ii PREFACE TO THIRD SECTION 
had been entertained, that new and copious 
sources of information, touching the arts and 
Hterature of Greece, would be brought to light 
by researches among the tombs of the mother 
country. Nearly half a century, however, 
elapsed, from the time that this expectation 
was originally excited, without any considerable 
discovery being made. Above twenty years 
ago, the author was at Naples with his friend 
the late Sir William Hamilton, who had long 
indulged the same hope, when the return of two 
English gentlemen, Messrs. Berners and Tilson, 
from their travels in Greece, (bringing with them 
terra-cotta vases similar to those called Etruscan, 
but derived from sepulchres in Gnecia Propria^ 
tended greatly towards its fulfilment. These, 
and other vases, found by Englishmen tra- 
velling in Greece, or by their agents living at 
Athens, have been occasionally discovered ; but 
they were principally vessels of libation, or small 
pateras and cups, with little or no ornament, ex- 
cepting a plain black varnish, or, at the most, a 
fev/ lines hastily scratched with a sharp instru- 
ment upon their surfaces, or traced in colouy"). 
by way of cincture or border. Nothing that" 
might be considered as fair specimens of Grecian 
painting, nor any inscriptions, appeared upon 
those terra-cottas. What the result of the 
author s own researches in Grtecia Propria was. 
