Note 105 — BOOK VI[60]

Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin and eleventh Earl of Kincardine (1766-1841) was British Envoy to Constantinople from 1799 to 1802. Between 1801 and 1803, he removed to England from Athens the so-called Elgin marbles, comprising the bulk of the surviving plastic decoration of the Parthenon, executed under the direction of Phidias about 440 B.C. These stolen goods were purchased by the nation in 1816 and are now in the British Museum.—T.