64 TABLEAU ck la PLAINE de TROTE 



Solomon Ghormezano, fon of the late French Conful. After 

 immenfe labour, he at laft difcovered the place where the re- 

 liques were depofited. When coUecfled, they filled a large cheft. 

 He delivered them to his employer M. Choiseul, who repaid 

 his trouble with thanks only : but he referved feveral fpeci- 

 mens, which he afterwards Ihewed and explained, when the 

 Count was no longer formidable. Of thefe a lift is given in the 

 letter ; fuch as, pieces of burnt bones ; pieces of a metal vafe ; 

 charcoal of vine branches j a piece of mortar and ftone ; a piece 

 of metal of a triangular fliape ; pieces of very fine pottery, 

 well painted with wreaths of flowers of a dark olive colour, 8cc. 

 An account is then given of the ftrata of earth dug through. 

 Dr Dallaway, in the text, fays, that " extreme age, and the 

 " prefllire of the ground, had crumbled into atoms of ruft all 

 " the metalhc fubftances. The urn or vafe, M. Fauval, an 

 " ingenious artift, now refiding at Athens, received from M. 

 " Choiseul in its decayed form, and made a model from it, 

 " which has been exhibited to feveral conoifTeurs, as much to 

 " their furprife as fatisfadion." Dr Dallaway adds: " And 

 " the goddefsj with her chariot and four horfes, feems to prove that 

 " the Troad continues to be the land of invention." Yet it is 

 very remarkable that Mr Hawkins, who faw M. Fauval at 

 Athens, exprefsly fays, that this laft mentioned gentleman de- 

 nied the exiftence of an urn, but fpoke of a fmall bronze image 

 of Minerva, of which he fliewed them a caft. " At Athens,'* 

 fays Mr Hawkins in his fecond letter to Mr Liston, " we fell 

 " in with M. Fauval, a very ingenious artift, long in the fer- 

 " vice of M. DE Choiseul, who afifured us, that M. Cheva- 

 " lier's account of the goblet, difcovered in the tomb of Achil- 

 ■** les, is perfecftly fabulous. It originated, it feems, from the 

 " fragment of a fmall bronze figure, which, when he had clean- 

 " fed, and put together, proved to be a very curious image of 

 " Minerva. He ihewed us a caft which he had made of it in 



" plafter, 



