About the time that the Rosetta Stone was brought to light at Fort St. Julian to reveal the mystery of hieroglyphics, Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to Constantinople, made up his mind to try to save a few of the priceless fragments scattering the Acropolis at Athens. For years the Turks had been using the Parthenon as a quarry, carting off the stones and building them into their houses. The vandalism of the Turks was almost incredible. They ripped out the stones of the most glorious building the world has ever seen and built them into their forts; they fired their guns at the sculptures in a fury of sheer destruction. They broke off arms and legs and gave them to passing travellers. Anything and everything they could do to obliterate the glory of ancient Greece was done. Lord Elgin, knowing how much had vanished within living memory, knew that in a few years little would be left, for the Turks delighted in destroying those things which the Christian infidels came so far to see. He treated with the Turkish authorities, he even went so far as to gain the ear of the Sultan’s mother, and in the end he was granted an order to dig and remove any stones and sculptures which he desired. A staff of artists went to Athens on behalf of Lord Elgin to sketch the ruins on the Acropolis. Athens, however, was a long way from Constantinople, and the power of the Porte diminished as the distance from the capital increased. The local officials, reading the order in their own way, would only let the artists enter the Acropolis upon payment of £5 a day. For the greater part of a year Lord Elgin paid this exaction without demur. Money was nothing to him so long as he saved these beautiful relics of the past. Over four hundred men were employed in collecting what was to be saved of the fragments which, shattered and smashed, were still of unique beauty. They dug among the gigantic heaps of ruins for remains of marbles. Scaffolding was erected to take down some of the matchless figures in the frieze. Stones were taken out of the forts and replaced with less valuable stones. A rumour that some marbles had been built into a Turkish house reached Lord Elgin’s ears, and at once he sent to Constantinople for special permission to pull down the house. After much delay and a great deal of trouble, coupled with the expenditure of a considerable sum in bribes, the permission was granted. Lord Elgin set his men to work, and stone by stone the house was pulled down. No trace of marbles could be found.