The earliest, in arrival, of the Halicarnassian Marbles were procured by our Ambassador at Constantinople (then Sir Stratford CANNING, now) Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. These first-received marbles comprise twelve slabs, sculptured with the combats of Greeks and Amazons in low-relief; and were removed from the walls of the mediæval castle of Budrum, in the year 1846, with the permission, of course, of the Sublime Porte. It is a tribute all the stronger to the energy of Lord STRATFORD to find another man of energy writing, in 1841: ‘I would not have been a party to the asking what—to all who have seen them’ (namely, the Marbles of Halicarnassus, built into the inner walls of Budrum Castle)—‘must be considered as an unreasonable request.’ [Sidenote: _Travels and Researches in Asia Minor_, pp. 429, 430 (1852).] It took, it is true, five years for Lord STRATFORD to overcome the obstacle which to Mr. FELLOWS seemed, in 1841, quite insuperable. [Sidenote: THE MISSION TO THE LEVANT OF MR. CHARLES NEWTON. 1856–58.] In 1856, and expressly in order to a thorough exploration of the site of Halicarnassus, and of other promising parts of the Levant, Mr. Charles NEWTON, then one of the ablest of the officers of the Department of Antiquities (whose loss at the Museum, even for three or four years, was not very easily replaceable), accepted the office of British Vice-Consul at Mitylene. In 1857, he discovered four additional slabs (similar to those received from the Ambassador), on the site of the world-famous mausoleum itself; several colossal statues, and portions of such; together with a multitude of architectural fragments of almost every conceivable kind; columns—mostly broken into many portions—with their bases, capitals, and entablatures, in sufficient quantity and diversity to warrant a faithful restoration of the ancient building by a competent hand. From Didyme (near Miletus), from Cnidus, and from Branchidæ, many fine archaic figures in the round; some colossal lions; and an enormous number of fragments both of sculpture and of architecture; with many minor antiquities, various in character and in material, were successively sent to England. Mr. Charles NEWTON’S narrative of his adventures at Budrum, and at several of the other places of his sojourn and excavations, is very graphic. Some portions of it are worthy to be placed side by side with the best chapters of the earlier narrative of the explorations and travelling experiences of LAYARD. Of the most famous trophy of Mr. NEWTON’S first mission to the East—the mausoleum built by Queen ARTEMISIA—the discoverer has himself more recently given this brief and striking descriptive account:— [Sidenote: THE TOMB OF MAUSOLUS AT HALICARNASSUS.]