About the George Finlay Papers
The George Finlay Papers contain materials created by and related to the British Historian and Philhellene George Finlay, his father John Finlay, Greek-American Philhellene George Jarvis, and British Philhellene Captain Frank Abney Hastings, dating from 1791 to 1949. Most of the collection consists of George Finlay’s meticulous records of his travels, personal and official correspondence, his personal expenditures, copious memoranda on strategy and on military and political organisation, journal entries, maps, facetiae, scrapbooks, personal notes on people—Greeks and others—and on revolutionary events, newspaper cuttings mainly on Greece and international affairs, as well as Finlay’s original manuscripts of the History of the Greek Revolution (1861) as well as corrected proofs of Finlay’s other published works.
Also included are the papers of Finlay’s father, John, two journals of Greek American philhellene, George Jarvis, and those of Finlay’s fellow British philhellene, Captain Frank Abney Hastings. The Hastings papers, which Finlay purchased in 1830, include personal and official correspondence, ship’s logs, notes that he took on board or ashore, as well as memoranda on strategy and on the naval organisation of the revolutionary forces. Collectively, these records reveal a great deal about the character, motivations, ideas, as well as the military and political judgements of these British individuals, as well as of many others, both British and Greek, with whom they interacted during the Greek War of Independence as well as many of Finlay's other interests, such as Classical and Byzantine history, natural history and politics.
1-2 April 1829. Topographical and archaeological notes made while travelling between Mesolonghi and Livadia.
Nottingham Place, London. Athens, 18 October 1833. Details of Gropius's archaeological work on antiquities of Acropolis and old city. Ross's work in Boeotia. Present policy concerning national land. Other land at present on market. George Finlay's property in Attica. Government distribution of land to 'the Captains'. An extract (in Greek) from the Minister of Finance Mavrocordatos defining national property.
n.d. His copy of L's recent work on Morea not yet arrived but has glanced at copy of British Minister at Agos and sends Tzakonian itineraries which seem missing (Argos-Astros-Lenidi-Palaeocastro-Paleomonembasia) with sketch map.
Athens, 20 April 1835. Ross's archaeological activity. Inscriptions found in and near George Finlay's house. Government building in Athens. Col. Gordon is to draw plan of Athens. The Cephissos and the system of irrigation round Athens. George Finlay's views on battle of Marathon and on temple of Egina. Legend of cavern near Kiapha in Morea.
Loidoriki, 23 July 1835. Took part in General Gordon's expedition against klefts of northern Aetolia and sends notes on itinerary-Chalcis to Martini via the coast, with geographical, topographical, and archaeological details. Copies of inscriptions. Incompetence of the Germans. Caustic criticism of Armansperg; all civil affairs in provinces are in confusion.
Ross to L. Athens, 16/28 October 1835. Acknowledges receipt of L's inscriptions from northern Greece and Thessaly, looks forward to these areas. Grateful for copy of L's topography of Athens. Sends 60 copies of this inscription to London and he would like books in exchange. His excavations on Acropolis; discovery of temple of Victory and of some of Parthenon sculpture. Report of his excavations published in Kunstblatt (1835) and Morgenblatt. Discovery of two Herms on Mount Malevo and ruins of temple of Artemis Limnotis. Sends copy of inscription found at Sparta (1834). WIth old paper enclosure.
28 November 1835. Memorandum (sent by courtesy of Sir Edmund Lyons) on George Finlay's itinerary: Loidoriki to Navpactos and Vrachori to Karpenisi. Reference to monastery of Broussa, to list of mountains, and to inscriptions in mosque at Patradjic and Aghios Nikolaos (with copy of inscriptions).
Athens, 28 November 1835. Has sent geographical notes on Aetolia by courtesy of Sir Edmund Lyons. Conjectures whether Vardousi or Ghiona could be identified as Korax. Visit planned to Artotina, Thermos, etc. Gordon winters in Morea and has been succeeded by Pisa. George Finlay cannot visit Acarnania as volunteer as philhellenes are in disrepute and regarded as raving republicans. Armansperg and Frey know nothing of Greek people. Land not cultivated. Essential to establish local government (with sketch map of mountains). With a later note asking if this isn't FIN/GF/B/7/7 displaced in the 'repairing.'
Athens, 18 July 1836. Sends a plan of Hieron of Juno [Temple of Hera] near Mycenae made by Robertson, General Gordon's secretary. Armansperg's plans for reorganizing army. His use of frontier klefts as captains; they now shake hands with A, an honour George Finlay never had, though a major, 'which is not my fault as I have twice sent my resignation which the king will not accept'. Increased taxes and discontented peasantry.
Athens, 26 September 1836. Will attempt to visit Diacria and send itinerary to Oropos and description of plain of Messogeia. Site of Amphiareion and inscription found by George Finlay at Karala. George Finlay seldom visits property at Liossia; unfair taxation on oak-trees and oppression of purchasers of Turkish estates. Folly of failing to use what is in Greece. George Finlay a conservative in Greece. Antiquities suffer same fate as politics. Ross's resignation because he was refused permission to communicate inscriptions before they were published in Athens. No information available on Pittakis's inscriptions; his integrity questioned. George Finlay intends to write history of modern Greece.
Athens, 16 December 1836. Itineraries in Attica with topographical and archaeological details: plain of Messogeia to Marathon-Liossia-Oropos, and from Kalamos to Liossia-Decelia-Athens. Possible site of temple of Artemis; Amphiareion; inscriptions; Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches; on the ancient demes (Halimus, Aghios Cosmas, etc.). Notes temple on the hill called Pani above Trachones.
Ross to L. Athens, 20 December 1836. Ross criticizes L's siting of Pythium temple near Oenoe between Eleusis and Marathon; Finlay's views on inscription at Kharvati and possibility of a temple of Athena in neighbourhood (written as an appendix to no. 11).
Athens, 23 April 1837. Thanks for offering to read or publish George Finlay's communication through the Royal Society of Literature. Corrigenda to his notes on topography and inscriptions. Further itineraries in Attica. Tumulus on his property near Aphidna. Hopes to form society like that of Institute at Rome. Appends copies of inscriptions found in Messogeia. With note by Joan Hussey.
Transcription of inscriptions found in a late town. Originally from FIN/GF/B/7/13, but with a note from Joan Hussey suggesting the records may belong to FIN/GF/B/7/11.
Meteorological notes and cuttings. Includes old paper envelope with label.
One portrait of George Finlay with medals by Numa Blanc. This portrait reappears pasted into FIN/GF/A/20.
Visiting cards of Etienne Dragoumis; Mr. N. Senior; Lady Sebright, Baroness d'Everton; Rigas Palamides; Petros Mavromichalis; Leon Heuzey (Membre de l'Ecole Française d'Athènes).
Christopher Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, London, 1836
Lord Byron to Editor of Galignani's Messenger. Venice, 27 April 1812.
Denies that he is author of The Vampyre; facsimile stuck on p. xxxiii of H. L. Bulwer (ed.), Complete Works of Lord Byron, Paris, 1835.
George Finlay to Leicester Fitzgerald Charles. Argos, 31 May 1824
Two of George Finlay's letters, including his reminiscences of Lord Byron, are printed in Leicester F. Stanhope, Greece in 1823 and 1824 . . ., London, 1825, pp. 510-19. F. Stanhope's visiting card pasted inside the front cover.
George Finlay to Leicester Fitzgerald Charles. Tripolitza, June 1824.
Two of George Finlay's letters, including his reminiscences of Lord Byron, are printed in Leicester
F. Stanhope, Greece in 1823 and 1824 . . ., London, 1825, pp 519 - 529
Julius Millingen to George Finlay at Zante. Mesolonghi, 16 October 1824.
M's own illness. Complaints about Bruno's accusations and discussion of Byron's last illness (stuck on front flyleaf of Julius Millengen, Memoirs of the Affairs of Greece . . ., London, 1831; this book contains a number of pencilled additions by George Finlay and some reference to himself).
John Anderson to George Finlay. Helensburgh, 22 April 1837.
Congratulates George Finlay on his history; asks for news of Greece; sends work of H. Miller (previously loose in front of J. A., Scenes and Stories from the History of the Church of Scotland ..., Edinburgh, 1849).
Sir William Robert Wilde to George Finlay. 199 Great Brunswick St., Dublin, 13 June 1839.
Varieties of murex found in Elis. Geological discussion of fossils of animals found by George Finlay in Marathon. State of Greece (loose, in bad condition, at end of W. R. Wilde, Narrative of a Voyage . . ., vol. 1, Dublin, 1840).
W. R. Wilde to George Finlay. 199 Great Brunswick St., Dublin, 22 March 1840.
To introduce Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Pine who are visiting Athens; they bring George Finlay a copy of W's Narrative . . ., 2 vols., Dublin, 1840. Requests information on present condition of Greece and Otho, also casts of ancient Greek heads taken out of tumuli or tombs (loose at end of book +loose newspaper cuttings on Sir William Wilde).
Christopher Wordsworth to George Finlay. Harvard, 17 August 1840.
Thanks for gift of George Finlay's work on topography of Oropia and Diacria (stuck on front flyleaf of C. W., Athens and Attica, London, 1836). Glued inside front of book.
The Revd. Henry D. Leeves to Helen Finlay. 25 December 1838.
Sends The Picture Bible for the Young, London, 1834, as Christmas present to Helena (sic) Finlay (letter loose in book).
The Revd. John H. Hill to George Finlay. Athens, 8/20 January 1840.
Thanks for George Finlay's present; praises his research (stuck on front flyleaf of Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. of the United Kingdom, vol. 3, London, 1839, containing several papers by George Finlay).
? to George Finlay. Athens, 20 January 1840. Thanks for George Finlay's paper On the Battle of Marathon (stuck on front flyleaf of Trans. Roy. Soc. etc. see above R. 9. 2).
? to George Finlay. Athens, 19 October 1841. Thanks for receipt of pamphlet; appreciation of George Finlay's work on Greece (stuck on front flyleaf of Trans. Roy. Soc. of the United Kingdom, vol. 3, London, 1839).
Hand-drawn map of the plain of Eleusis and the Sacred Way (previously loose in Trans. Roy. Soc. of the United Kingdom, vol. 3, London, 1839).
Hand-drawn map of Eleusis (previously loose in Trans. Roy. Soc. of the United Kingdom, vol. 3, London, 1839).
Hand-drawn map of Marathon (previously loose in Trans. Roy. Soc. of the United Kingdom, vol. 3, London, 1839).