Memorandum on the subject of the Earl of Elgin's pursuits in Greece (London, 1811)

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Ionic Temple, oh the Ilyssus, which, in*
Stuart's time, (about the year 1759?) was'
in tolerable preservation, had so com-
pletely disappeared, that its foundation
éan: no longer be ascertained. Another
temple, near Olympia, had shared a simi-
lar fate, within the recollection of man.
The Temple of Minerva had been con-
verted into a powder magazine, and been
completely destroyed, from a shell falling
upon it, during the bombardment of
Athens by the Venetians towards the end
of the seventeenth century ; and even this
accident had not deterred the Turks from
applying the beautiful Temple of Nep-
tune and Erectheus to. the same use,
whereby it is constantly exposed to a
similar fate. Many Of the statues on the
posticum Of the Temple of Minerva, (Par-'
thenon,) which had been thrown down
by the explosion, had been absolutely
pounded for mortar, because they fur-
Bished the whitest marble within reach;