INTRODUCTION

THE Author of the following Works, Richard Chandler, was born at Elson in Hampshire, the son of Daniel Chandler. He had an elder brother, of his father's name, Daniel, who was born at Alverstoke, in the same county. Both were educated at Winchester school, the younger on the foundation, the elder not. He, the elder, entered at Brasen Nose college, Oct. 14, 1744; was, in due time, ordained; and had, at the period of his death, Nov. 3, 1791, the livings of Hascomb and Thames Ditton, in Surrey, and was also lecturer and rector of Hampton, Middlesex. He left an only daughter, Sarah, still living. The two brothers (if what was in fact remarkable, may here be noted) were personally as unlike as can well be imagined ; the elder square, rather above the middle stature; the younger round, and considerably below the standard; yet, as characteristic family features are seldom entirely wanting, we have it on undoubted authority, that they were often mistaken, the one for the other.

Richard Chandler missing New college (as the expression is) entered at Queen's, May 9, 1755, when Dr. Browne was Provost, whose classical attainments and meritorious attention to the credit and pros

perity of his individual college, and of the university in general, were justly and gratefully acknowledged by Chandler, when, having been engrafted on the foundation of another college, he had no temptation to flatter.

He was elected a demy of Magdalen college, July 24, 1757; and probationer fellow, July 25, 1770.

He had scarcely been admitted B. A. when, in 1759, he published, but without his name, Elegiaca Græca, the Fragments of Tyrtæus, Simonides, Meleager, Theognis, Alcæus, Sappho, and others, illustrated with succinct notes, but unaccompanied with a translation, and without accents; following herein, as well his own judgment, as the example of the university, whose splendid edition of Theocritus, under the care of Mr. Warton, had recently been published, without these spurious encumbrances of the text, as they were then deemed; but modern taste has judged it right to resume the typography, which Hutchinson and others, following the first printers, had not disdained to use.

His next publication was the superb edition of the Oxford or Arundelian Marbles, so named from Thomas earl of Arundel; who, availing himself of the assistance of the famous sir William Petty (ancestor of the marquis of Lansdowne) collected them in Italy, Greece, and Asia, at great expense, in the time of James and Charles I. They were presented to

1763. Pref. to Oxford Marbles. Dr. Browne was ViceChancellor in 1750.

the university by his grandson, Henry Howard, afterwards duke of Norfolk, on the suggestion and advice of the memorable and excellent John Evelyn, esq. of Balliol college; who, for his service on the occasion, received the public thanks of the university. The ancient inscriptions, which formed part of the collection, were published by Selden in 1628; of which ́another edition, under the direction of bishop Fell, was published in 1676, by Prideaux, afterwards dean of Norwich. The learned Maittaire undertook a new edition with better auspites, enriching his work with notes and an index; but he did not transcribe or collate the inscriptions, which Prideaux had pronounced to be a hopeless task. It remained therefore for Chandler, with a young and piercing eye, carefully to examine and collate the inscriptions, rectifying mistakes, supplying defects, and making out some, which others had despaired of. This part of the work was followed and adorned with engravings, from antique statues, bustos, and gems. It was printed in a beautiful type, under the Imprimatur of the earl of Litchfield, chancellor of the university, June 6, 1763, and dedicated by the university to the then youthful sovereign, George III. under a handsome medal, with a title, which hope fondly anticipated, (and never was hope more amply fulfilled!)" PATER PATRIÆ !"

The volume was enriched with a copious, elaborate, and most accurate Index, composed by John

b17 October, 1667.

Loveday esq. a gentleman commoner of Magdalen college, always the faithful friend of the Editor, and now, alas! the lasting regret of all who knew him!

A word must be added to introduce two other undying names. In acknowledging the assistance of his friends, he says, his particular thanks were due to "two members of Balliol college, universally "and justly celebrated for their vast and various "learning." These were the rev. Charles Godwyn, whose books, under his will, have since become a valuable auctarium of the Bodleian; and the rev. Joseph Sandford, whose books, also by will, enrich the library of Exeter college.

The Dilettanti Society, consisting of fifty-four noblemen and gentlemen of distinguished taste and talents, was first formed in the year 1734. Lord Despencer was the first on the list; the duke of Marlborough, earl of Sandwich, earl Spencer, viscount Palmerston, Athenian Stuart, his coadjutor Mr. Revett, and Mr. Wood, editor of the Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, were some of the other members. In 1764 the society resolved to send Mr. Chandler, known as an able scholar, and recommended by Mr. Wood, with Mr. Revett the architect, and Mr. Pars, a young painter, to travel in Asia Minor and Greece. Their instructions, drawn up by Wood, were dated May 17, 1764. They embarked at

C

The Delegates of the Press are indebted to Henry Ellis esq. for a transcript of Mr. Revett's marginal observations on both Dr. Chandler's volumes, which are now printed from the original MS. in the British Museum.

Gravesend on the 9th of June, and were in Asia rather more than a year, making Smyrna, as they were directed, their head-quarters. In August 1765 they sailed for Athens; and having employed another twelvemonth in visiting and describing places of ancient renown, in the pure air of Attica, and in the Peloponnesus, they set sail for England, and reached Bristol in the beginning of November, 1766.

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Before Mr. Chandler had leisure to prepare and publish his Travels, the importance of the object, upon which, with his able assistants, he was sent, and how well they had accomplished that object, was shewn by two splendid works, " Ionian Antiquities, or Ruins "of magnificent and famous Buildings in Ionia," inscribed by the Society of Dilettanti to his Majesty, London, 1769; and "Inscriptiones antiquæ, pleræque nondum editæ, in Asia Minori et Græcia, præsertim Athenis, collectæ," Oxford, 1774. folio. As he adverted occasionally to the classic scenes, which he had visited in his travels, it was truly de lightful, I had almost said enchanting, to my younger ears, to hear him tell, his bright eye beaming with peculiar lustre, how, after a long lapse of ages of ignorance and barbarism, and under the cruel hand d of Turkish tyranny and oppression, the lyre, though

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d This might almost be said without a metaphor; for a polltax being exacted of the Greeks by the Sublime Porte, the collector ascertains (and with great accuracy, as Dr. Chandler used to say) the age of the adults liable to the tax, by the size of the

neck.