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

30

found toy Lord Elgin at Athens, iEginae;
Argos, and Corinth, will prove the indu-
bitable claim of the Greeks to the invenr
tion and perfection of this art: Few of
those in the collections of the King of
Haples at Portici, or in that of Sir Wil-
liam Hamilton, excel some which Lord
Elgin has procured, with respect to the
elegance of the form, the fineness of the,
materials, the delicacy of the execution,
or the beautj. of the subjects delineated
on them ;. and they are, for the most
part, in very high preservation. A tumu-
lus, into which an excavation was com-
menced under Lord Elgin's eye during
his residence at Athens, has furnished a
most valuable treasure of this kind. It
consists of a large marble vase, five feet
in circumference, enclosing one of bronze
thirteen inches in diameter, of beautiful
sculpture, in which was a deposit of burnt
bones, and a lachrymatory of alabaster,
of exquisite form ; and on the bones lay