
15. John Conrath, Attendant, from 1816. ‘The rest of the visitors I will not pretend to identify, but I recollect often seeing the old gentleman and lady who are walking arm in arm about the room’ (Dr. Gray's letter).
344 See the key plates, in Mus. Marbles, vii. Pls. 18, 19.
345 Michaelis, Slab VII. is in fact half of one slab numbered by Michaelis VII., VIII.
346 Rev. Arch. 3rd Ser. xxvi. p. 237.
347 Rev. Arch. 3rd Ser. xxiv. p. 78; xxvi. p. 238.
348 Edited by Legrand, , Rev. Arch. xxvi. p. 29Google Scholar.
349 Rev. Arch. xxvi. p. 238.
350 M: Henri Omont has been good enough to send me a transcript of Fauvel's précis, Bibl. Nat. MS. français 22871, fol. 156, which has supplied some of the details in the text. Cf. Rev. Arch. 3rd Ser. xxvi. p. 238.
351 Un magnifique édifice dont les diverses façades rappeloient quelques parties des monumens d'Athènes et de Palmyre, et dont l'intérieur étoit decoré avec le goût le plus pur…. Les deux façades de l'Est sont imitées d'après celles de I'Erechthéum et du Pandroséum, à Athènes: celle du Nord rappelle un des portiques de la ville de Palmyre. Au centre du fronton de I'Erechthéum, se lit en lettres d'or, l'inscription grecque suivante: ΜΝΗΜΟΣYΝΗΣ ΚΟΡΑΙΣ ΚΑΚΩΝ ΛΗΘΗΙ c'est-à-dire, Aux filles de Mnémosyne, à l'oubli des maux. Dubois, Catalogue … de feu M. le Cte de Choiseul-Gouffier, p. xiii. ‘Nous gémissions encore sous la griffe du tyran Corse, lorsque j'ai fait écrire sur la façade de ma maison consacrée aux Muses cette inscription imitée d'Hesiode [Theog. 52–55]. Μνημοσύνης κόραις , κακῶν λήθῃ.᾿ Choiseul-Gouffier to Lord Elgin, April 26, 1816.
352 Choiseul-Gouffier, , Memorandum, May 1, 1816Google Scholar.
353 Moubray to Elgin, Jan. 13, 1816.
354 Elgin to Choiseul-Gouffier, Jan. 13, 1816.
355 Dubois (p. x) states that it was in the consignment.
356 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 34,948, fo. 262.
357 Choiseul-Gouffier to Elgin, March 2, 1810.
358 Compare Dubois, p. x.
359 Choiseul-Gouffier to Elgin, Aug. 12, 1814.
360 I cannot explain this statement.
361 Choiseul-Gouffier to Wellington, Dec. 29, 1815.
362 Wellington to Bathurst, Jan. 1, 1816.
364 Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, on the subject of an article in No. L of that Journal, on ‘The Remains of John Tweddell,’ by the Earl of Elgin. John Murray.
365 Postscript to a Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, by the Earl of Elgin. John Murray.
366 Account of the Examination of the Elgin-Box at the Foreign Office in Downing Street, on 7th Nov. 1816, by Rev. Robert Tweddell, A.M.
367 Cust, , History of the Society of Dilettanti, p. 173Google Scholar.
368 1. Letter from W. R. Hamilton to the Earl of Elgin on the New Houses of Parliament, 1836.
2. Second Letter from W. R. H., Esq., to the E. of E. on the propriety of adopting the Greek Style of Architecture in the construction of the New Houses of Parliament, 1836.
3. Third Letter from W. R. H., Esq., to the E. of E. on the propriety of adopting the Greek Style of Architecture in preference to the Gothic in the construction etc., 1837.
369 There is also a less pleasing lithograph signed by C. Baugniet, and dated 1850. The portrait by Phillips is reproduced here by the permission and assistance of Lord Belhaven and Stenton.
370 Cat. of Vases, i. 2, No. H. 1.
371 J.H.S. v. p. 105.
372 Abh. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1844.
373 Museum of Class. Antiqs., i. p. 305.
374 Cockerell, Aegina, p. vi.
375 B.M. Dept. of G. and R. Antiqs.