The temple to which these marbles had belonged, and beneath the ruins of which they were found, stands on a ridge clothed with oak trees on one of the slopes of Mount Cotylium. The scenery which surrounds it is of great beauty. The temple itself has long been a ruin. It was the work of ICTINUS, the builder of the Parthenon. One portion of the frieze of its _cella_ represents the battles of the Centaurs and the Lapithæ—the subject of the metopes of the Parthenon entablature. The remaining portion illustrates another series of mythic contests—that of the Athenians and the Amazons. The extent of this frieze, in its integrity, was about a hundred and eight feet in length, by two feet one and a quarter inches in height. About ninety-six lineal feet were found, broken into innumerable fragments, but susceptible, as it proved—by dint of skill and of marvellous patience—of almost entire reunion, so that no restoration was needed to bring the subject of the sculpture into perfect intelligibility. [Sidenote: THE EXCAVATIONS ON MOUNT COTYLIUM.] Mr. COCKERELL, one of the most active of the explorers of 1812, had to proceed to Sicily whilst his fellows in the enterprise carried on the toils of digging and removal. But it is from his pen that we have a charming little notice of the progress of the work, and of the amusements which enlivened it. ‘I regret’ wrote Mr. COCKERELL, ‘that I was not of that delightful party at Phigaleia, which amounted to above fifteen persons. They established themselves, for three months, on the top of Mount Cotylium—where there is a grand prospect over nearly all Arcadia—building, round the Temple, huts covered with boughs of trees, until they had almost formed a village, which they called Francopolis. They had frequently fifty or eighty men at work in the Temple, and a band of Arcadian music was constantly playing to entertain this numerous assemblage. When evening put an end to work, dances and songs commenced; lambs were roasted whole on a long wooden spit; and the whole scene in such a situation, at such an interesting time, when, every day, some new and beautiful sculpture was brought to light, is hardly to be imagined. Apollo must have wondered at the carousals which disturbed his long repose, and have thought that his glorious days of old were returned.’ [Sidenote: Cockerell to ...; printed by Hughes, _Travels in Greece_, vol. i, p. 194.]