INTRODUCTION. 
xiii 
by various purchases. During the collector's life these marbles were 
preserved in a house adapted for the purpose in Park Street, West- 
minster. Mr. Townley died in the year 1804. By his will he be- 
queathed his collection to his brother, on condition of his expending on 
a building, for its exhibition, a sum of not less than £4,500, or, 
failing his brother's acceptance of the condition, to his uncle, on the 
same terms, and if declined by both legatees, it was to go to 
the British Museum. In the following year, 1805, a grant of 
£•20,000 was obtained from Parliament to enable the Trustees to 
make an arrangement with the family for the purchase of the 
marbles; and subsequently, in 1814, the bronzes, coins, gems, and 
drawings of Mr. Townley 's collection, which were not included in the 
bequest, were acquired for the sum of £8,200. 
The years 1814 and 1815 are the period of the enrichment of the Parthenon 
Museum by the acquisition of the frieze, metopes, and sculptures in the Sculptures, 
round from the Parthenon of Athens and the Temple of Apollo at jj e ^! n Mar ' 
Phigaleia, in x\rcadia. The Parthenon sculptures — probably the work 
of Pheidias and the most precious relics of antiquity — with other 
works of Greek art at its highest point of excellence, had been brought 
together by the Earl of Elgin, partly during his embassy to Constan- 
tinople in the years J 799 and 1811 ; and an Act for the purchase of 
his collection, for .£35,000, was passed in July, 1816. 
The Phigaleian marbles had been excavated by Mr. C. R. Cockerell, Pliigaleian 
the architect, and others, who had formed an association for the Marbles, 
purpose of exploration of antiquities. They were purchased in 1815, 
1816, for £19,000. 
Another interval of ten years was followed by the acquisition of Mr. p a yne- 
Payne-Knight's marbles, bronzes, coins, and other antiquities, be- Knight 
queathed by him to the Museum, and estimated at the time at not Collections, 
less than £60,000. 
The marbles recovered by Sir Charles Fellows from the sites of Lycian 
buried cities in Lycia were received in 1845. Marbles. 
In the years 1851 — 1860 were added the Assyrian sculptures ex- Assyrian 
cavated by Mr., now Sir, Henry A. Layard. Sculpture?. 
In the years 1856, 1857 were acquired the remains of the famous Mausoleum 
Mausoleum, with other works, from Budrum, the ancient Halicar- remains, 
nassus, recovered by Mr. Charles T. Newton, the present keeper of the 
Greek and Roman antiquities. 
Since then, many choice works of Greek sculpture have been added G-reek 
to the Museum : especially may be mentioned those obtained from Sculptures, 
excavations at Cyrene in 1861, and by purchase from the Farnese Cyrene. 
Palace at Rome in 1864. The latest acquisitions of importance are 
the remains of extremely interesting sculptured columns and other 
objects recovered from the buried ruins of the Temple of Ephesus Ephesus. 
in the years 1863-1875, under the direction of Mr. J. T. Wood, and a 
series of architectural members and pieces of sculpture with a number 
of very important Greek inscriptions, excavated by the Society of 
Dilettanti on the site of the Temple of Athena Polias at Priene, and 
presented by them in 1870. 
