Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin (1766-1841), whose collection was the next and greatest addition to the British Museum, had been appointed British Ambassador to the Porte in 1799. On his appointment, he resolved to make his time of office of service to the cause of art, and accordingly engaged a body of five architects, draughtsmen and formatori, under Lusieri, a Neapolitan portrait painter, to make casts, plans and drawings from the remains in Greece, and more particularly at Athens. While the work was in progress, Lord Elgin became aware of the rapid destruction that was taking place of the sculptures in Athens. The success of the British arms in Egypt having made the disposition of the Porte favourable to the British Ambassador, a firman was obtained which sanctioned the removal of the sculptures. The whole collection, formed by Lord Elgin's agents, was, after long negotiations, and an enquiry by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, purchased of Lord Elgin for £35,000 in 1816. It consists of sculptures and architectural fragments from the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and other Athenian buildings; casts, which have now become of great value, from the Parthenon, the Theseion, and the Monument of Lysicrates; a considerable number of Greek reliefs, principally from Athens; fragments from Mycenae and elsewhere; drawings and plans. The marbles and casts of the Parthenon acquired in the Elgin Collection, have since been supplemented, not only by casts of sculptures newly discovered at Athens, but also by the additions of fragments, removed from Athens by occasional travellers, and acquired for the Museum by donation or purchase. The gifts include a head of a Lapith,[24] from the Duke of Devonshire, and pieces of the frieze from Mr. C. R. Cockerell,[25] and Mr. J. H. Smith-Barry;[26] also from the Society of Dilettanti[27] and the Royal Academy.[28] Lord Elgin was actively assisted in the East by his secretary, William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859), who afterwards became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1809-1822). From Mr. Hamilton the Museum received a few sculptures, including a sepulchral relief from Tarentum.[29] In 1824 the British Museum obtained by bequest the collections of Richard Payne Knight (1749-1824), a learned but fanciful antiquarian, and a leading member of the Society of Dilettanti. Payne Knight's collection was especially rich in bronzes, gems, and coins, but it also contained a series of marble portrait busts. The next addition of importance was the collection of sculptures and casts brought at the public expense in 1842 from Xanthos and other sites in Lycia, discovered by Sir Charles Fellows (1799-1860), in the course of his journeys of 1838 and 1840.[30]