Combe, Taylor [Hrsg.]: A description of the collection of ancient Marbles in the British Museum: with engravings (Band 7) (London, 1835)

30

of antiquity and art which were collected in Greece by
Lord Elgin, and which, with much labour and expense,
and after many risks and dangers, were eventually
conveyed to England without further damage. It was
his Lordship's determination to make them over to
the British Government unconditionally, relying, how-
ever, upon the honour and liberality of the nation for
a fair reimbursement of his expenses, which the state
of his family and affairs would not justify him in fore-
going, and for that further remuneration to which his
merit in the procuring and offering of such objects to
the public, would justly entitle him. The infamous
detention of his Lordship in France, as a prisoner of
war, occasioned some delay in the making of this pro-
posal ; and when his Lordship actually arrived in
England in 1806, he found the history of the Par-
thenon and its sculptures so little known, and the
value of them so little understood and appreciated,
that he could not, in justice to himself or the public,
allow the question to be agitated. It was asserted
with some precipitancy, but with an attempt at sup-
port from classical authority, " that Phidias did not
work in marble; and that the sculptures which deco-
rated the pediments of the Parthenon were executed,
at soonest, in the time of Hadrian; and could not