Note 18 — INTRODUCTION.

The great collection that had been formed by Charles Townley18 was purchased in 1805 by Act of Parliament, 45 Geo. III. cap. 127, for £20,000, a sum greatly below the value of the sculptures. Charles Townley (1737-1805), of Townley, in Lancashire, acquired a large part of his marbles, during a residence in Italy, between 1768 and 1772, but continued collecting, after his return to England. The chief sources from which he formed his museum were the following: (1) the older Roman collections, from which Townley made numerous purchases; (2) the excavations carried on by Gavin Hamilton, a Scotch painter living in Rome (died 1797), and by Thomas Jenkins, an English banker; (3) occasional purchases from older English collections. Thus the relief of Exakestes19 was derived from the collection of Dr. Richard Mead (see above). The relief of Xanthippos20 had been brought to England by Dr. Anthony Askew, a physician, who visited Athens and the East, about 1747, and compiled a manuscript volume of inscriptions, now in the British Museum (Burney MSS., No. 402). Several pieces21 were also obtained from the collection formed at Wimbledon by Lyde Browne, a virtuoso and Director of the Bank of England, who died in 1787.