DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5264#0021
20
removal. The Eleusinians, whose supersti-
tions* respecting it were so great that Dr.
Chandler paid a large sum for permission to
dig near it, relate that as often as foreigners
came to remove the Statue some disaster ensued.
They believed that the arm of any person who
offered to touch it with violence, would drop off;
and said, that once being taken from her station
by the French, she returned back in the night
to her former situation. Nevertheless different
Ambassadors and Envoys residing at Constan-
tinople, made application for its removal, and
failed of success. Diplomatic intrigue, the
artifices and meddling cunning of the Greek
Consuls, and most of all the enormous weight
of the Statue, in a country where mechanical
aid was not to be procured, frustrated their views.
It is well known that Monsieur de Choisseul
Gouffier endeavoured to obtain it for the French
nation; and the agents of our own Ambassador
arrived at Eleusis a few days after it sailed for
England, attended by a Janissary of the Porte,
to give orders for its being added to his collection.
A short narrative of the means used by
private individuals, unaided by diplomatic power
or patronage, to procure for the University of
which they are members this interesting Monu-
* It was their custom to burn a lamp before it, upon festival days.
removal. The Eleusinians, whose supersti-
tions* respecting it were so great that Dr.
Chandler paid a large sum for permission to
dig near it, relate that as often as foreigners
came to remove the Statue some disaster ensued.
They believed that the arm of any person who
offered to touch it with violence, would drop off;
and said, that once being taken from her station
by the French, she returned back in the night
to her former situation. Nevertheless different
Ambassadors and Envoys residing at Constan-
tinople, made application for its removal, and
failed of success. Diplomatic intrigue, the
artifices and meddling cunning of the Greek
Consuls, and most of all the enormous weight
of the Statue, in a country where mechanical
aid was not to be procured, frustrated their views.
It is well known that Monsieur de Choisseul
Gouffier endeavoured to obtain it for the French
nation; and the agents of our own Ambassador
arrived at Eleusis a few days after it sailed for
England, attended by a Janissary of the Porte,
to give orders for its being added to his collection.
A short narrative of the means used by
private individuals, unaided by diplomatic power
or patronage, to procure for the University of
which they are members this interesting Monu-
* It was their custom to burn a lamp before it, upon festival days.