How to See the British Museum in Four Visits

by Blanchard Jerrold

VISIT THE FOURTH.

The visitor will now enter the museum to complete his inspection of its contents. His way lies once more to the west on entering the great hall, into the first Sculpture Gallery, or that which he will recognise as leading into the great central saloon. Here, as he pauses on the threshold of a noble room filled with splendid specimens of Greek art, he may recur to the historical points which these works illustrate. Throughout this, his last visit, he will be occupied with the examination of the works of the ancient Greeks. These works, as he will notice, are of various degrees of excellence. Already has he examined the rude labours of the Greek sculptors of Xanthus; and to-day his journey will be amid those more modern and perfect labours, performed when the talent of the Greeks was chiefly concentrated upon European ground. Although these glories of remote antiquity are here mostly in an admirable state of preservation, historians are generally lost in contradictions when they attempt to point to any particular piece of statuary as the labour of any known sculptor. The sculptor of the Venus de Medici is not known; and the Apollo Belvedere is a masterpiece, the author of which lies shrouded in the depths of the past. Rude and harsh were the early performances of the Greeks. We have histories of Greek sculptors who flourished many hundred years before our era; and of these the mythical Daedalus is the oldest and most renowned. This sculptor is reported to have flourished fourteen centuries before the Christian era. He is said to have fashioned colossal wooden statues; and Pausanias mentions his statue of Hercules in the possession of the Thebans, and his wooden Venus in the possession of the Delians. His Hercules, however, appears to have been considered his masterpiece; and Flaxman, commenting upon the antiquity of the figures of Hercules found on some coins, seems to think that we may not unreasonably conjecture that these are copies from the masterpiece of Daedalus. Other sculptors of the same name, appear to have flourished in the Achaic period of Grecian history. Indeed it is shrewdly conjectured that Daedalus derived his name from wooden statues called Daedala; and that amongst the ancient Greeks, Daedalus meant nothing more than one skilled in making Daedala. The earliest sculptures of the Greeks were fashioned of materials easily worked, as plaster, clay, and wood. Later they worked ivory, and began to understand the value of metals in statuary; and about five centuries before the Christian era, marble was used by sculptors for detached figures. In the infancy of Greek art, when sculptors were gradually acquiring the skill to fashion their creations out of the most durable material, many combinations of wood, stone, and metal were used, which would sadly shock the modern sculptor's eye;—wooden figures burnished with gold, and with painted vermilion faces, were fashioned in the age of Phidias; and it is believed by some, that this immortal sculptor helped to produce a statue of Jupiter, the face of which was of ivory and gold, and the body of gypsum and clay. Phidias may be fairly acknowledged as the first great Greek sculptor, of whose career and whose works we have indisputable accounts. He founded, and represents all the excellencies of the highest school of Greek art. The sculptors who came after him, as Lysippus the favourite of the great Alexander, paid greater regard to graces of detail and to finish; but of those sublime effects, those forms of gods in human shape which really impress the modern spectator with their almost superhuman beauty, Phidias was the creator. The sculptures known to the public as the Townley collection, are sculptures generally of a more modern date than those in the Elgin and Phigaleian Saloons. The collection has undoubtedly many specimens of the rudest eras of Greek art: but its most striking groups, to the general visitor, will be undoubtedly those finished statues and compositions which represent the ages when Greece was a great European power, and that subsequent period when the Greek sculptors plied their chisels under the patronage of Roman conquerors. In this room the visitor will once more remark, how large a proportion of these priceless relics have been gleaned from ancient sepulchres. Even as he enters the room, he may perceive on the right, the front of a tomb from Athens, carved in high relief; and on the left, the front of another tomb, also sculptured, from Delos.

The room is divided into compartments which the visitor should examine in their regular order of rotation. He will begin therefore, of course with the

FIRST DIVISION.

Before the first pilaster let the visitor notice at once a small seated statue of Cybele or Fortune, from Athens, presented to the nation by J.S. Gaskoin, Esq. Other remarkable objects to be examined before the visitor fixes his attention upon the contents of the case deposited here, are a bust of Demosthenes; a sepulchral altar or cippus, ornamented with sphinxes, etc.; and a sepulchral stêle, inscribed with the name of the son of Artemidorus, who is reclining upon a couch, and crowning himself. Over the case are deposited the end of a sarcophagus ornamented with a Bacchus reclining on a satyr; a bust of Julius Cæsar; a sepulchral cippus; and a Greek stêle. On the case are a head found near Rome, probably of Mercury: and the bust of a Muse crowned with a laurel wreath.

Having examined these objects, the visitor should occupy himself with the contents of the case. Here are some beautiful specimens of Greek art—some mere fragments, others in a wonderful state of preservation. Here are one of those funeral masks anciently used to cover the face of a corpse; the votive mask of a bearded satyr; a votive patera with bas-reliefs representing Silenus and a satyr, another with the head of a bearded Bacchus, and a panther; various heads of Hercules; a Venus attended by two Cupids; a bust of Vitellius; a head of Vulcan; a bust of Caracalla; a head of Juno; a head of the daughter of Titus, Julia; a mutilated figure, about the neck of which a scarabaeus is suspended; the torso of a satyr; a variety of fragments, here an arm holding a butterfly—there two lions' paws—there a gladiator's foot—there the fragment of a serpent. Having noticed these scraps of ancient art, the visitor may direct his attention to the lower shelf, where he will observe some beautiful busts. These include one supposed to be of Sappho; a Minerva with a Corinthian helmet found at Rome; Bacchus; Apollo; a Parian marble bust of Diana from Rome; a queenly Juno wearing the splendone; terminal busts, joined back to back, of Hercules and Omphale. The upper shelf now remains for inspection. Here are three sepulchral tablets, and the fronts of two sarcophagi. The tablet from Crete, within a wreath, contains an inscription descriptive of honour conferred by the inhabitants of Crete upon an individual named Alexander, the gift to him being a golden crown. Having noticed the gay Cupids enacting Bacchanalians upon the first front of a sarcophagus, the visitor should pass on at once to the

SECOND DIVISION.

Here, in front of the pilaster, the visitor should remark a curious square altar, with Silvanus, to whom the altar is dedicated by the farm servant of Caius Coelius Heliodorus, Callistus; and a trophy discovered on the plains of Marathon.

Grouped in this division, are some fine works. First let the visitor remark two white marble Victories discovered in the ruins of the villa of Antoninus Pius, at Monte Cagnuolo. The first Victory is kneeling upon a bull which she is about to sacrifice; and the second also is kneeling upon, and about to stab, a bull. Then a fine bust of a laughing satyr will arrest the attention of the visitor; then a colossal foot in a sandal, under the front of a sarcophagus; then the votive torso, supposed to be that of an Athelete; then a red marble swan found in a vineyard near the Villa Pinciana; then a terminal statue of a satyr; then a bust of Diogenes; then a bust, conjectured to be part of the figure of a dying Amazon; then a bust of Atys. Turning to the upper shelf of this division, the visitor should notice the front and ends of a sarcophagus deposited there. Upon these Bacchus and Ariadne are represented in a chariot, heralded by Bacchanals, and drawn by Centaurs; and in other parts Pan is being castigated by a satyr, and carried off by two Cupids aided by a satyr. Turning to the lower shelf the visitor should examine several antique busts. First there is a bust, conjectured to be that of Achilles; then there is an old Hercules; then a Bacchante; then a bust of Aratus; a female head; and a tragic mask from the lid of a sarcophagus. With the examination of this shelf the visitor closes his inspection of the second division, and should at once advance into the

THIRD DIVISION.

First, let the visitor notice, placed in front of the third pilaster, a celebrated copy of the statue of Praxiteles, of Cupid bending his bow. This celebrated copy is four feet, three and a half inches, in height. It arrived in this country originally as a present to Edmund Burke, from Rome, by Barry, the painter. Numerous copies of this Cupid exist, and the one before the visitor is not the best.

In this compartment or division, the visitor should also remark several sepulchral urns with figures in relief. Amid other sepulchral monuments are, an altar inscribed by Annia Augustalis, to the manes of M. Clodius, his brother Felix, and to Tyrannus; and a bas-relief discovered near the mausoleum of Augustus, representing a Muse standing before a dramatic poet. Hereabouts also the visitor should notice an altar, ornamented with bas-reliefs, dedicated by Aurelius Timotheus to Diana; a small figure of Neptune from Athens; a veiled Ceres bearing a torch, from Athens; a draped Muse in terra cotta holding a lyre; and a cippus, with a representation of Silenus riding a panther. On turning to the lower shelf, the visitor will at once be struck with the sarcophagi. Here are three Etruscan sarcophagi, two of alabaster, and one in peperino. On all three are recumbent female figures, and in front of the first the hunt of the Calydonian boar; of the second, Scylla; and of the third, a bas-relief representing Achilles dragging Penthesilea from her chariot. On this shelf also are, a bas-relief showing Luna encompassed by the signs of the Zodiac, and a sun-dial supported by the claws and heads of lions. Turning now to the upper shelf, the visitor should examine the bas-reliefs deposited thereon. Upon the first, the visitor will notice a funeral car, shaped like a temple drawn by four horses, with Jupiter and the Dioscuri on the sides of the car; upon the second, the bas-relief represents Ulysses and Diomedes detecting Achilles disguised as a female among the daughters of Lycomedes; and the subject of the third relief is a marriage in the presence of Juno Pronuba, showing the bridegroom taking the bride's hand, and holding the marriage contract. Having glanced at these objects, the visitor's way lies forward to the

FOURTH DIVISION.

Here, in front of the pilaster, the visitor must at once examine the torso of a statue, supposed to be of Mercury; and a curious Greek circular altar, ornamented with the heads and fillets of bulls and stags, and inscribed with the names of Agathemeris and her son Sosicles of Tlos. Having examined these two prominently placed objects, the visitor should proceed at once to the general contents of the division. He will be probably attracted first to two terminal statues; or statues, of which the lower parts are not developed. They occur frequently among the remains of Greek sculpture. These terminal statues were held in great veneration; and they were found placed at the corners of streets, at the doors of private dwellings, and before temples. The custom of representing Mercury with a head upon a plain column, appears to have been the origin of a fashion which the Greeks subsequently extended to their representations of other deities. The terminal figure in this division, with the winged cap, illustrates the generality of these Hermae; it was found near Frascati, in the year 1770. The next remarkable object that will probably attract the visitor's attention is the figure, found at Rome, of an Egyptian tumbler, going through his performances on the back of a tame crocodile, a barbarous species of entertainment undoubtedly, but not more repulsive than that of the French aerönaut of last year, floating over Paris on the back of an ostrich. Hereabouts are placed also a small statue of the three-fold Hecate, a Diana found in the Giustiniani Palace at Rome; a bust of Jupiter, conjectured to be a copy from the work of the celebrated sculptor Polycletus, and a sphinx. Here, too, are some interesting bas-reliefs. Upon one a Bacchante (supposed to be a copy from Scopas), is represented with a knife in her hand, and holding part of a kid; upon another (part of a sarcophagus), Priam is represented praying to Achilles to give up Hector's body; upon a third (a cippus) birds are drinking; and upon a fourth (a fountain) are Pans and satyrs. Before turning to the lower shelf, the visitor should also notice in this neighbourhood a beautiful group of two dogs, found on the Monte Cagnuolo; a votive foot, with a coiling serpent, and one or two sepulcral urns with inscriptions. Upon the lower shelf are deposited an interesting series of busts, including one of the Emperor Septimius Severus, found on the Palatine Hill; one of Hadrian, found at Tivoli, on the site of Hadrian's Villa; one from Athens, of the Emperor Nero; and one of Caracalla, found in the Nunnery Gardens at the Quatro Fontane, on the Esquiline Hill. Upon the upper shelf are two busts in relief, and the front of a sarcophagus, with elaborate representations of the Muses. Here is Terpsichore with the lyre of dancing, Thalia with the mask of comedy. And now the way lies once more forward, into the

FIFTH DIVISION.

Before the fifth pilaster is a notable piece of sculpture found in the villa of Antoninus Pius—an erect figure of the youthful Bacchus clothed in the skin of a panther; and here also is a square altar ornamented with sphinxes in bas-relief, Apollo, Diana, and various religious symbols. A colossal toe attracts considerable attention in this division. It may have been an ornament in the rooms of an Eisenberg of the ancients, but more probably has been lost by a god. Let the visitor pause here before the terminal bust of Aeschines the orator, who impeached Demosthenes out of jealousy for his popularity with the people of Athens, and sullenly retired, after losing his cause and being mulcted of a thousand drachmas as the accuser, to Rhodes, where he occupied himself in teaching rhetoric. Other terminal statues occur in this division. Among these, in a glass, are small terminal busts, joined back to back, of Bacchus and Libera; three yellow and red marble heads of Libera; a yellow marble bearded Bacchus; and the bust of a Greek poet discovered at Bitolia. Hereabouts also are, a female head, the eyes of which have traces of inlaying; a bas-relief of Antinous; a curious female head, with the hair of a distinct block of marble, fitted upon it; the head of a child from Rome; the head of Jupiter from the corner of a sarcophagus; busts of Hercules and Serapis; a remarkable altar in the Egyptian style, curiously carved with the bull Apis, and Harpocrates drawn in a car by a hippopotamus. Turning to the upper shelf, the visitor will notice a satyr playing on a flute; six Amazons carved upon the fragment of a sarcophagus; and a sarcophagus found at Tusculum, with representations of Cupids bearing away the arms of Mars. A series of busts are deposited upon the lower shelf. These include busts of the wife of the Emperor Domitian; bust of Olympia; bust of the wife of Hadrian, Julia Sabina; bust of Tiberius; and a bust of Augustus. Before leaving this room the visitor should not fail to notice a few antiquities which should particularly interest him. These form a group of relics found in this country. They illustrate the doings of the Romans in this country.

ANTIQUITIES OF BRITAIN.

The first of these objects which the visitor will remark, is a curious cylindrical sarcophagus, discovered in the neighbourhood of St. Alban's, so lately as the year 1831. It contained some Roman vases. Another sarcophagus found at Southfleet, in Kent, is also included in the collection. In this sarcophagus several interesting relics were discovered, including a vessel containing burnt bones; and purple leather shoes embroidered with gold, and in the same neighbourhood other relics, including an earthern vessel, also containing bones, were found. The next object to which the visitor should direct his attention is the old cistern of a blacksmith, which had been found at Chesterford, in Essex, which turned out to be an ancient relic sculptured in high relief with figures of Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. Three or four Roman altars found in various parts of the country, one to AEsculapius; a bas-relief of a Roman standard of the second legion; and pigs of lead inscribed with the names of Roman emperors. Having examined these objects, the visitor should pass at once westward into the

PHIGALEIAN SALOON.

He may here take a seat for a few moments and read the points of history which belong to this saloon, before he commences his examination of it. One year, while the present century was young, fifteen gentlemen encamped round about the ruins of a temple, known to the neighbouring inhabitants as the "columns." These columns were those believed to be the ruins of a temple of Apollo Epicurius, built by the citizens of ancient Phigaleia, in Arcadia. These "columns" were situated upon a shelf of land, high up the side of Mount Cotilium, and surrounded by a rich and various landscape. Lying scattered about were the shattered fragments of the sculptured frieze of the temple; and, with infinite labour the camp of explorers succeeded in gathering together and arranging the slabs which are now deposited in this, the Phigaleian saloon. To the sound of Arcadian music, workmen excavated in the neighbourhood of these ruins; and in 1814 the Prince Regent obtained a grant of 15,000£. to purchase them for the British Museum.

The subjects represented by these sculptures are, the battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithae, and the war between the Amazons and Athenians—mythical struggles upon which Greek sculptors were fond of exercising their imagination. THE BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS is the first to which the visitor should direct his attention. The origin of this myth is thus described by Sir Henry Ellis: "The story of the Centaurs, it is remarked, is of Thessalian origin. The people of Thessaly were remarkably expert in horsemanship, and were supposed to be the first in Greece who practised the art of riding on horseback. Pelion, and other mountains in this part of Greece, abounding in wild bulls, these ferocious animals were frequently hunted by the people of the country on horseback, and when overtaken were seized by their pursuers, who caught hold of them by the horns, in a manner not less dexterous than daring. Hence, these hunters acquired the name of Centauri and Hippocentauri. The novel sight of a man seated on a horse, and galloping over the plains with more than human velocity, might easily suggest to the minds of an ignorant peasantry, the idea of an animal composed partly of a man and partly of a horse; and it was from this simple origin, according to some explanations, that the fable of the Centaurs sprung. We must remark, that we place no confidence in the proposed etymology of the word Centauros, and almost as little in the explanation of the story. The centaur Chiron in Homer was a model of justice, and the poet appears to have had no idea of the monstrous combination of two animals. Pindar, in his second Pythian Ode, first makes us acquainted with the Hippocentaur, or half horse and half man. Though it cannot be imagined that the Greeks ever regarded this tradition otherwise than as a fable, so far as the double nature of the animal was concerned, yet it is curious, to observe, with what care and devotion they recorded the particulars of this fiction in their poems, sculpture, paintings, and other monuments of art. The Centaurs were invited to the nuptials of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae. During the marriage feast, one of the Centaurs, named Eurytion, or Eurytus, with the characteristic brutality of his nature, and elated by the effects of wine, offered violence to the person of Hippodamia, the bride. This outrageous act was immediately resented by Theseus, the friend of Pirhitous, who hurled a large vessel of wine at the head of the offender, which brought him lifeless to the ground. A general engagement then ensued between the two parties; and the Centaurs not only sought to revenge the death of their companion, Eurytus, but likewise attempted to carry off the females who were guests at the nuptials. In this conflict, sustained on both sides with great fury, the Centaurs were finally vanquished, and driven out of Thessaly; after which they took up their abode in Arcadia, where they provoked the anger of Hercules, who completely destroyed the whole of their race. Such is the general outline of the mythic history of the Centaurs."

Bearing this outline of the classical story in his mind, the visitor may at once proceed to examine the first eleven slabs upon which the incidents in the story of the Centaurs and the Lapithae are elaborated. The visitor will, of course, begin with tablet No. 1, and proceed to the others in the regular order in which they are marked.

On approaching the first slab (1) the visitor will perceive a Centaur overcome by two Lapithae, and about to be dispatched. Another Centaur from behind, however, arrests the uplifted arm of one Lapitha. The battle proceeds fiercely on the second slab (2). A Centaur is tearing the shoulder of a Lapitha with his teeth, while the Lapitha drives a stout sword direct into his assailant's body. A dead Centaur lies in the foreground, and the heels of the stabbed Centaur strike against the shield of a second Lapitha. The origin of the battle begins to appear on the third slab (3), where a woman is represented with a child in her arms resisting the violence of a Centaur, while another Centaur at the further end of the slab is getting the better of a kneeling Lapitha. The fourth tablet would be probably unintelligible to the general visitor without special explanation. Here the Centaurs are endeavouring to crush an enemy with huge blocks of stone. This particular enemy is the Caeneus of Greek fable, whom Neptune had rendered invulnerable to the effect of swords and clubs, and whom Centaurs are endeavouring to overcome by crushing his body with masses of rock. The fifth slab (5) presents a more cheerful view of the battle for the Lapithae; here two Centaurs are being overcome by two of their enemies in revenge for their brutal conduct at the bridal banquet. The sixth tablet (6) again illustrates the hazards of war. Here a female is between two of the brutal Centaurs, one of whom has felled a Lapitha to the ground; but the left hand part of the slab is so mutilated that the merits of the sculpture are here hardly appreciable. The seventh (7) slab also represents the Lapithae losing ground. Here, it has been shrewdly conjectured the chief personages of the battle are represented. The female in the arms of the Centaur is supposed to be Hippodamia; and the figure struggling from the grasp of another Centaur, that of King Pirithous fighting for his outraged bride. The next tablet (8) is in a very dilapidated condition. The central figure is that of a muscular Centaur, with his mantle flowing from his neck, in the act of hurling something at a Lapitha who stands stoutly on the defensive, while in the further corner a female with her child is flying from pursuers. The ninth tablet (9) discovers two vanquished Centaurs, and Lapithae in the act of dispatching their mongrel enemies. The battle is represented at its climax on the next slab (10). Here, as the wicked Centaur, Eurytion, is disrobing the King's bride, and her bridesmaid is indulging in exaggerated attitudes of despair, a figure supposed to be that of the renowned founder of Athens, Theseus, springs upon the Centaur's shoulders, and drags back his head, that the brute may not gaze upon the charms he would pollute. The figure behind the bride is supposed to represent Diana, the goddess of Chastity. It is a pity that the leg and arm of the Theseus, and one arm of the bridesmaid are fractured. The last slab of those sculptured with the battle of the Centaurs, represents Apollo and Diana in a car—Apollo the deliverer; Diana the guardian of female chastity. Having fully examined these beautiful specimens of Greek art of the time of Pericles, the visitor should turn at once to the remaining slabs, which are devoted to the illustration of

A BATTLE WITH THE AMAZONS.

Plutarch gives a graphic account of those dissensions between Theseus and the Amazons, which terminated in the famous war here celebrated. "Philochorus," he says, "and some others relate, that he (Theseus) sailed in company with Hercules into the Euxine Sea, to wage war with the Amazons, and that he received Antiope as the reward of his valour, but the greater number, (among whom are Pherecydes, Hellanicus, and Herodotus,) tell us, that Theseus made the voyage with his own fleet alone, some time after Hercules, and took that Amazon captive, which is indeed the more probable account; for we do not read that any other of his fellow-warriors made any Amazon prisoner. But Bion says, he took and carried her off by a stratagem. The Amazons (he informs us) being naturally lovers of men, were so far from avoiding Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, that they sent him presents. Theseus invited Antiope, who brought them, into his ship, and, as soon as she was aboard, set sail. But the account of one Menecrates, who published a history of Nice in Bithynia, is that Theseus, having Antiope aboard his vessel, remained in those parts some time; and that he was attended in this expedition by three young men of Athens, who were brothers, Enneos, Thoas, and Solon. The last of these, unknown to the rest, fell in love with Antiope, and communicated his passion to one of his companions, who applied to Antiope about the affair. She firmly rejected his pretensions, but treated him with civility, and prudently concealed the matter from Theseus. But Solon, in despair, having leaped into a river and drowned himself, Theseus, then sensible of the cause, and the young man's passion, lamented his fate, and in his sorrow recollected an order of the priestess, which he had formerly received at Delphi; that when, in some foreign country, he should labour under the greatest affliction, he should build a city there, and leave some of his followers to govern it. Hence, he called the city which he built Pythopolis, after the Pythian god, and the neighbouring river, in honour of the young man, Solon. He left the two surviving brothers to govern it, and give it laws; and along with them Hermus, who was of one of the best families in Athens. From him the inhabitants of Pythopolis call a certain place in their city Hermus's House, and, by exchanging an accent, transfer the honour from the hero to the god (Mercury). Hence the war with the Amazons took its rise: and it appears to have been no slight or womanish enterprise, for they could not have encamped in the town, or joined battle on the ground about the Pnyx and the Museum, or fallen in so intrepid a manner upon the city of Athens, unless they had first reduced the country about it. It is difficult, indeed, to believe (though the story is told by Hellanicus) that they crossed the Cimmerian Bosphorus upon the ice, but that they encamped almost in the heart of the city, is confirmed by the names of places, and by the tombs of those that perished there." The Amazons, according to fabulous history, were a warlike race of women, who reared only their female children, and lived as a nation apart from the male sex. They are said to have founded many cities in Asia Minor, to have been expert horsewomen, and to have amputated their left breast the more easily to use their bows. Greek sculptors delighted to avail themselves of this mythic war between men and women, in which the heroes do not appear to have used their weapons lightly, in consideration of the sex of their opponents. The splendid group by Kiss, casts of which are now in many English homes, shows that the capacity to deal with the classic subject has not altogether faded from the world. The Amazons themselves bid fair to accomplish a resurrection across the Atlantic. Rumours reach us here in England of female societies associated to make war upon the tyranny of the opposite sex, and to adopt certain eccentricities of costume. It is not improbable that these agitators will soon constitute themselves into a distinct nation, and defy the valour of the masculine Yankee.

The visitor, on turning, thus far informed, to the slabs upon which the war with the Amazons is represented, will notice that these mythic females present no appearance of the rumoured amputation. The weapons that should be in the hands of most of the figures are lost, but it is believed that they were of bronze, and the holes by which they were fastened to the hands of the figures may yet be traced. On presenting himself before the first slab (12), the visitor will see the figure of an Athenian dragging an Amazon to the ground by her hair, while another Amazon is protecting a fallen sister in the corner. This scene will shock the gallantry of the unprepared visitor, who should, nevertheless, compose himself to explain to his partner the kind of women with whom the Athenians had to deal. The second slab (13), represents a wounded Amazon sinking to the earth, and an Athenian and an Amazon in full combat, but upon the third (14), the visitor will remark the havoc which the Amazons could make. Here, on the right, an Athenian protecting himself from attack with his shield, is leading a wounded man from the field, and to the right a male figure is bearing off a body, from which a central Amazon is snatching a shield. On the next slab (15), two Amazons are engaged with two Athenians. To the left, where the head of the vanquished Amazon remains, the slab is much injured; but to the right the Athenian felled by the Amazon is clearly distinguishable. A wounded Athenian lies in the left corner of the next slab (16), supported by a companion; while another Athenian is endeavouring to beat off a lusty Amazon, who appears determined to fight for every inch of the ground. For the first time an Amazon occurs on horseback on the next slab (17). Here a sturdy Athenian is dragging her from her seat, while another Amazon is warding off a blow, and preparing to strike one at the same time, in the right corner. The central figure of the next slab (18), (the longest in the collection,) is the hero Theseus, recognisable by the lion's skin about him, the huge paw of which lies against his left leg. Theseus, who is about to deal a deadly blow at a mounted Amazon (whose body is effaced), is prevented by an interposing Amazon, while an Athenian, who is trampled upon by the horse, is preparing to do severe work with his sword. To the right, an Athenian is unceremoniously removing a wounded Amazon from her fallen horse. The next group (19) represents two couples fighting: an Athenian, protected by a helmet and cuirass, has thrown an Amazon, and on the right of the slab an Amazon has thrown an Athenian. The next slab (20) is severely mutilated; but an Amazon attending to a wounded companion, and others fighting in the left corner are distinguishable. The next tablet represents two Athenians and two Amazons; the central figure (an Athenian) has his foot upon the knee of a fallen Amazon, who appears to be asking mercy. The last slab but one (22) represents an Athenian dragging an Amazon from an altar, while to the right an Amazon is vigorously assailing another Athenian. Upon the last slab (23) are four Amazons and one wounded Athenian, who is endeavouring to ward off an impending blow from the central figure. Having noticed these slabs, the wondrous workmanship of which must surprise the most indifferent and ill-informed observer, the visitor should at once turn to the other fragments arranged and numbered in the saloon. The fragments marked successively from 24 to 40, are parts of the temple to Apollo, from which the Phigaleian slabs were taken. Having cursorily examined these, the visitor should at once turn to the fragment of a bas-relief, marked 41, which properly belongs to the Elgin collection. Here Hercules is represented holding Diomed, King of Thrace, by the head, and is about to strike him. Further on are some interesting relics, collected by Colonel Leake. First, there is a headless female statue, draped, from Sparta (43); then the torso of a naked Apollo from the Peloponnese; then a small, shattered Hercules, without head, arms, or feet, found on the coast of Laconia. Proceeding with his examination of the miscellaneous objects in the saloon, he may notice successively, the head of Jupiter, from Phrygia (47); a curious sepulchral inscription from Halicarnassus (48), forbidding any one, except relations, from occupying the tomb to which it belonged; a bas-relief from Thessaly (51) representing a dedication of hair to Poseidon: an alto-relievo torso of Triton (56); and the pedestal of the statue of Jupiter Urius (55), which stood in the temple of that god, at the mouth of the Euxine.

Directing his attention to the fragments which occupy the wall space below the Phigaleian frieze, he will find eleven fine bas-reliefs from the celebrated tomb erected at Halicarnassus, in the year 353 B.C., in honour of Mausolus, King of Caria, by Artemisia, his wife. Here the power of the later Greek sculptors is employed upon the battles of the Athenians with the Amazons. Above the Phigaleian frieze, against the walls are placed two pediments, copied from those which ornamented the western and eastern ends of the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, in AEgina.

Among the miscellaneous fragments in the saloon, the visitor has yet to notice a fine torso of a nude Venus; a statue of Discobolus, who is throwing a quoit, found in Hadrian's Villa Tiburtina; part of a statue of Hymen; and at the ends of the saloon the visitor should notice some specimens from the old temple of Selinus, which are valued as probably representing some of the earliest extant specimens of Greek art. Among the subjects represented are Perseus killing the Gorgon Medusa, and Hercules and the Cecrops. Having examined these objects, the visitor has brought his examination of the Phigaleian Saloon to a close, and he should forthwith enter upon the great labour of his fourth visit, by proceeding to the west into the noble room devoted to the

ELGIN MARBLES.

These marbles have become celebrated throughout the civilised world, and the name of Elgin is inseparably connected henceforth with the finest extant specimens of the power of Phidias. The artistic excellencies of these relics of a remote civilisation have been so frequently explained to the public, and their beauties are so generally felt, that it suffices to introduce the general visitor to the room, and to guide him about it, without bidding him halt to learn the estimation set upon these works by great art authorities. After he has received the natural impression which these works cannot fail to produce on his mind, he may wish to know something of the times and men which these represent; he may be glad to learn so much as is known of Phidias. No man even with the poorest sense of the beautiful can, we apprehend, wander about this saloon without being touched. Therefore we proceed at once to guide the visitor on his journey. But it is necessary that he should know something of the building, of which these fragments formed parts:—"The Parthenon," says Colonel Leake, "was constructed entirely of white marble, from Mount Pentelicus. It consisted of a cell, surrounded with a peristyle, which had eight Doric columns in the fronts, and seventeen in the sides. These forty-six columns were six feet two inches in diameter at the base, and thirty-four feet in height, standing upon a pavement, to which there was an ascent of three steps. The total height of the temple above its platform was about sixty-five feet. Within the peristyle at either end, there was an interior range of six columns, of five feet and a half in diameter, standing before the end of the cell, and forming a vestibule to its door. There was an ascent of two steps into these vestibules from the peristyle. The cell, which was sixty-two feet and a half broad within, was divided into two unequal chambers, of which the western was forty-three feet ten inches long, and the eastern ninety-eight feet seven inches. The ceiling of the former was supported by four columns, of about four feet in diameter, and that of the latter by sixteen columns of about three feet. It is not known of what order were the interior columns of either chamber. Those of the western having been thirty-six feet in height, their proportion must have been nearly the same as that of the Ionic columns of the vestibule of the Propylaea, whence it seems highly probable that the same order was used in the interior of both those contemporary buildings. In the eastern chamber of the Parthenon, the smallness of the diameter of the columns leaves little doubt that there was an upper range, as in the temples of Paestum and AEgina. It is to be lamented that no remains of any of them have been found, as they might have presented some new proofs of the taste and invention of the architects of the time of Pericles.

"Such was the simple construction of this magnificent building, which, by the united excellencies of materials, design, and decorations, was the most perfect ever executed. Its dimensions of two hundred and twenty-eight feet by a hundred and two, with a height of sixty-six feet to the top of the pediment, were sufficiently great to give an impression of grandeur and sublimity, which was not disturbed by any obtrusive subdivision of parts, such as is found to diminish the effects of some larger modern buildings, where the same singleness of design is not observed. In the Parthenon, whether viewed at a small or at a great distance, there was nothing to divert the spectator's contemplation from the simplicity and majesty of mass and outline, which forms the first and most remarkable object of admiration in a Greek temple; and it was not until the eye was satiated with the contemplation of the entire edifice, that the spectator was tempted to examine the decorations with which this building was so profusely adorned; for the statues of the pediments, the only decoration which was very conspicuous by its magnitude and position, being enclosed within frames, which formed an essential part of the design of either front, had no more obtrusive effect than an ornamented capital to a single column."

Bearing this outline of the building in mind, the visitor may at once proceed to examine the ruins of this fine monument of ancient genius, which are deposited in the Elgin Saloon of our National Museum. First, he may notice those alto-relievos, known as the

METOPES[9] OF THE PARTHENON.

The subject of these sculptures has been familiarised to the visitor in the Phigaleian marbles. Here, again, is the war of the Athenians, on behalf of the Lapithae, with the Centaurs, the sculptor's subject. On entering the room, the visitor will notice various numbers on each marble: THE RED NUMBERS are those to which we refer throughout.

The first metope to which the visitor will, in natural order, direct his attention, is that marked 1. Here an Athenian has his knee upon the back of a Centaur and one arm round his neck, while the other (which is broken off) was evidently represented raised to strike a fatal blow into the Centaur's body. The second metope (2) also represents an Athenian subduing a Centaur. This group is much injured, the head of the Athenian and that of the Centaur being missing; but the Athenian has his knee firmly planted upon his brutal enemy's hind quarters, and his arm (strongly developed) was evidently firmly clutching the Centaur's hair. The third metope (3) shows an Athenian under very disadvantageous circumstances. Here a Centaur is about to deal a tremendous blow with a wine vessel at the head of his crouching enemy, who is endeavouring to ward off its effects with his ample shield. The heads of these figures are casts from the originals, which are in the Royal Museum at Copenhagen. The fourth metope (4) has been so mutilated that the figure of the Athenian, which was once upon it, is wholly effaced, and the Centaur has the head, part of two legs, and both arms, wanting. Originally the Centaur was holding an Athenian by his hair. The fifth metope (5) is also much mutilated; but here both figures were evidently represented mutually confident of victory. A vigorous action is represented upon the sixth metope (6), where an Athenian is seizing a Centaur by the throat, while, with the right hand, he is prepared to deal a fatal stroke. The seventh metope (7) is much mutilated; but the figure of an Athenian thrown, and a Centaur trampling upon him, are clearly discernible. There is fine action in the eighth metope (8), where the Centaur has seized his adversary by the foot, and is hurling him backwards to the earth. Under the Athenian the visitor will notice a circular drinking vessel, indicative of the revel at which the cause of quarrel originated. The next metope (9) (or rather a cast from the metope in the Louvre at Paris) represents a Centaur in the act of seizing a female, who is resisting him: both heads are wanted. The drapery about the female is beautifully executed. Matters have arrived at a desperate pitch with the combatants represented on the tenth metope (10), where the Centaur, with starting eyes and uplifted arms, is about to strike a determined Athenian, who has planted his foot against the Centaur's breast, and is determined to do his work. The next metope (11) is a fine specimen of sculpture. Here an Athenian has seized a Centaur by the jaw, from behind. The drapery that falls from the fine form of the Greek is exquisitely folded, and the figure itself is finished with masterly skill. A victorious Centaur holding forth a mantle of lion's skin, is the central figure of the next metope (12). Below lies the dead body of an Athenian: all the muscles marked and rigid. It is supposed that the following metope (13) represents the Centaur Eurytion carrying off Hippodamia. The drapery of the female figure is exquisite. The fourteenth metope (14) represents an Athenian thrown by a Centaur. The Athenian, however, is not idle, having buried a weapon in the left side of his adversary, and attempting to seize a stone with his left hand. The fifteenth metope (15) represents a Centaur holding an Athenian; while the Athenian has revenged himself by planting that decisive kind of blow known in pugilistic circles as "a bruiser" upon the Centaur's cheek. This metope is more angular in execution than the other metopes; and was probably executed, under the guidance of Phidias, by one of the old school of Greek sculptors. The last, or sixteenth metope (16), is supposed to have been executed by the same inferior hand as that employed upon the fifteenth. Here the contest between the Centaur and the Athenian is undecided. Metope 16c has been recently discovered at Athens.

Having fully examined these fine specimens of Greek sculpture, the visitor may at once turn to other parts of the great temple, examining now and then, to guide his impressions, the restored model which stands near the south-east corner of the room. His business is now with the frieze that ran round the building behind the columns, and upon which a series of bas-reliefs were sculptured; of which Sir Henry Ellis gives the following clear outline:—

THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.

"One of the richest objects with which Phidias embellished the outside of the temple of the Parthenon, was, without doubt, that uninterrupted series of bas-reliefs which occupied the upper part of the walls within the colonnade, at the height of the frieze of the Pronaos, and which was continued entirely round the building. The situation afforded to the work only a secondary light, and, so far, prescribed to Phidias the manner in which he was to direct the execution of the figures.

"From the position intended for it, it was evident that the direct rays of the sun could never reach the Panathenaic frieze. Being placed immediately below the soffit, it received all its light from between the columns, and by reflection from the pavement below. The flatness of the sculpture is thus sufficiently accounted for; had the relief been prominent, the upper parts could not have been seen; the shade projected by the sculpture would have rendered it dark, and the parts would have been reduced by their shadows. The frieze could only be seen in an angle of forty-two degrees and a half.

"The subject represented the sacred procession which was celebrated every fifth year in honour of Minerva, the guardian goddess of the city, and embraced in its composition all the external observances of the highest festival of the Athenians.

"The blocks of marble of which the frieze was composed were three feet four inches high; they were placed about nine feet within the external row of columns; and occupied, slab after slab, a space of five hundred and twenty-four feet in length. As a connected subject, this was the most extensive piece of sculpture ever made in Greece. The images of the gods, deified heroes, basket bearers, bearers of libatory vessels, trains of females, persons of every age and sex, men on horseback, victims, charioteers—in short, the whole people were represented in it conveying, in solemn pomp, to this very temple of the Parthenon, the sacred veil which was to be suspended before the statue of the goddess within.

"Meursius, in his Panathenaea and Reliquiae Atticae, has collected from ancient authors many particulars concerning this Peplus. It was the work of young virgins selected from the best families in Athens, over whom two of the principal, called Arrephorae, were superintendents. On it was embroidered the battle of the gods and giants; amongst the gods was Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts against the rebellious crew, and Minerva, seated in her chariot, appeared as the vanquisher of Typhon or Enceladus. In the Hecuba of Euripides, the chorus of captive Trojan females are lamenting, in anticipation, the evils which they will suffer in the land of the Greeks. 'In the city of Pallas, of Athena, on the beautiful seat in the woven peplus I shall yoke colts to a chariot, painting them in various different coloured threads, or else the races of the Titans, whom Zeus, the son of Kronos, puts to sleep in fiery all-surrounding flame.' The names of those Athenians who had been eminent for military virtue, were also embroidered on it. This will explain the following allusion in the Knights of Aristophanes, where the chorus says—'We wish to praise our fathers, because they were an honour to this country and worthy of the peplus: in battles by land and in the ship-girt armament conquering on all occasions they exalted this city.' When the festival was celebrated, this peplus was brought from the Acropolis, where it had been worked, down into the city; it was then displayed and suspended as a sail to the ship, which on that day, attended by a numerous and splendid procession, was conducted through the Ceramicus and other principal parts, till it had made the circuit of the Acropolis; it was then carried up to the Parthenon, and there consecrated to Minerva." This splendid series of sculptures forms the gem of the Elgin collection. The museum possesses no less than two hundred feet of the original frieze, in addition to upwards of seventy feet in casts. The wonderful variety, the perfect drawing, the classic grace, and the unity of conception displayed in this work, entitle it to rank as the most precious relic of antiquity saved to moderns from the wrecks of time. Starting from the left side of the entrance door to the south, the visitor begins his inspections of

THE EASTERN FRIEZE,

or those portions which decorated the eastern end of the Parthenon. These are marked from 17 to 24. The introductory slab (17) represents a procession of Greek virgins, with their long flowing draperies beautifully modelled, as the visitor will at once perceive. Some are carrying vessels for the libations. The next slab (18) has some interesting figures. The four standing figures, which are to the left of the two, supposed to represent Castor and Pollux, are supposed to represent Hierophants explaining away mysteries, while the others are students of the doctrines taught at the festival. The next slab, which is the longest in the collection (19), is said to have been originally placed above the eastern gate of the temple. Here are females delivering offerings in baskets to one who appears to preside. On the left, a man of dignified bearing is receiving a large roll from a youth, which Visconti supposed to be the embroidered veil. Here seated on a throne is Jupiter, with the arms supported by two sphinxes. Here, too, is a goddess removing her veil, supposed by some to be Juno, and by others Mercury. At the end of the slab the visitor will remark old AEsculapius, and the figure of his daughter with a serpent twined about her left arm, as Hygieia, or Health. The marble let into the wall below the frieze, and marked 20, is a perfect cast from a marble partly in that marked 21 and partly in that marked 22. Slabs 23, 24 have continuations of the procession, consisting of females draped, bearing vessels and torches. These women were selected from the noblest families of Athens. The fragment marked 25 closes those which adorn the eastern front. It represents a mutilated figure of one of the Metoeci, or strangers, bearing a tray filled originally with provisions. From the eastern the visitor should proceed to the slabs of the

NORTHERN FRIEZE.

These are marked from 26 to 46. On the first of this series a youth was originally represented receiving a crown of honour in a chariot race. Then follow successively five slabs, all bearing bas-reliefs of chariots and charioteers. These slabs are greatly admired by artists, and are said, at the present day, to be perhaps the finest specimens of bas-relief extant. After the chariots with more notable people forming the procession, the successive marbles marked 32 to 43 are filled up with the groups of horsemen who followed the chariots. The forms of the animals are beautifully grouped and executed; and may, after the many centuries of time that have elapsed since they were placed behind the Parthenon columns, be consulted by the modern artist as the finest extant models upon which he can exercise his student's hand. On the slabs 36, 7, how finely are the horses and riders grouped, and how firmly and gracefully is the rude figure upon the central horse of the second slab posed! Having sufficiently admired these fine groups, the visitor should at once turn to the slab marked 46. Here, a young man standing near his horse is about to crown himself; while a standing figure to the right appears to have dismounted, and to be suffering some adjustment of dress by a servant behind him. At the right end of this slab is a figure seen sideways, and representing the first part of the decoration of the

WESTERN FRIEZE.

Only one of the fifteen slabs of the western frieze is the original marble:—the rest are casts from the frieze still adorning the ruins of the temple. The western frieze is included in the slabs marked from 47 to 61. The marble in the possession of the museum from the western frieze is, however, one of great value. It represents two mounted horsemen—the whole exquisitely carved. Passing forward from this, the forty-eighth slab (48) represents a horse to which three men are attending. Mounted horsemen also fill up the next two slabs (49, 50). On the fifty-first a rider is represented habited in full armour, with another rider, dismounted, who appears to be rubbing a hurt on his left leg. The two following slabs (52,3) are horses and men;—on the latter, a dismounted man in a flowing robe endeavouring to curb a rearing steed. On the next slab (54) are two horsemen mounted, the one to the right wearing a hat that has a modern appearance, and is similar to those worn by dignitaries of the Greek church at the present time. A fine horse and graceful horseman occur in the right corner of the slab 55,—the action of the horse is finely sculptured. The remaining sculptures of the western frieze represent figures of mounted and dismounted horsemen, of which the visitor may notice the graceful figures on slab 57 (where the horse is rubbing his leg), and slab 60, where the figure to the right appears to be only preparing to join the procession. Having examined these, the visitor should at once proceed to examine the remarkable points of the

SOUTHERN FRIEZE.

These are numbered from 62 to 90, and reach back to the northern side of the entrance to the saloon. The slabs marked from 62 to 77 consist of horsemen, galloping, often two or three abreast: some with helmets and armour, and others nude; and the slabs marked from 78 to 82 have sculptures of chariots drawn by four horses (mostly) abreast. These, however, present no new points to which it is necessary to draw the visitor's particular attention. The business of the festival, &c., begins to be apparent in the seven last slabs (84-90). Here the victims appear. In the first (85) a bull appears to be giving no little trouble to some attendants, and to be utterly regardless of the solemnity of the occasion. A bull, full of action, is the principal object on the next slab (86): and on the next (87), one appears calmly walking to his doom. Upon the return of the slab (90) is a figure finely executed, supposed to be that of a magistrate surveying the progress of the procession. The sacrificial oxen are said to be masterly representations of the finest specimens of these animals.

Having examined these bas-reliefs, the visitor should at once turn to the groups which occupied central space in the saloon, and which originally adorned the eastern and western pediments of the Parthenon.

SCULPTURES FROM THE EASTERN PEDIMENT.

These occupy the central space towards the southern end of the saloon. The group on the eastern pediment originally represented the birth of Minerva. The visitor will probably be first attracted to the great recumbent figure marked 93, generally believed to have represented Theseus, the Athenian hero, whose biography opens the series of Plutarch's Lives. The figure is now much mutilated; the nose has been chipped, and the feet are wanting, but still the form reclining on a rock is majestic. Mr. Westmacott, in a lecture, gave his reasons for believing that this statue was meant for Cephalus, of whom Aurora was enamoured, and not Theseus. "This work [the pediment] it must be observed, related to the most remarkable event in Athenian mythology, and was confined only to that event. All the gods of Olympus were present at the birth of Minerva. Now Theseus was not only not in existence, but was patronised and protected by Minerva; it would seem, therefore, extraordinary that he should be admitted as a witness of her birth. If it is really Theseus, he could only have been introduced by Phidias in compliment to the Athenians; but whether this could on so very sacred an occasion have been allowed, may very reasonably be doubted. Hercules, even the older, or Idaean Hercules, was, upon the same principle, equally inadmissible, the Athenians acknowledging or worshipping no Hercules prior to the son of Alcmene, who was contemporaneous with Theseus, and consequently posterior also to Minerva. Now the mythology of Cephalus is not only in unison with Pausanias, but the admission of that person would in no degree affect the harmony of the Attic types, or principles of Athenian worship. Cephalus was as celebrated for heroic virtues as for his beauty."

The fragment numbered 91 is part of a figure of Hyperion rising out of the sea. It marked that angle of the pediment to the left of the spectator, and the arms are stretched forward urging his coursers. Near him are, alas, only the heads of two of his horses (92). The next group that presents itself for notice is that of two sitting figures (94), the one to the left leaning on the right shoulder of the other. This is a wreck of a group that represented Ceres and her daughter Proserpine on the pediment. Next in succession is a figure full of action (95): this is Iris, the messenger of the gods, but the particular property of Juno, on her way to carry to remote parts the interesting intelligence of the birth of Minerva. A torso of Victory is placed next in order of succession (96). The figure is now wingless, but holes can be seen which once attached them to the statue. Three Fates, beautifully draped (97), and a head of one of the horses (98) of the chariot of Night which occupied the angle of the pediment on the spectator's right, complete the recovered fragments of the eastern pediment.

Hence the visitor should turn to the fragments from the

WESTERN PEDIMENT.

The subject illustrated on the western pediment was the contest between Minerva and Neptune for the honour of giving a name to Athens. The relics of these sculptures will now engage the visitor's attention. Undoubtedly the first object that will attract his notice will be that numbered 99. This recumbent figure has a noble presence even now, headless and otherwise mutilated as it is. Canova stood undecided between this figure and that of Theseus (or Cephalus, according to Mr. Westmacott) as to which was pre-eminently beautiful. The figure before which the visitor now stands is generally received as the statue of Ilissus, who was the Athenian god of the river Ilissus, which watered the southern side of the Athenian plain. Others have declared it to be Theseus reposing after his herculean labours, and contemplating the contest between the two deities. Having fully examined this fine sculpture, the visitor should turn to the fragments of the Minerva. A small fragment of the upper part of a face (101) is all that remains of Minerva's head, the holes being still visible by which the goddess's bronze helmet was fastened to the statue. Hereabouts, also, is a fragment of the statue (102), and a coil of the serpent that was about the figure (104). The torso marked 100, from the western pediment, is conjectured to be part of a statue that represented Cecrops, the founder of Athens, at the contest. The next fragment is the torso of Neptune (103); and hereabouts is the cast of the group supposed to have originally represented Hercules and Hebe. The second object, marked 104, is the cast, presented by M. Charles Lenormand, of a head in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, supposed to belong to one of the statues of the western pediment. A torso of a wingless or Athenian Victory is the next object that demands notice (105): the figure was represented without wings, in token of the inseparability of the goddess from the Greek capital. Another object is marked 105: this is the head of the Victory; or rather a cast from the original head presented to the trustees by Count de Laborde. Lastly, of the western pediment sculptures, the visitor will remark the lap of a figure, with a portion of an infant remaining: this ruin is all that is left of Latona and her two children, Diana and Apollo. Having fully examined these ruins of the Parthenon, the visitor must direct his immediate attention to the remains collected from the ruins of the celebrated

DOUBLE TEMPLE OF THE ERECTHEUM AND PANDROSUS.

The temple of the Erectheum was situated at Athens, less than two hundred feet distant from the Parthenon. It was the temple of Athene Polias, or Minerva and Erectheus; and adjoining it was the chapel of Pandrosus. Philocles of Acharnae was the architect of the building, which Lord Aberdeen, reiterating the opinion of many great authorities, in his "Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture," styles the most perfect known specimen of the Ionic order of architecture. It was built on the spot where Neptune and Minerva are supposed to have contested the honour of naming Athens. When Lord Elgin visited Athens, the vestibule of the temple was a Turkish powder magazine.

Before examining the few relics from this fine building in the saloon, the visitor should notice the second object, marked 106, which is the cast of a head found during the progress of excavations at Athens, between the ancient gate of the Peloponnesus and the temple of Theseus. Having passed from this relic, the visitor will at once examine the architectural relics of different parts of the Erectheum, which are more interesting to the architectural student than to the general visitor. The fragment 109 is the lower portion of a draped female statue; the relic marked 110 is part of the shaft of an Ionic column; the capital of a column, 125, is very beautiful: but the object that will be most attractive to the general visitor is the statue marked 128, known in architecture as a Caryatid, which was used in the temple of Pandrosus instead of columns. Hereabouts also, amid the miscellaneous fragments, the visitor should notice a colossal headless and heavily-draped figure, marked 111. This is the wreck of the great statue of Bacchus which surmounted a monument erected three hundred and twenty years before the Christian era, by Thrasyllus of Deceleia, to record the victory of a tribe at a great festival of Bacchus. This statue has been variously christened. Some believe it to be the fragment of a Niobe; others of a Diana. It is generally allowed to be a noble sample of Greek sculpture. Hereabouts, also, is the well-known imperfect statue of Icarus (113), brought in fragments from the Acropolis. The urn marked 122 is a sepulchral vessel, with figures in bas-relief; 123 is a sepulchral column, with an Athenian name upon it; and then the visitor will pass rapidly the fragments of Doric and Ionic columns from various Greek temples. With the casts beginning from 136, the visitor will start with his examination of the fragments from the

TEMPLE OF THESEUS.

When the ashes of Theseus, long after his death, were conveyed in state to Athens, festivals were instituted in his honour; and a magnificent temple was erected to his memory nearly five centuries before our era. The sculptures of the temple represented the exploits of Theseus, and of Hercules, with whom Theseus was always on terms of great friendship, and to whom he gave the highest honours his country could afford. The subject of the frieze (which the visitor will find against the eastern wall of the saloon, numbered from 136 to 149), has been variously explained, but is shrewdly conjectured to be the Battle of the Giants, in which Hercules played a prominent part, and in which the giants are said to have hurled rocks at their adversaries, like pebbles. This battle was fought in the presence of divinities, who are represented seated upon slabs (137-8-133-4.) This frieze was on the most conspicuous part of the temple. The frieze that flanked the building was sculptured with the exploits of Theseus; and here the visitor will once more see the battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithae illustrated (150-154). The Centaurs hurling huge stones, and wielding the stems of trees; and the invulnerable Coeneus, half crushed by his savage enemies, are again represented. The casts of three metopes (155-157) are from the north side of the temple of Theseus. Upon the first the hero is represented destroying the King of Thebes, Creon; upon the second he is throwing Cercyon, King of Eleusis; and upon the third he is overcoming the Crommyonian sow. "About this time," Plutarch tells us, "Crommyon was infested with a wild sow named Phoeä, a fierce and formidable creature. This savage he attacked and killed, going out of his way to engage her, and thus displaying an act of voluntary valour: for he believed it equally became a brave man to stand upon his defence against abandoned ruffians, and to seek out and begin the combat with strong and savage animals. But some say that Phoeä was an abandoned female robber, who dwelt in Crommyon; that she had the name of 'sow' from her life and manners, and was afterwards slain by Theseus."

A series of bas-reliefs from an Ionic temple, dedicated to the Wingless Victory of Athens, are the next objects that command the general visitor's attention. They are numbered from 158 to 161 successively. Upon these are represented battles between the Greeks and Persians; and maidens leading a sacrificial bull. The fragments marked successively from 165 to 175 are remarkable for the Greek inscriptions on them, which cannot interest the general visitor. Let the visitor, therefore, next pause before the fragment of a frieze in green stone, marked 177, which is from the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae. The sculptured scroll-work is of very remote antiquity. The next fragment is a bas-relief, on which a bearded man is represented, pressing a child towards him, and directing its attention to a votive foot which he holds in his hand. Passing from this, the visitor may next direct his attention to the fragment of a colossal statue numbered 178. It belongs to one of the pediments of the Parthenon. Hereabouts are various sepulchral urns and columns of no particular interest to the casual observer;—the circular altar from Delos, ornamented in relief with sacrificial bulls and other subjects. 179 may, however, be noticed, together with the column marked 183, which bears the name of Socrates, son of Socrates, a native of Ancyra, of Galatia. The object marked 186 is a Greek sun-dial found at Athens, of a time not long before the reign of the Emperor Severus. Passing other altars and fragments of columns, the visitor should pause on his way, to notice a bas-relief upon which Latona and Diana are sculptured, forming part of a procession (190). The bas-relief numbered 193 is from the theatre of Bacchus: it is a Bacchanalian group, in which Bacchus is holding forth a vessel to be filled by an attending Bacchante. The next object to be noticed is marked 194, and is a fragment of a head of the goddess Pasht, surmounted with a crown of serpents. A spirited scene occurs upon bas-relief 197, where a charioteer, heralded by a flying Victory, is represented driving four horses at full speed. A series of urns and votive altars are grouped hereabouts, which the casual visitor may pass, pausing before the small statue of Ganymede (207); a fragment of a boy supporting a bird on his arm (221); a small figure of Telesphorus, headless, and draped; more sepulchral urns and stêles; capitals of Corinthian and Ionic columns; various inscriptions, including a decree of a society of musicians (235); an amphora (238); a female head; a large and small head of a bearded Hercules (243-242); heads and fragments of heads; the base of a statue supposed to have been that of the Minerva of the western pediment of the Parthenon; urns and columns, and stales and inscriptions; a bas-relief showing Health, the daughter of AEsculapius, feeding a serpent; two more bas-reliefs; an inventory of the articles of gold and silver belonging to the Parthenon (282); stêles, inscriptions, and columns; fragments of colossal statues, a small statue (headless) of a Muse, 316; fragments of figures from the metopes of the Parthenon; a sculptured oblong vessel, found near the plain of Troy, for containing holy water (324); a mutilated colossal head supposed to represent Nemesis, found in the temple of Nemesis, at Rhamnus (325); a mutilated female statue found also at Rhamnus, in the temple of Themis; fragments of colossal statues, stêles, inscriptions, and altars. And hereabouts the visitor should pause once more to examine a consecutive series of sculptures. These are marked from 352 to 360. They are casts from the monument of Lysicrates, erected to celebrate a musical contest about three centuries and a half before our era. This monument is commonly known as the

LANTERN OF DEMOSTHENES.

This name is derived from a story long current, that the monument was built by Demosthenes as a place of retirement. It was in reality a monument erected in honour of Lysicrates, and the musicians or actors who carried off the palm in musical or dramatic entertainments. This monument is interesting as being the oldest existing specimen of the Corinthian order of architecture. The frieze, of which there are specimens before the visitor, represents the story of the revenge Bacchus indulged in towards some Tyrrhenian corsairs, who endeavoured to convey him to Asia to sell him as a slave. It is related that discovering their infamous project, he transformed the masts and oars of the vessel into snakes. The frieze is divided into nine compartments, and the central figure is Bacchus seated with his panther before him, a vessel in his hand, and attendant fauns. The fantastic punishment of the pirates is forcibly depicted. Here one bound to a rock finds the cord changed into a powerful serpent; there men leaping into the sea are already half changed to dolphins; and others are receiving severe castigation. Having examined these curious sculptures, the visitor may rapidly review the rest of the relics which he will care to examine. Passing the inscriptions (all interesting to the antiquarian), the votive altars, and other fragments, he may halt here and there before various interesting bas-reliefs. Among these are a bas-relief representing Vesta and Minerva crowning a young man (375); a bas-relief of Jupiter and Juno; a bas-relief representing a sacrifice before an altar (380); an imperfect bas-relief representing three goddesses (383); a lion's head from the roof of the Parthenon (393); a fragment from Mantell's collection, of a female figure found on the plains of Marathon (397); the upper part of a female figure, in bas-relief, from Athens (419); two women and a child making offerings found in Laconia (430); another bas-relief from Laconia (431); a curious subject in bas-relief from Athens, representing the upper part of a youth holding something, supposed to be a lantern, with a boy near him, and a cat on a column (432); a cast from a tablet representing in bas-relief Pan seated on a rock with a draped nymph, supposed to be Echo, before him (433); a cast of the tablet of Euthydia, daughter of Diogenes, who is taking leave of friends (435); and lastly, a bas-relief representing the shape of a shield, on which the names of the ephebi of Athens, under Alcamenes, are inscribed. This is said to have belonged originally to the Parthenon. And here the visitor will close his inspection of the Elgin Saloon. That he will return to these fine relics of the old Greeks, if he have the opportunity, is certain. He may come again and again, and each time gain something in the contemplation of these classical models; noble thoughts before the masterly figure of Theseus, a keen sense of beauty near the beautiful forms of the Parthenon frieze. Of all the glorious monuments of antiquity that have reached us of the proud nineteenth century, none have so noble a significance as the broken marbles collected in this room. The contemplative man, seeing their perfect beauties, asks himself in their presence many puzzling questions. But perhaps the first that rises in the mind is wonder at the contrast between the development of art and the poorness of science in this splendid antiquity. No steam then to wield the hammer; only the most limited knowledge of the earth: the west an indescribable region of harmony and glory; the world a flat surface; fearful mariners hugging the shore close at home, and trusting to the stars; and England a savage place where wolves rent the air at night; and a heathen mythology the faith of the most civilised people of the earth. Under these barbarous circumstances, the poetry that dwells in the heart of all people who cultivate some affinity to nature, fashioned the mould of a Phidias for the people of Athens. A man with a stern soul, an eye large and grand, a frame built to realise the soul's tasks—we see this Phidias of the Greeks as he hovered about the foundations of the Parthenon, when the name of Pericles was every Greek's watchword, four centuries and a half before our Christian era. The man appears to have been of colossal parts in every way. Versed in history, a poet given to study fables (as all poets are), keen in sifting the subtleties of geometry, a passionate reader of Homer; this was indeed the sculptor of the gods! Of the high estimation in which the sculptures of the Parthenon should be held, it is superfluous to say more than all writers on art have agreed in saying. Here we have master-pieces, beyond which the sculptors of the many ages that have passed away since Phidias laboured at his Jupiter in the Olympian grove have never reached. High praise this to say of a man who has been twenty-two centuries in his grave, that he accomplished in the utmost perfection those ideals to which his imitators have vainly aspired. It appears that Phidias had his troubles, knew the force of a frown from men in power, and in exile produced his master-piece. Whether he died in disgrace and by foul means are points upon which the dust of ages has settled for ever. We know thus much of him and no more. But the visitor who has probably been more impressed with the contents of the Elgin Saloon than with the massive coarseness of the Egyptian antiquities, will be glad to hear a few general words—an authoritative summing up of the matter from a pen more clearly authorised to touch the subject than ours can be. A brief summary, a terse description, analytical and picturesque, of a field of speculation or a region of wonder, systematises the spectator's impression, and with the view of fastening the proper contemplation of these master-pieces upon the visitor's mind, we quote a few pointed sentences on the sculptures of the Elgin Saloon, from the pen of Sir Henry Ellis.

"These marbles, chiefly ornamental, belong to one edifice dedicated to the guardian deity of the city, raised at the time of the greatest political power of the state, when all the arts which contribute to humanise life were developing their beneficial influence. Many of the writers of Athens, whose works are the daily textbooks of our schools, saw in their original perfection the mutilated marbles which we still cherish and admire. The Elgin collection has presented us with the external and material forms, in which the art of Phidias gave life and reality to the beautiful mythi which veiled the origin of his native city, and perpetuated in groups of matchless simplicity the ceremonies of the great national festival. The lover of beauty and the friend of Grecian learning will here find a living comment on what he reads; and as in the best and severest models of antiquity we always discover something new to admire, so here we find fresh beauties at every visit, and learn how infinite in variety are simplicity and truth, and how every deviation from these principles produces sameness and satiety. It is but just that those who feel the value of this collection should pay a tribute of thanks to the nobleman to whose exertions the nation is indebted for it; and the more so as he was made the object of vulgar abuse by many pretended admirers of ancient learning. If Lord Elgin had not removed these marbles, there is no doubt that many of them would long since have been totally destroyed; and it was only after great hesitation, and a certain knowledge that they were daily suffering more and more from brutal ignorance and barbarism, that he could prevail on himself to employ the power he had obtained to remove them to England. These marbles may be considered in two ways; first, as mere specimens of sculpture; and secondly, as forming part of the history of a people. As specimens of sculpture they serve as excellent studies to young artists, whose taste is formed and chastened by the simplicity and truth of the models presented to them. The advantage of studying the ancients in this department of art rests pretty nearly on the same grounds as those which may be given for our study of their written models. Modern times produce excellence in every department of human industry, and our knowledge of nature, the result of continued accumulations, needs not now the limited experience of former ages. The sciences founded on demonstration, though they may trace their origin to the writings of the Greeks, have advanced to a state in which nothing would be gained by constantly recurring to the ancient condition of knowledge. But it is not so with those arts which belong to the province of design; they require a different discipline, and the faculties which they employ may have received a more complete development two thousand years ago, under favourable circumstances, than they have now. Their perfection depends on circumstances over which we have little control: they cannot, in our opinion, ever become essentially popular in any country but one where the climate favours an out-of-door life, and where they are intimately blended in the service of religion. If then a nation has existed whose physical organisation, whose climate, and whose religion all combined to develop the principles of beauty, and taught man to choose from nature those forms and combinations which give the highest and most lasting pleasure, we of the present day who do not possess these advantages must follow those who were the first true interpreters of nature. Their models possess the advantage of being fixed; for without some standard universally admitted, we should run into all the extravagances of conceit and affectation.

"No work of the present time is ever universally admitted as an indisputable standard. It is only when time has placed an interval between the present and the past, wide enough to destroy all the rivalries of competition; that great works receive the full acknowledgments of their merits, and become standards to which we all appeal. Thus in the art of writing our own language, we refer to the best models of past instead of to the works of our own days; and our youth at school are chiefly trained on the written models of Greece and Home, instead of those of our own country. The advantage of this consists in having before us examples which all appeal to, not because we contend that they are in all respects the best, but because they were the best of their day, and being written in a language no longer subject to change, may be taken as an universal standard by which all civilised nations may measure their thoughts and the mode of expressing them. The frieze of the Parthenon and the dramas of Sophocles, the forms of the marble and the conceptions of the great poet, still speak to our imagination and our understanding: we recognise, in both, the beauty of proportion, the simplicity and truth of design; and we all assent to a standard which we feel to be in harmony with nature, and to which all nations will yield a more ready obedience than to any other that we can name.

"Though the artist and the student may examine the sculptures of the Parthenon with somewhat different views, their studies are more nearly allied than is generally supposed. The artist who looks at them merely as delineations of form, without reference to the ideas which gave them their existence, loses half the pleasure and the profit; and the student who merely names and catalogues them, without connecting them with the written monuments of Grecian genius, that is with the illustration of ancient texts, is also pursuing a barren study."

And now the visitor's way lies through the sculpture galleries, back to the grand entrance. He has accomplished the labour of examining all that is exhibited to the public generally of the contents of the national museum. He may wander into the eastern wing of the building (if it be open to the general visitor), and through the northern, where the vast library of printed books and manuscripts are deposited; but these are only accessible to the public under special regulations. This remark is applicable also to the print-room.

The visitor, however, cannot leave the British Museum, having wandered over it and examined its various curiosities, without getting something from his journey. It is full of suggestive matter, which, with a little direction, may be turned to useful account by large classes of the people. It affords glimpses into the mysteries of the Animal Kingdom, with all its varieties, its wonders, its traceable progresses, its past and extinct forms, its promises of future developments. Then the mineralogical galleries afford the general visitor a peep at the formations of the earth; the various developments of minerals; the natural state of ores and stones which most men see only in their manufactured state. From the mineralogical tables the visitor stepped aside to examine the wondrous revelations of extinct animal life recovered from the bowels of the earth; he saw the colossal megatherium, the towering mastodon, and the great Irish elk. He understood something of the progress of animal life, from the fishes and the saurians. Then he passed into the Egyptian room, and found himself surrounded with the preserved bodies of the ancient Egyptians; he examined their household gods; he pried into their coffins; he saw their food; he was familiarised with their apparel. Still proceeding onward, he came to the beautiful bronzes; and then he saw the wonders that the ancient tombs of Etruria disgorged. He still advanced in the galleries, till he came to a room that was a little museum in itself—an exhibition of the curious industries of many different countries. Here were Buddhist temples; Chinese chopsticks; marvels from savage islands; a tortoise-shell bonnet; a Chinese bell;—in short, a room packed from the ceiling to the floor with a compact mass of curiosities. And then he left the upper floor of the building, after having spent two days there, through two towering cameleopards. He came a third time, and at once passing many things that tempted him by the way, he passed on into the great and wonderful Egyptian Saloon. Here he lingered for hours over ancient Egyptian tombstones; before colossal sarcophagi; thinking of the tough work Belzoni must have had of it with the young Memnon; endeavouring to realise the approach to the ancient Egyptian temples through rows of colossal and majestic sphinxes. Next he passed on to the ruins of Nineveh, and its mystic mounds. Here he was with Layard for a time, dreaming of the ancient Assyrians and their winged bulls. Hence he passed into the Lycian room, and saw something of the strange remains of the Xanthus of old; and then, probably, he went home to dream of these great marvels of the times gone by. But he came again; and this time hovered throughout the day amid the ruins of the arts of ancient Greece. And now he has examined these; and he may leave the national museum, assured that he has some useful knowledge of the curiosities which scientific men have gathered from the remote parts of the world, for the benefit of the learned resident in England.

The tens of thousands who flock to the museum in holiday times prove its attractions; and it is with the hope that these attractions may be enhanced by the help of a methodical and homely guide, chattering to the visitor various bits and scraps of pertinent information as he passes from one object to another, that these four visits have been presented to the public. They do not pretend to be scientific books, but simply companions of the hour, that urge little points of information while the mind is particularly impressible; and showing the kind of interest that attaches to objects which, for the want of a timely word, the visitor would have passed unnoticed.

Many objects which are curiosities to the scientific man, but which could not in any way interest the casual visitor, have been passed by without hesitation.

Our main object has been to give the visitor clear impressions of the different departments or classes into which the national collection naturally divides itself, by guiding his eye consecutively to those objects which bear relation to each other. It was necessary, to make ourselves attractive as guides, to eschew all learned and stiff formalities; to class matters easily as we found them; and to sustain the visitor's interest throughout his four journeys. The monotony of a formal catalogue is repulsive to visitors chiefly bent upon enjoying a few hours amusement; therefore we chose to direct the eye to objects, and at once to interest the visitor in them, by shortly explaining their points of interest. The success which this endeavour met elsewhere has encouraged us to perform the present task; and we hope shortly to be at the elbow of visitors to other interesting buildings and exhibitions.

The popularity of the British Museum may be shown by quoting the last return of the number of visitors, &c., presented to the House of Commons. This return proves that, while the public interest in the collection is on the increase, that the guardians of the different departments look out eagerly for new curiosities:—"The number of readers—or rather of visits made by readers, in 1850, was 78,533:—or, an average of some 268 per diem:—the Reading Rooms having been kept open 291 days. The number of books returned to the shelves of the General Library from the Reading Rooms was 119,093; to those of the Royal Library, 11,252; to those of the Grenville Library, 387: to the closets in which the books are kept from day to day for the use of the readers, 110,950:—making a total of 241,682, or 830 per diem. The number of volumes added to the Library amounts to 16,208 (including music, maps, and newspapers); of which 837 were presented, 11,793 purchased, and 3575 received by copyright. The Keeper of the MSS. has been busy cleaning, cataloguing, and stamping. Eleven of the valuable Cottonian MSS. on vellum (including the Chronicle of Roger de Wendover, supposed to have been utterly destroyed), and two Old Royal as well as five Cottonian on paper, all injured in the fire of 1731, have been carefully repaired, inlaid, and rebound. The purchases include a Psalter of the tenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Stavelot, in the diocese of Liége,—'a remarkably fine Greek MS.' containing the works ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite,—and the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzum, 'with scholia written in the year 6480 (A.D. 972);'—together with nineteen additional volumes of a series of transcripts from the Archives at the Hague, of documents relating to English history, extending from 1588 to 1614 and from 1689 to 1702.—In the 'Department of Natural History,' we find that great progress has been made in the arrangement of the contents of Room No. VI.,—its wall cases having been entirely filled with the gigantic Osseous Remains of Edentata and Pachydermata, and that the Central Room of the Northern Zoological Gallery has been devoted to a collection of the Beasts, Birds, Fish, Reptiles, Shells, Sea Eggs, Starfish, and Corals found in the British Islands. The purchases include 'a silver decadrachm of Alexander the Great,' from the collection of Colonel Rawlinson,—the first ever discovered,—'and two very rare British gold coins, having on them the name TIN.'"

THE END.