ATHENS. 337 
the wells. Mr. Cripps, in the mean time, super- CHAP. 
intended the excavation of a tumulus near the 
road leading to the Piraeus; but the difficulty 
of carrying on any undertaking of this kind, 
owing to the jealousy, not only of the Turks, 
but also of the Greeks, who always suppose that 
some secret horde of gold is the object of 
research, renders it liable to continual inter- 
ruption. After two days spent in opening the 
tomb, we had the mortification to find that it 
had been examined before ; and we had good 
reason to believe that a knowledge of this cir- 
cumstance was the sole ground of the easy 
permission we had obtained to begin the labour 
for the second time. In the examination of the 
wells, we succeeded better; but our acquisi- 
tions were as nothing, compared with those 
which have since been made 1 . The reasons 
which induced the author to suspect that the 
cleansing of an old well would lead to the 
discovery of valuable antiquities, were these : 
(l) Particularly by Mr. DoJwell, and by !Vfr. Graham of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, son ot Sir James Grahnm, Bart The latter of these 
gentlemen, in opening one ol the wells restored to the inhabitants of 
Athens, to their great joy, a very fine spring of water, which burst 
forth upon the removal of the rubbish by which the well was filled : 
the most valuable gift he could have made to a city where wa er 
particularly scarce. 
VOL. vr. z 
