instances in which it required alteration have been attended to; and the same very learned Greek Scholar has also contributed a few of his own observations, which are now added to the Notes upon this Inscription. CAMBRIDGE, June 5, 1818. MEM AOUK IN publishing all that remains to complete the SECOND PART of these Travels, the author has the satisfaction of making some addition to his former remarks, upon certain antiquities which appear to him likely to illustrate, in a very remarkable manner, the customs, and the religion, and the language of ANTIENT GREECE. Ever since the first notice of the characters of the Greek alphabet upon the terra-cotta vases, found in the sepulchres of the South of Italy, decided the fact of their Hellenic origin, a hope had been entertained, that new and copious sources of information, touching the arts and literature of Greece, would be brought to light by researches among the tombs of the mother country. Nearly half a century, however, elapsed, from the time that this expectation was originally excited, without any considerable discovery being made. Above twenty years ago, the author was at Naples with his friend the late Sir William Hamilton, who had long indulged the same hope, when the return of two English gentlemen, Messrs. Berners and Tilson, from their travels in Greece, (bringing with them. terra-cotta vases similar to those called Etruscan, but derived from sepulchres in Græcia Propria,) tended greatly towards its fulfilment. These, and other vases, found by Englishmen travelling in Greece, or by their agents living at Athens, have been occasionally discovered; but they were principally vessels of libation, or small pateras and cups, with little or no ornament, excepting a plain black varnish, or, at the most, a few lines hastily scratched with a sharp instrument upon their surfaces, or traced in colour by way of cincture or border. Nothing that might be considered as fair specimens of Grecian painting, nor any inscriptions, appeared upon those terra-coltas. What the result of the author's own researches in Græcia Propria was, may be seen by reference to the account he has published in the former Section, and especially in the Eighth Chapter of the Sixth Volume, to which an engraving was annexed, representing the principal terra-cottas there described': yet few persons have been more zealous in their researches after such antiquities than he was; because he had for many years looked forward to the contribution they might make to the taste and the literature of his country. Since his departure from Athens, some excavations, undertaken by the two rival artists, Lusieri and Fauvel, whose merits he has before noticed, began to realize the prospect so long and so generally formed. Their discoveries were followed by a still more extensive examination of the soil near Athens, conducted under the patronage of several persons from this country; but by none more successfully than by Mr. Dodwell, by Mr. Graham, and by Mr. Burgon. The representation of a fine vase belonging to Mr. Dodwell has been already published'; but the more important discoveries of Mr. Graham, and of Mr. Burgon of Smyrna, as connected with the arts and the literature of Greece, and with a subject so often alluded to in these Travels, demand all the (1) See the Plate facing p. 458 of the former Volume. attention which it is now in the author's power to bestow upon a topic he has already discussed. Mr. Graham, being at Athens, caused an excavation to be made near the supposed site of the Academy, on the left-hand side of the antient paved-way, leading from Athens to Thebes. Such was his success, that he discovered and brought to this country nearly a thousand vases, of a nature and quality so extraordinary, that in some instances, as will presently appear, nothing like them had ever been seen before. Their discovery amounts to nothing less than the development of a series of original pictures, painted upon the most durable of all materials, representing the arts, the mythology, the religious ceremonies, and the habits of the ATHENIANS, in the earliest periods of their history. Upon some of these vessels, the colours, the gilding, and the lettering, remain as fresh as when they were deposited in the tombs of Attica, more than two thousands years ago. Upon one Athenian tripod chalice is pictured the altercation between Minerva and Neptune for ATTICA; at which all the superior Gods of Greece presided: consequently, this chalice has been made to exhibit a complete PANTHEON, by a series of designs, equal in the style of their execution to any of the Grecian paintings |