off the Palladium, and sold to Lord Shelburne. This statue is however in reality a duplicate of Myron's Discobolus, similar to that in the Townley Collection, now at the British Museum. An estate at Roma Vecchia belonging to the Hospital of San Giovanni Laterano was the next scene of his labours. Here was found the Aesculapius, the size of life, now at Lansdowne House.
Gavin Hamilton was not free from the imputation resting on other professional collectors of antiques, of having made up statues, and his letters contain more than one frank admission on the subject. It is said that even Nollekens was in the habit of furnishing torsos with heads and limbs, staining them with tobacco-water, and selling them for enormous sums;[1] and there appears to be a suspicion that the head of the statue of Marcus Aurelius at Lansdowne House belonged to another and inferior statue found by Hamilton near the same spot at Tor Colombaro.[2]
Hamilton died in 1797 at Rome. His decease is said to have been occasioned by anxiety of mind and fear of robbery by the French army of occupation.[3]
Another well-known figure in Bowood society was the Dutch physician Ingenhousz. At what period he came to England is not clear. It is probable that his introduction to Shelburne was through Priestley or Franklin. He soon became a regular habitué of Bowood. Apart from his writings and discoveries, Ingenhousz deserves to be recollected as one of the first scientific men of the day, who devoted his attention to the overthrow of the delusions existing in the popular mind on the subject of health. He is said to have anticipated the saying attributed to an eminent modern statesman, that dirt
- ↑ Life of Nollekens, 11.
- ↑ Dallaway's Anecdotes, 372.
- ↑ The date of Hamilton's death is wrongly given in Bryan's Dictionary, where it appears as 1775. The date also of the excavations subsequent to those at Monte Cagnolo is given in Dallaway as 1792. This is a misprint for 1772. The catalogue of the Ancient Marbles at Lansdowne House by Mr. A. H. Smith, based on the work of Dr. Adolf Michaelis on the Ancient Marbles of Great Britain, contains the original documents relating to the collection, which were published by the present author in the Academy in 1878.
