ATHENS. 223 
of our descending again from the Acropolis 
before the evening: but gave us a recom- 
mendation to the house of a widow, sister of the 
late English Consul, where he said we might be 
comfortably lodged ; and to which he promised 
to conduct us, after dining with him and the 
Disdar or Governor of the Citadel, in the midst 
of the splendid remains of architecture and 
sculpture by, which we were surrounded. He 
became our guide to all the different buildings ; 
and began by shewing us the PARTHENON. 
Some workmen, employed under his direction Spoliation 
J of the 
for the British Ambassador, were then engaged Temples. 
in making preparation, by means of ropes and 
pulleys, for taking down the metopes, where the 
sculpture remained the most perfect. The 
Disdar himself came to view the work, but with 
evident marks of dissatisfaction; and Lusieri 
told us that it was with great difficulty he 
could accomplish this part of his undertaking, 
from the attachment the Turks entertained 
towards a building which they had been 
deserving the title of a patron of such excellence. Many have bought 
his designs when he could be induced to part with them, by which 
means he has barely obtained subsistence ; and he is too passionately 
attached to the sources which Athens has afforded to his genius, to 
abandon Greece, even for the neglect which, in his letters to the author, 
he complains of having there experienced. 
