Another noble Lord [Aberdeen] has done better, because he has done less: but some others, more or less noble, yet "all honourable men," have done _best_, because, after a deal of excavation and execration, bribery to the Waywode, mining and countermining, they have done nothing at all. We had such ink-shed, and wine-shed, which almost ended in bloodshed![209] Lord E.'s "prig"--see Jonathan Wild for the definition of "priggism"[210]--quarrelled with another, _Gropius_[211] by name (a very good name too for his business), and muttered something about satisfaction, in a verbal answer to a note of the poor Prussian: this was stated at table to Gropius, who laughed, but could eat no dinner afterwards. The rivals were not reconciled when I left Greece. I have reason to remember their squabble, for they wanted to make me their arbitrator. 7. Her Sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard, Yet felt some portion of their Mother's pains. Stanza xii. lines 7 and 8. I cannot resist availing myself of the permission of my friend Dr. Clarke, whose name requires no comment with the public, but whose sanction will add tenfold weight to my testimony, to insert the following extract from a very obliging letter of his to me, as a note to the above lines:--"When the last of the Metopes was taken from the Parthenon, and, in moving of it, great part of the superstructure with one of the triglyphs was thrown down by the workmen whom Lord Elgin employed, the Disdar, who beheld the mischief done to the building, took his pipe from his mouth, dropped a tear, and in a supplicating tone of voice, said to Lusieri, Τέλος [Telos]!--I was present." The Disdar alluded to was the father of the present Disdar. [Disdar, or Dizdar, i.e. castle-holder--the warden of a castle or fort (_N. Eng. Dict_., art. "Dizdar"). The story is told at greater length in _Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa_, by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D., 1810-14, Part II. sect. ii. p. 483.] 8. Where was thine Ægis, Pallas! that appalled Stern Alaric and Havoc on their way? Stanza xiv. lines i and 2. According to Zosimus, Minerva and Achilles frightened Alaric from the Acropolis: but others relate that the Gothic king was nearly as mischievous as the Scottish peer.--See Chandler. [Zosimus, _Historiæ_, lib. v. cap. 6, _Corp. Scr. Byz_., 1837, p. 253. As a matter of fact, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, occupied Athens in A.D. 395 without resistance, and carried off the movable treasures of the city, though he did not destroy buildings or works of art.--Note by Rev. E. C. Owen, _Childe Harold_, 1898, p. 162.] 9. The netted canopy. Stanza xviii. line 2. To prevent blocks or splinters from falling on deck during action.