It may give you some idea of the state of the useful arts in Athens to know, that we found it difficult to procure a ladder to ascend the Temple of Theseus, although, by the help of the apsis of the church, one of about ten feet long, for which we were indebted to M. Fauvel, answered our purpose. We found a fragment of a marble tile on the top, but it is not certain that the whole covering was of marble. There are rows of cramp holes in pairs, on the top of the cornice, near the edge, having probably supported the ornamental tiles, or antefixæ; and along the pediment are similar holes, disposed singly at equal distances, and at the top some larger and deeper holes for fixing the acroterium. At the bottom of the slope of the pediment there are several small holes, which perhaps fixed the ornament in that part, and we find vestiges of this kind, of the insertion of statues in the eastern tympanum. Here was the original front, for the doorway marked by Stuart at the western end, did not belong to the temple, but to the church which succeeded it. The spaces between the internal columns at the west end were filled up with marble slabs, rising as high as the necking of the capitals, but to what use the space so inclosed was applied, or what entrance was left to it, I cannot tell. LETTER XLVII. ACROPOLIS. _Athens, March, 1818._ ATHENS puts one in mind of Rome, from the number of fragments of architecture and sculpture everywhere scattered about. In the walls, in the court-yards, in the churches, we are continually meeting with something too trifling, or too much mutilated, to be of value in itself, but powerfully impressing the imagination with the idea of what has been. The great treasure of Grecian architecture is in the Acropolis, where there are three buildings, of which the remains are considerable; the Propylæa, or entrance, the temple of Minerva, and another edifice, which has been supposed to contain three temples, viz. those of Erectheus, of Minerva Polias, and of the nymph Pandrosus. The two first-mentioned buildings are of the Doric order, and it is here you see all the perfection of Greek masonry; horizontal joints so close, that after the lapse of 2,000 years, you cannot introduce the finest edge, nor even follow them everywhere by the eye; and vertical ones, of which you only see occasional indications; and this on a plain surface of white marble, a substance in which above all others, the slightest mark is visible. In order to understand the following description of the Propylæa, I recommend you to open the second volume of Stuart’s Athens, and lay the plan of the edifice before you.