DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15097#0026
24
scaffoldings, to excavate for the purposes of discovery,
and to remove such objects as he might deem desirable,
or as the firmaun expresses it, " any pieces of stone
with old inscriptions or figures thereon." Armed with
this full authority, his lordship proceeded in his under-
taking with unexampled liberality and perseverance,
and Athens exhibited an unusual appearance of acti-
vity and exertion, from the number of persons in his
lordship's employ, openly occupied in the various
operations of drawing, modelling, excavating and
removing. Three or four hundred persons were con-
tinually at work assisting the artists, under the chief
direction of Lusieri; and this animated scene con-
tinued till January 1803, when upon Lord Elgin's
departure from Turkey, he withdrew all the artists,
with the exception of Lusieri, who still continued to
make drawings, and direct the proceedings of the
labourers, though upon a much less extended scale.
All these operations were continued in the open day,
in the presence and under the sanction of the local
authorities and the supreme government, with the
assistance of the people, Greeks as well as Turks;
who, far from expressing any dissatisfaction at the pro-
ceedings from superstitious or political feelings, or
any regret at the departure of such monuments of art>
scaffoldings, to excavate for the purposes of discovery,
and to remove such objects as he might deem desirable,
or as the firmaun expresses it, " any pieces of stone
with old inscriptions or figures thereon." Armed with
this full authority, his lordship proceeded in his under-
taking with unexampled liberality and perseverance,
and Athens exhibited an unusual appearance of acti-
vity and exertion, from the number of persons in his
lordship's employ, openly occupied in the various
operations of drawing, modelling, excavating and
removing. Three or four hundred persons were con-
tinually at work assisting the artists, under the chief
direction of Lusieri; and this animated scene con-
tinued till January 1803, when upon Lord Elgin's
departure from Turkey, he withdrew all the artists,
with the exception of Lusieri, who still continued to
make drawings, and direct the proceedings of the
labourers, though upon a much less extended scale.
All these operations were continued in the open day,
in the presence and under the sanction of the local
authorities and the supreme government, with the
assistance of the people, Greeks as well as Turks;
who, far from expressing any dissatisfaction at the pro-
ceedings from superstitious or political feelings, or
any regret at the departure of such monuments of art>