Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/210

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published In his Voyage du Levant (1727) by Tournefort. Stuart and Revett (1810) added measurements and details relative to some of the remains. Leake spent only a few hours at Delos (1806), and could do little more than verify the observations of predecessors. A thorough exploration of the Sacred Island may be said to have commenced with the labours of the scientific Commission sent to the Morea by the French Government (1829). One of its members, M. Blouet, accurately delineated that portion of Delos, between Mount Cynthus and the western shore, in which the principal temples were situated. Ulrichs (1863) supplied many details relating to the ancient harbours and to the arrangements of commerce. In 1873 M. J. Albert Lebégue, a member of the French School of Athens, was authorised by the Minister of Public Instruction to commence excavations on Mount Cynthus, where an ancient grotto had already engaged the attention of M. Burnouf. The results of M. Lebégue's researches—to which I shall return—were published in an able monograph (1876). In 1876 M. Th. Homolle, also a member of the French School, was commissioned by its Director, M. Dumont, to visit Delos, and in 1877 commenced excavations on the site of the temple of Apollo in the plain—that part of the island which M. Blouet had carefully described. It was in the summer of 1878—the second year of M. Homolle's researches—that I enjoyed the advantage of seeing the excavations, on Cynthus and on the plain, under his kind