by Susan Nagel
From the Theatre of Bacchus Lord Elgin has obtained the very ancient Sun Dial, which existed here during the time of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,—and a large Statue of Bacchus dedicated by Thrasyllus in gratitude for his having obtained the prize of Tragedy at the Pan-Athenaic Festival. A Beautiful little Corinthian Temple near it, raised for a similar prize gained by Lysicrates, and commonly called the Lantern of Demosthenes has also been modelled and drawn with minute attention: it is a most precious little bijou in architecture. Your visit to it, renders it perhaps superfluous for me to mention its vaulted roof formed of a single block of marble, or the delicate Bas-relief that runs round the frize, representing some Bacchanalian Orgies. The elevation, ground plan, and other details of the Octagonal Temple raised by Andronicus Cyrrhestes to the Winds, have also been executed with care, but the sculpture on its frize is in so heavy a style, that it was not judged worthy of being modelled in plaster. My friendship with the Bishop of Athens, gained me permission to examine the interior of all the Churches and Convents in Athens. This search furnished many valuable bas-reliefs, inscriptions, ancient dials, a Gymnasiarch’s chair in marble, on the back of which are figures of Harmodius and Aristogiton with daggers in their hand, and the death of Leona, who bit out her tongue during the torture rather than confess what she knew of the conspiracy against the Pisistratidae. The fountain in the courtyard of our Consul Logotheti’s house, was decorated with a bas-relief Bacchantes, in the style called Greco-Etruscan, which he presented to His Lordship, as well as a Quadriga in Bas-relief, with a Victory hovering over the Charioteer, probably an ex voto for some victory at the Olympic games. Amongst the funeral Cippi’ found in different places are some remarkable names, particularly that of Socrates, and in the Ceramicus itself Lord Elgin discovered an inscription in Elegiac verse, on the Athenians who fell at Potidaea, and whose eulogy was delivered with such pathetic eloquence in the oration of Pericles.
You must frequently have remarked in your walks about Athens that the peasants generally put into a niche over the door of their cottage, any fragments they discover plowing the fields. Out of these we selected and purchased many curious antique votive tablets, with sculpture and inscriptions. A complete set has been formed of Capitals of the only Three Orders in Greece, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian, from the earliest dawn of art in Athens, to the zenith of Taste under Pericles; and from thence thro’ all its degradations to the dark ages of the Lower Empire.
At a Convent called Daphne, about half way between Athens and Eleusis, were the remains of an Ionic Temple of Venus, which for the brilliancy of the marble, the bold style of the ornaments, the delicacy of the finish, and the high preservation, cannot be surpassed. We procured from thence two of the Capitals, a whole fluted column, and a base.
Since I left Turkey, Mr. Hamilton has been twice at Athens, and has had the opportunity of suggesting any additions he might think requisite toward completing the researches and acquisitions that had been made there. You must feel how fortunate he has been that he had the means of speaking on the subject to Lusieri. No one knows better than yourself the enthusiastic ardor of his mind, the classic elegance of his taste, and the extensive knowledge of ancient art that he had acquired during his travels into Italy, Sicily, Upper Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece. I have not however had an opportunity of hearing the result of his visits to Athens, and therefore can only presume from his silence, that he has either not found or not left any desirable or attainable object, that the state of the ruin would authorize any Lover of the Arts, to remove. For I must here beg leave to observe that every marble I know to be in Lord Elgin’s possession was rescued from a situation that exposed to imminent danger and that it is to his persevering exertions we owe the preservation of so many valuable productions of Sculpture and Architecture.
If this letter has the fortune to reach you, and meets a wish for my continuing the subject, I shall be happy in furnishing such a sketch as my memory can supply, of what has been done in a similar view, at Eleusis, Sunium, Salamis, Aegina, Piraeus, Marathon, Thebes, the Cave of Trophonius at Lebadea, the isthmus of Corinth,—at Argos, at the Tomb or Treasury of Agamemnon at Mycenae, at Tyrinthus, Epidauria, Mantinea, Phigalia, Olympia, and Elis—on the plain of Troy, on the Promontory and Isthmus of Mount Athos—In the Cyclades, and Ionian Islands; at Cnidus, Halicarnassus, etc. etc. etc. Should you think, Madam, that the communication of what I have taken the liberty of sending you, may amuse or gratify any of your friends, I beg you may consider yourself at liberty to shew it. I trust you will not suspect me of flattery, when I add, that there are few whose approbations are so solicitous to obtain as your own, with respect to the pursuits and acquisitions that were entrusted to me during Lord Elgin’s Embassy.
With my most respectful Compliments and best wishes to Mr. Nisbet, and my little fellow Travellers, I have the honour to be, Dear Madam, with the utmost respect, your most faithful, humble Servant.
Philip Hunt.
Pau, February 20 1805
BIBLIOGRAPHY
My primary sources include the unpublished letters and diaries of Mary Hamilton Nisbet Bruce Ferguson belonging to Mr. Julian Brooke, Mr. Richard Blake, and Andrew, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine; the unpublished letters of Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, belonging to Andrew, Earl of Elgin; the unpublished journals kept by Robert Ferguson belonging to Richard H. L. Munro Ferguson of Raith; and the unpublished letter from the Reverend Philip Hunt to Mrs. William Hamilton Nisbet belonging to Mr. Julian Brooke.
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INDEX
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Abdulhamid I, Sultan, 107, 108
Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 92, 93
Abu Talib Khan, Mirza, 4, 109–10
Acropolis, 130–42
artifacts collected from, 1—2, 3–4, 131–42, 151, 261–74
destruction of, 3, 131, 133, 264
Parthenon created, 11, 131
Adams, Robert, 10
Agamemnon, Tomb of, 127
Ailesbury, earls of, 20, 21–22, 27
Ainslie, Sir Robert, 20
Alaric the Visigoth, 131
Anderson, Rowland, 257
Archerfield, 10, 15, 30, 153, 209, 228, 234, 243, 251, 255, 258
Asquith, Herbert Henry, 258
Augustus Frederick, Prince, 249
Austen, Jane, 1, 74, 226
Balfour, Arthur James, Lord, 243
Banks, Sir Joseph, 173, 201–2, 208
Bartholomew Fair, 239
Beaufort, Francis, 35–36
Beaufort scale, 35
Belhaven, William, 254
Berry, Agnes, 153, 251
Berry, Mary, 37–38, 153, 232, 251, 252
Berry, Robert, 153
Biddle, Nicholas, 139–40
Biel House, 234, 235, 247, 251, 258
Big Ben, 251
Bonaparte, Joseph, 168
Bonaparte, Josephine, 156, 161, 164
Bonaparte, Louis-Napoleon, 205
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 38, 63, 182
and art objects, 3, 42, 105, 146, 158, 224
Elgin as enemy of, 3, 151, 152, 156, 159–61, 163, 223
imprisonment of, 240
and Mary, Lady Elgin, 1, 4–5, 156, 159, 162, 184, 248, 280
military campaigns of, 2, 18–20, 32, 42, 45, 61, 75, 100–101, 149, 175, 205, 224, 230, 233, 238
political prisoners of, 149–51, 152–53, 155–61, 162–64, 174, 175, 201, 205, 223
and science, 155, 173
Boswell, James, 20
Boulle, Charles, 197
Bournon, comte de, 240
Boustrophedon inscription, 57–58
Boyer, General, 152, 157, 159, 161, 162, 217
Bradley, A. G., 255
Bride of Lammermoor, The (Scott), 232–33
Bromley, John, 105, 156
Brooke, Anne Grant, 246–47, 253
Brooke, Charles, 247
Brooke, Sir James, 247
Brooke, John, 247
Broomhall, 20–21, 24, 30, 115, 147, 175, 191, 198, 210, 248
Bruce, Charles (5th Earl of Elgin), 20–21
Bruce, Charles “Andrew” (brother), 33, 34, 114
Bruce, Lady Charlotte, 29, 31, 145, 227
Bruce, George Charles Constantine, Lord (son):
birth and infancy of, 79–85, 87, 88
childhood of, 90, 99, 104, 116, 123, 125, 153, 174–75, 188–90
death of, 249, 250
health of, 87, 88, 123, 240–41
as male heir, 206
and parents’ divorce, 227, 240
reunion with mother, 240–41, 247
Bruce, James (8th Earl of Elgin), 249–50
Bruce, Janet, 21
Bruce, Lady Lucy (daughter):
birth and infancy of, 203–6, 208, 222
and Elgin’s lawsuit, 241–42
family of, 246–47, 252
and parents’ divorce, 227, 241
reunion with mother, 246, 247
Bruce, Lady Mary (daughter):
birth of, 89, 98, 99–100
childhood of, 123, 174–75, 188–89, 190
marriage of, 246, 252
and parents’ divorce, 227, 241
reunion with mother, 246–47
Bruce, Lady Matilda Harriet (daughter):
birth and infancy of, 146, 149, 157, 158
childhood of, 174–75, 188–89, 190
marriage of, 246, 252
and parents’ divorce, 227, 241
reunion with mother, 246, 247
Bruce, Thomas, see Elgin, Thomas Bruce, Earl of
Bruce, Victor (9th Earl of Elgin), 258
Bruce, William (6th Earl of Elgin), 183
Bruce, William (son):
birth and infancy of, 172–74, 175–76
death of, 180–81, 182–83, 185–86, 188, 189, 190, 204, 205–6, 219
Bruce family, 20–22, 26, 32, 74, 183, 208, 232, 246–47, 252