ASSYRIAN GALLERIES. 
135 
much in the mode in which they are now exhibited. From the 
violence with which the temple had been destroyed, probably by an 
earthquake, all the statues had been in some degree mutilated, and 
some so entirely destroyed that it was in vain to attempt their restora¬ 
tion. Those which were capable of repair were committed to the 
hands of Mr. Thorwaldsen, and in uniting the broken fragments, and 
restoring the parts of them that were deficient, that eminent artist has 
shown the greatest care and sagacity. 
The pediment at the north side of the room is taken from the western 
end of the temple; it contains ten figures, and it is supposed that there 
w T as originally one more, who was stooping down to assist the fallen 
warrior, who is wounded, at the feet of Minerva. The subject is sup¬ 
posed to be the contest between the Greeks and Trojans for the body of 
Patroclus; Ajax, assisted by Teucer and Diomed, endeavouring to 
recover the body, Hector, Paris, and iEneas to seize it. 
Of the figures which adorned the other pediment only five now re¬ 
main, and the loss of the rest is the more to be lamented, as the sculp¬ 
tures of this eastern end are of a much higher character than those of 
the western. From the few figures which are still spared to us, it appears 
that the subject of this picture was similar to that of the other pediment, 
modified only by the taste and skill of the artist, perhaps the expedition 
of Hercules and Telamon against Troy. 
At the ends of the room are casts of the metopes of the old temple 
at Selinus, which are considered some of the earliest specimens of 
Greek art; they represent Hercules and the Cercopes, or two thieves 
of Ephesus; Perseus, assisted by Pallas Athene, killing the Gorgon 
Medusa, out of whom leaps Pegasus ; a female divinity who has killed 
one of the giants; and a figure in a biga attended by two others on 
horseback. Presented by Samuel Angell , Esq. 
The East side of this Room opens into, the 
ASSYRIAN GALLERIES. 
A suite of three long and narrow apartments, running North and 
South to a length exceeding 300 feet, with an additional room, or 
transept, crossing from their Southern extremity, contains the collection 
of sculptures excavated, chiefly by A. H. Layard, Esq., M.P., on the 
site, or in the vicinity, of ancient Nineveh. The discoveries were for 
the most part made in extensive mounds, formed by the natural accu¬ 
mulation of the soil over the debris of ruined edifices, in the three fol¬ 
lowing localities:—Nimroud, on the Tigris, about twenty miles below 
the modern Mosul; Khorsabad, a site about ten miles to the North-east 
of Mosul, which was excavated for the French Government by M. 
Botta, and from which a few specimens have been obtained for the 
British Museum; and Kouyunjik, on the Tigris, nearly opposite Mosul. 
This classification of localities, which correspond broadly with three suc¬ 
cessive periods in Assyrian history, forms the basis of the arrangement 
under which the sculptures are here exhibited. The requirements 
of space, however, have compelled, in one instance, a deviation from the 
chronological order in which the collections are now generally dis¬ 
posed; the monuments of Khorsabad being unavoidably placed in 
the transept at the Southern extremity, although in age they intervene 
