Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/18

 6 DIANA'S TEMPLE AT EPHESUS. " I found," he says, " a few inches of the front of the step which was here substituted for the plinth. The step under the base was also in two pieces." * I here add a few points derived from the volume of 1 877. The marble pavement of the Old Temple was about 7 feet 6 inches below the level of the peristyle, which itself was about 9 feet 6 inches above the court. The plinths of the first temple were 7 feet 8i inches square, those of the New Temple were 8 feet 8 inches.f " The masonry which supported the steps, with the piers which united the masonry with the foundation piers of the columns, was of courses of limestone about 8 inches thick, which was about the height of each step " (p. 191). The square sculptured blocks were found at the west front. (Fig. 3.) Frag- ments of marble roof-tiles were discovered, which showed that they must have been of large size, as the rounded covering pieces were about 10 inches wide. A fragment of an acroterion was also found at one end. The temple rose in the middle of a paved court, surrounded by a stoa or colonnade. In one place a por- tion of the pavement remained against the outer step. In November 1873, a plinth of the stoa was found on the south side nearly 31 feet beyond the lowest step ; it was 25 feet wide. Seventy feet away from the steps on the south side lay a Doric building parallel to the stoa, parts of four of its columns were found and of the wall beyond. The columns were 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 20 feet 6 inches apart, opposite the alternate piers of the stoa, which were marble and square. Still beyond was a high and strong parabolus wall enclosing the whole precinct. Some time before 1895, when the late Dr Murray read a paper on the subject before the Institute of Architects, an essay at piecing the fragments together had been made by him at the British Museum. His main points were the following : — I. He finally demonstrated that the sculptured blocks cer- tainly made pedestals, each composed of four stones. doubt as to this step instead of plinths. t This dimension is, I think, slightly excessive. I should say 8 feet 7 inches bare.
 * Like the plinth of the outer columns he evidently means. I feel a