1803: ] 
tively evident to have been the cataftrophe 
of it. 
Thatit was partiy deftroyed by an erup- 
tion of the mountain can never be doubt- 
ed; and in the following. manner: Firft 
it was fet on fire by burning matter from 
the mountain, and by the time it was well 
in flames, it was overwhelmed, and the 
fire was fmothered. 
Your Lordfhip will be convinced. of 
this, by what I am going to obferve. I 
have taken notice, that there are every 
where great quantities of beams and raf- 
ters, andtrees, and billets of wood, {cat- 
tered up and down. All thefe are burnt 
to as fine and’ perfeS a charcoal as ever I 
faw, and as any body ever made ule of. 
The very largeit beams are burnt to the 
heart, though they have perfectly preferv- 
ed their form: infomuch, that in -all of 
them T examined, I could perceive every 
ftroke of the axe or tool they were hewn or 
fhaped with. 
That the town was burnt fs as plain as 
that it was overwhelmed. Now if it had 
continued to burn for any time, all the 
beams and rafters would have been con- 
fumed to afhes, or have been quite defac- - 
ed; whereas, by the fires being fuddenly 
{mothered, they became true and perfect 
charcoal as they are. This feems to have 
been the cafe of that part of it which is hi- 
therto difcovered. 
That this deftruction was effe&ted by two 
fuch violent accidents fuddenly upon the 
back of each other, may be more natural 
than to fuppofe that it was burnt by the 
fame matter that overwhelmed it ; for if 
that had been the cafe, I don’t know how 
the pamtings‘could have been preferved fo 
frefh as they are, or indeed at all: nor 
ean it be conceived, that there fhou!d not 
appear fome marks of burning in the 
brick, the marble, the ftucco, and the 
reft. Now there is as yet no fuch thing 
to be obferved ; nor does there appear to 
be any fort of combuftible fubftance mix- 
ed with the earth or rubbifh. Both above 
and below, it feems to have been buried 
in common earth ; which could naturally 
have no fhare inthe burning of the town. 
This may make it to be believed, that 
it was rather buried by fome extraordi- 
nary effects ofan earthquake which happen- 
ed at the fame time, than by burning mat- 
ter thrown out ofthe mountain. That it 
was fet on fire by burning matter from the 
mountain, cannot well be doubted: but 
that it was buried by the burning matter 
from the mountain appears not to baye 
Account of Lord Elgin's Grecian Antiques, &c. 
Ae | j 
tsi 
been at all the cafe. In whatever man- 
ner the fate of this town was brouchtup- 
on it, it feemsto have been as dreadfala 
oneas could have been inflicted by Nature. 
I will trouble you with but one other 
obfetvation about it, which is, that the 
inhabitants feem to have had {ome difmal 
warning to forfake it ; for in the digging 
of above amile an half, which they cem- 
pute the feveral winditgs and turnings at, 
they have as yet found but one dead bedy. 
In my next I will-give you an account of 
the paintines and flatues thev have takea 
up for the king's ufe, and add. wh:t may 
have flipped from’ my memory at preient, 
In the meantime I beg you would excate 
this indigefted heap of wyting 
I heg leave to prefent my duty to my 
Lady Clifford, and to affure you that 
am moft perfectly your Lord t'p’s mok 
obedient and molt devo ed fervart, 
GEORGE SHELVOCKE, Jun, 
(15 be continued. J 
aaa 
For the Monthly Magazine, 
LETTER from @ FOREIGN CENTLEMAN 
im ROME, relative te LORD ELGIN’s 
COLLECTION 0/ GRECIAN ANTIQUES, 
and of LORD HAMILTON’S /ale TRA 
SMRBES 72 GREECE... 
HE migrations and fpolistions of 
works of art, are, to the hiftorian of 
civilized and cultivated fociety, aninper- 
tant fubje&t of inquiry, which could not 
fail to be produStive of a variety of inte- 
retting refults. How much on: this fub- 
ject might be collected from the annals of 
ancient and modern times! But it isa 
thanklefs labour. Even in ancient times, 
Themiftocles was ill-rewarded for his 
pains, when he would have reftored to her 
priftine ftation the beautiful bronze Hy- 
drophora, (Water-carrier) which the Per- 
fians had taken away from Athens, and 
placed in the temple of Cybele at Sardis. 
(See Plutarch’s Life of Themiftocles, 
chap. 31.) Stiil, however, there is fome 
merit in colle€ting the fcattered accounts 
relative to this fubject ; and Dr. Sickier, 
a German literato, already advantagee 
oufly known in the literary world, by a 
Hiltory of the Culture of Fruit-trees, 
and who is now refiding in Paris, the 
prefent central depofit of all conquered 
works of art, has Hoe in his Gefchichte 
der Wegnabme und Abfibrung vorzigl- 
cher Kunfiewerke aus den eroberten Lan- 
dru durch die Sieger, (or Hiftoyy of the 
Deportation of the moft valuable Works 
Qt 
