[121] [{106}] [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see Introduction to the Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 453-456.]
The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he?
Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be—
England! I joy no child he was of thine:
Thy freeborn men revere what once was free,
Nor tear the Sculpture from its saddening shrine,
Nor bear the spoil away athwart the weeping Brine.—[MS. D. erased.]
This be the wittol Picts ignoble boast.—[MS. D.]
To rive what Goth and Turk, and Time hath spared:
Cold and accursed as his native coast.—[MS. D. erased]
[122] ["On the plaster wall of the Chapel of Pandrosos adjoining the Erechtheum, these words have been very deeply cut—
'Quod non fecerunt Goti,
Hoc fecerunt Scoti'"
(Travels in Albania, 1858, i. 299). M. Darmesteter quotes the original: "mot sur les Barberini" ("Quod non fecere Barbari, Fecere Barberini"). It may be added that Scotchmen are named among the volunteers who joined the Hanoverian mercenaries in the Venetian invasion of Greece in 1686. (See The Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 463, note 1; Finlay's Hist. of Greece, v. 189.)]
What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue,
Albion was happy while Athenæ mourned?
Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung,
Albion! I would not see thee thus adorned
With gains thy generous spirit should have scorned,
From Man distinguished by some monstrous sign,
Like Attila the Hun was surely horned,[A]
Who wrought the ravage amid works divine:
Oh that Minerva's voice lent its keen aid to mine.—[MS. D. erased.]