Proofs of a sincere appreciation of classical art among the leaders of English society in the second half of the eighteenth century could be readily multiplied. We might instance the case of Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond, who celebrated his Italian tour by setting up a collection of painting, sculptures and casts in a gallery of his house in Whitehall and establishing schools of art there under Cipriani, the painter, and Wilton, the sculptor. But the supreme evidence of the value of the system is furnished by the case of Thomas, Earl of Elgin. That nobleman was engaged about 1802 upon a mission to the Ottoman Porte. He was fortunate enough to obtain a _firman_ to examine and remove certain “inscriptions” from the Acropolis of Athens, at that time a Turkish fortress. His agents, under this _firman_, collected the Elgin marbles, which were conveyed to England in 1812 and finally purchased by the British Government in 1816. Even at this date, in spite of the writings of Lessing and Winckelmann, public opinion was in grave doubt as to the desirability of paying the beggarly £35,000 which the Earl of Elgin asked for his treasures. He had spent upwards of £70,000, so the offer was an exceptionally generous one. Even a man like Flaxman was doubtful as to the real value of the marbles. Like many art-lovers of his age, he preferred Raphael to Rembrandt—the “Venus of Medici” to the “Three Fates.” [Illustration: FLAXMAN MICHAEL AND SATAN (SKETCH) Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington] Flaxman was the first English sculptor of European reputation. He was born in 1755 and died in 1826, so his career practically coincided with that of Canova. The son of a manufacturer of plaster of Paris casts, the boy Flaxman was terribly handicapped by a threatened deformity. But when he laid aside his crutches at ten years of age, his natural bent towards art began to display itself definitely. In 1770 he won the silver medal for sculpture at the Royal Academy. Patrons, however, proved few and far between and the necessity for making a living drove Flaxman to accept the commissions for the classical designs made famous through their association with Wedgwood pottery. His real career as a sculptor began in 1787. Like Thorvaldsen he could have said: “I was born when I first saw Rome. Before I merely existed.” When Flaxman returned to England eight years later, his future was assured. He became an A.R.A. in 1797 and an R.A. in 1800.