DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.656#0013
no time therefore in writing to Mr. Hamilton, his Majesty's minister at the
Court of Naples, informing him of all the circumstances of the discovery,
and soliciting him to apply to the Neapolitan Government for permission to
have the sculpture conveyed to England.
Our request was attended to with the greatest kindness on the part of
Mr. Hamilton, who, with that love for the fine arts for which he is so justly
distinguished, interested himself most earnestly in the discovery, ami lost no
time in forwarding our petition to the King of Naples. The result of our ap-
plication was such as we had partly anticipated; the Neapolitan Government,
with a laudable desire of enriching its own museums, could not allow the sculp-
tures to he sent to England, but ordered them to be placed in the museum then
forming at Palermo. Having been thus unsuccessful in obtaining the sculp-
ture for the British Museum, we now suggested that a present of casts taken
from the Metopes would be the most acceptable compensation to us for the
expences wc had incurred in excavating, and the time we had employed in
putting the fragments together, previous to their being deposited in the Mu-
seum at Palermo. Our representation however had for some time remained
unnoticed, when, by the advice of Mr. Hamilton, the subject was communi-
cated to Mr. Canning, through wIiom' kind interference and powerful in-
fluence the Neapolitan Government has at length been induced to grant us
the casts of these antiquities.
At the time when the sculptures were delivered to the proper Autho-
rities at Palermo, Mr. Angel) proceeded to that city for the purpose of super-
intending their disembarkation and putting together. Soon alter this the
melancholy death of Mr. Harris took place, an event which occasioned to
bis friends the greatest sorrow and affliction.
Over-anxious to make his professional researches as extensive as
possible, Mr. Harris unfortunately remained at Selimts, engaged in taking a
general plan of the remains and site of the ancient city; his ardour made
him too inattentive to the approach of the season when the neighbourhood is
annually infected with /mil aria ; he was attacked by a malignant fever, and
it was with difficulty he reached Palermo. Soon after his arrival, a relapse of
his disorder came on, which baffled the skill of all medical aid, and termi-
nated alter a lew days' illness in the death of this most excellent young man.
Court of Naples, informing him of all the circumstances of the discovery,
and soliciting him to apply to the Neapolitan Government for permission to
have the sculpture conveyed to England.
Our request was attended to with the greatest kindness on the part of
Mr. Hamilton, who, with that love for the fine arts for which he is so justly
distinguished, interested himself most earnestly in the discovery, ami lost no
time in forwarding our petition to the King of Naples. The result of our ap-
plication was such as we had partly anticipated; the Neapolitan Government,
with a laudable desire of enriching its own museums, could not allow the sculp-
tures to he sent to England, but ordered them to be placed in the museum then
forming at Palermo. Having been thus unsuccessful in obtaining the sculp-
ture for the British Museum, we now suggested that a present of casts taken
from the Metopes would be the most acceptable compensation to us for the
expences wc had incurred in excavating, and the time we had employed in
putting the fragments together, previous to their being deposited in the Mu-
seum at Palermo. Our representation however had for some time remained
unnoticed, when, by the advice of Mr. Hamilton, the subject was communi-
cated to Mr. Canning, through wIiom' kind interference and powerful in-
fluence the Neapolitan Government has at length been induced to grant us
the casts of these antiquities.
At the time when the sculptures were delivered to the proper Autho-
rities at Palermo, Mr. Angel) proceeded to that city for the purpose of super-
intending their disembarkation and putting together. Soon alter this the
melancholy death of Mr. Harris took place, an event which occasioned to
bis friends the greatest sorrow and affliction.
Over-anxious to make his professional researches as extensive as
possible, Mr. Harris unfortunately remained at Selimts, engaged in taking a
general plan of the remains and site of the ancient city; his ardour made
him too inattentive to the approach of the season when the neighbourhood is
annually infected with /mil aria ; he was attacked by a malignant fever, and
it was with difficulty he reached Palermo. Soon after his arrival, a relapse of
his disorder came on, which baffled the skill of all medical aid, and termi-
nated alter a lew days' illness in the death of this most excellent young man.