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diff --git a/old/67390-0.txt b/old/67390-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ca6e8ec..0000000 --- a/old/67390-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14145 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lives of the Founders of the British -Museum, by Edward Edwards - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Lives of the Founders of the British Museum - with Notices of its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, - 1570-1870. Part II of II - -Author: Edward Edwards - -Release Date: February 17, 2022 [eBook #67390] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Richard Tonsing, MWS and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE -BRITISH MUSEUM *** - - - - - - LIVES OF - THE FOUNDERS - OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM; - WITH - NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS - AND OTHER BENEFACTORS. - 1570–1870. - - - BY EDWARD EDWARDS. - - - - - PART II. - - - LONDON: - TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. - 1870. - (_All rights reserved._) - - - - - PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - A GROUP OF BOOK-LOVERS AND PUBLIC BENEFACTORS. - - ‘If we were to take away from the Museum Collection [of Books] the - King’s Library, and the collection which George the Third gave before - that, and then the magnificent collection of Mr. Cracherode, as well - as those of Sir William Musgrave, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Richard Colt - Hoare, and many others,—and also all the books received under the - Copyright Act,—if we were to take away all the books so given, I am - satisfied not one half of the books [in 1836], nor one third of the - _value_ of the Library, has been procured with money voted by the - Nation. The Nation has done almost nothing for the Library.... - - ‘Considering the British Museum to be a National Library for research, - its utility increases in proportion with the very rare and costly - books, in preference to modern books.... I think that scholars have a - right to look, for these expensive works, to the Government of the - Country.... - - ‘I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned - curiosity,—of following his rational pursuits,—of consulting the same - authorities,—of fathoming the most intricate inquiry,—as the richest - man in the kingdom, as far as books go. And I contend that Government - is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited assistance in this - respect. I want the Library of the British Museum to have books of - both descriptions.... - - ‘When you have given a hundred thousand pounds,—in ten or twelve - years,—you will begin to have a library worthy of the British - Nation.’— - - ANTONIO PANIZZI—_Evidence before Select Committee on British Museum_, - 7th June, 1836. (Q. 4785–4795.) - - _Notices of some early Donors of Books.—The Life and Collections of - Clayton Mordaunt_ CRACHERODE.—_William_ PETTY, _first Marquess of - Lansdowne, and his Library of Manuscripts.—The Literary Life and - Collections of Dr. Charles_ BURNEY.—_Francis_ HARGRAVE _and his - Manuscripts.—The Life and Testamentary Foundations of Francis - Henry_ EGERTON, _Ninth Earl of Bridgewater_. - - -The Reader has now seen that, within some twelve or fifteen years, a -Collection of Antiquities, comparatively small and insignificant, was so -enriched as to gain the aspect of a National Museum of which all -English-speaking men might be proud, and mere fragments of which -enlightened Foreign Sovereigns were under sore temptation to covet. He -has seen, also, that the praise of so striking a change was due, in the -main, to the public spirit and the liberal endeavours of a small group -of antiquarians and scholars. They were, most of them, men of high -birth, and of generous education. They were, in fact, precisely such men -as, in the jargon of our present day, it is too much the mode to speak -of as the antitheses of ‘the People,’ although in earlier days men of -that strain were thought to be part of the very core and kernel of a -nation. - -But if it be undeniably true that the chief and primary merit of so good -a piece of public service was due to the HAMILTONS, TOWNELEYS, ELGINS, -and KNIGHTS of the last generation, it is also true that the Public, -through their representatives, did, at length, join fairly in the work -by bearing their part of the cost, though they could share neither the -enterprise, the self-denial, nor the wearing toils, which the work had -exacted. - -Now that the story turns to another department of the National Museum, -we find that the same primary and salient characteristic—private -liberality of individuals, as distinguished from public support by the -Kingdom—still holds good. But we have to wait a very long time indeed, -before we perceive public effort at length falling into rank with -private, in the shape of parliamentary grants for the purchase of books, -calculated even upon a rough approximation towards equality. - -As COTTON, SLOANE, HARLEY, and Arthur EDWARDS, were the first founders -of the Library, so BIRCH, MUSGRAVE, TYRWHITT, CRACHERODE, BANKS, and -HOARE, were its chief augmentors, until almost ninety years had elapsed -since the Act of Organization. Of the Collections of those ten -benefactors, eight came by absolute gift. For the other two, much less -than one half of their value was returned to the representatives of the -founders. And that, it has been shown, was provided, not by a -parliamentary grant, but out of the profits of a lottery. - - -The first important addition to the Library, subsequent to those gifts -which have been mentioned in a preceding chapter as nearly -contemporaneous with the creation of the Museum, was made by the Will of -Dr. Thomas BIRCH, [Sidenote: BEQUEST OF DR. THOMAS BIRCH, January, -1766.] one of the original Trustees. It comprised a valuable series of -manuscripts, rich in collections on the history, and especially the -biographical history, of the realm, and a considerable number of printed -books of a like character. - -Dr. BIRCH was born in 1705, and died on the ninth of January, 1766. He -was one of the many friends of Sir Hans SLOANE, in the later years of -Sir Hans’ life. When the Museum was in course of organization, BIRCH -acted not only as a zealous Trustee, but he occasionally supplied the -place of Dr. MORTON as Secretary. His literary productions have real and -enduring value, though their value would probably have been greater had -their number been less. His activity is sufficiently evidenced by the -works which he printed, but can only be measured when the large -manuscript collections which he bequeathed are taken into the account. -Very few scholars will now be inclined to echo Horace WALPOLE’S -inquiry—made when he saw the Catalogue of the Birch MSS.—‘Who cares for -the correspondence of Dr. BIRCH?’ - -[Sidenote: BEQUEST OF DAVID GARRICK, January, 1779.] - -Soon after the receipt of the BIRCH Collection, a choice assemblage of -English plays was bequeathed to the Museum by David GARRICK. Its -formation had been one of the favourite relaxations of the great actor. -And the study of the plays gathered by GARRICK had a large share in -moulding the tastes and the literary career of Charles LAMB. Thence he -drew the materials of the volume of _Specimens_ which has made the rich -stores of the early drama known to thousands of readers who but for it, -and for the Collection which enabled him to compile it, could have -formed no fair or adequate idea of an important epoch in our literature. - -[Sidenote: BENEFACTIONS OF SIR W. MUSGRAVE.] - -Sir William MUSGRAVE was another early Trustee whose gifts to the Public -illustrated the wisdom of SLOANE’S plan for the government of his Museum -and of its parliamentary adoption. MUSGRAVE shared the predilection of -Dr. BIRCH for the study of British biography and archæology, and he had -larger means for amassing its materials. He was descended from a branch -of the Musgraves of Edenhall, and was the second son of Sir Richard -MUSGRAVE of Hayton Castle, to whom he eventually succeeded. He made -large and very curious manuscript collections for the history of -portrait-painting in England (now _Additional MSS._ 6391–6393), and also -on many points of the administrative and political history of the -country. He was a zealous Trustee of the British Museum, and in his -lifetime made several additions to its stores. On his death, in 1799, -all his manuscripts were bequeathed to the Museum, together with a -Library of printed British Biography—more complete than anything of its -kind theretofore collected. - -This last-named Collection extended (if we include a partial and -previous gift made in 1790) to nearly two thousand volumes, and it -probably embraced much more than twice that number of separate works. -For it was rich in those biographical ephemera which are so precious to -the historical inquirer, and often so difficult of obtainment, when -needed. Nearly at the same period (1786) a valuable Collection of -classical authors, in about nine hundred volumes, was bequeathed by -another worthy Trustee, Mr. Thomas TYRWHITT, distinguished both as a -scholar and as the Editor of CHAUCER. - -But all the early gifts to the Museum, made after its parliamentary -organization, were eclipsed, at the close of the century, by the bequest -of the Cracherode Collections. [Sidenote: THE BEQUEST OF THE CRACHERODE -COLLECTION.] That bequest comprised a very choice library of printed -books; a cabinet of coins, medals, and gems; and a series of original -drawings by the great masters, chosen, like the books and the coins, -with exquisite taste, and, as the auctioneers say, quite regardless of -expense. [Sidenote: 1799.] It also included a small but precious cabinet -of minerals. - -The collector of these rarities was wont to speak of them with great -modesty. They are, he would say, mere ‘specimen collections.’ But to -amass them had been the chief pursuit of a quiet and blameless life. - -[Sidenote: LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MR. MORDAUNT CRACHERODE.] - -Clayton Mordaunt CRACHERODE was born in London about the year 1730. And -he was ‘a Londoner’ in a sense and degree to which, in this railway -generation, it would be hard to find a parallel. Among the rich -possessions which he inherited from Colonel CRACHERODE, his father—whose -fortune had been gathered, or increased, during an active career in -remote parts of the world—was an estate in Hertfordshire, on which there -grew a certain famous chestnut-tree, the cynosure of all the -country-side for its size and antiquity. This tree was never seen by its -new owner, save as he saw the poplars of Lombardy, or the cedars of -Lebanon—in an etching. In the course of a long life he never reached a -greater distance from the metropolis than Oxford. He never mounted a -horse. The ordinary extent of his travels, during the prime years of a -long life, was from Queen Square, in Westminster, to Clapham. For almost -forty years it was his daily practice to walk from his house to the shop -of ELMSLY, a bookseller in the Strand, and thence to the still more -noted shop of Tom PAYNE, by ‘the Mews-Gate.’ Once a week, he varied the -daily walk by calling on MUDGE, a chronometer-maker, to get his watch -regulated. His excursions had, indeed, one other and not infrequent -variety—dictated by the calls of Christian benevolence—but of these he -took care to have no note taken. - -Early in life, and probably to meet his father’s wish, he received holy -orders, but he never accepted any preferment in the Church. He took the -restraints of the clerical profession, without any of its emoluments. -His classical attainments were considerable, but the sole publication of -a long life of leisure was a university prize poem, printed in the -_Carmina Quadragesimalia_ of 1748. The only early tribulation of a life -of idyllic peacefulness was a dread that he might possibly be called -upon, at a coronation, to appear in public as the King’s cupbearer—his -manor of Great Wymondley being held by a tenure of grand-serjeantry in -that onerous employment. Its one later tinge of bitterness lay in the -dread of a French invasion. These may seem small sorrows, to men who -have had a full share in the stress and anguish of the battle of life. -But the weight of a burden is no measure of the pain it may inflict. Mr. -CRACHERODE looked to his possible cupbearership, with apprehension just -as acute as that with which COWPER contemplated the awful task of -reading in public the Journals of the House of Lords. And the sleepless -nights which long afterwards were brought to CRACHERODE by the horrors -of the French revolutionary war were caused less by personal fears than -by the dread of public calamities, more terrible than death. During one -year of the devastations on the other side of the Channel, chronicled by -our daily papers, Mr. CRACHERODE was thought by his friends to have -‘aged’ full ten years in his aspect. - -The one active and incessant pursuit of this noiseless career was the -gathering together of the most choice books, the finest coins and gems, -the most exquisite drawings and prints, which money could buy, without -the toils of travel. Our Collector’s liberality of purse enabled him to -profit, at his ease, by the truth expressed in one of the wise maxims of -John SELDEN:—‘The giving a dealer his price hath this advantage;—he that -will do so shall have the refusal of whatsoever comes to the dealer’s -hand, and so by that means get many things which otherwise he never -should have seen.’ The enjoyment—almost a century ago—of six hundred -pounds a year in land, and of nearly one hundred thousand pounds -invested in the ‘sweet simplicity’ of the three per cents., enabled Mr. -CRACHERODE to outbid a good many competitors. His natural wish that what -he had so eagerly gathered should not be scattered to the four winds on -the instant he was carried to his grave, and also the public spirit -which dictated the choice of a national repository as the permanent -abode of his Collections, has already made that long course of daily -visits to the London dealers in books, coins, and drawings, fruitful of -good to hundreds of poorer students and toilers, during more than two -generations. From stores such as Mr. CRACHERODE’S—when so preserved—many -a useful labourer gets part of his best equipment for the tasks of his -life. He, too, would enjoy a visit to the ‘PAYNES’ and the ‘ELMSLYS’ of -the day as keenly as any book-lover that ever lived, but is too often, -perhaps, obliged to content himself with an outside glance at the -windows. Public libraries put him practically on a level with the -wealthiest connoisseur. When, as in this case—and in a hundred more—such -libraries derive much of their best possessions from private liberality, -a life like Mordaunt CRACHERODE’S has its ample vindication, and the -sting is taken out of all such sarcasms as that which was levelled—in -the shape of the query, ‘In all that big library is there a single book -written by the Collector himself?’—by some snarling epistolary critic, -when commenting on a notice that appeared in _The Times_ on the occasion -of Mr. CRACHERODE’S death. - -On another point our Collector was exposed to the shafts of sarcastic -comment. He loved a good book to be printed on the very choicest -material, and clothed in the richest fashion. The treasure within would -not incline him to tolerate blemishes without.— - - ‘Nusquam blatta, vel inquinata charta, - Sed margo calami notæque purus, - Margo latior, albus integerque, - Nec non copia larga pergainenæ.— - Adsint Virgilius, paterque Homerus, - Mundi pumice, purpuraque culti; - Et quicquid magica quasi arte freti - Faustusque Upilioque præstiterunt. - - · · · · · - - Hic sit qui nitet arte Montacuti, - Aut Paini, Deromique junioris; - Illic cui decus arma sunt Thuani, - Aut regis breve lilium caduci.’ - -In CRACHERODE’S eyes, external charms such as these were scarcely less -essential than the intrinsic worth of the author. ‘Large paper’ and -broad pure margins are fancies which it needs not much culture or much -wit to banter. But now and then, they are ridiculed by those who have -just as little capacity to judge the pith and substance of books, as of -taste to appreciate beauty in their outward form.[1] - -The solidity of those three per cents., and the plodding perseverance of -their owner, were in time rewarded by the collection (1) of a library -containing only four thousand five hundred volumes, but of which -probably every volume—on an average of the whole—was worth, in -mercantile eyes, some three pounds; (2) of seven portfolios of drawings, -still more choice; (3) of a hundred portfolios of prints, many of which -were almost priceless; and (4) of coins and gems—such as the cameo of a -lion on sardonyx, and the intaglio of the _Discobolos_—worthy of an -imperial cabinet. - -The ruling passion kept its strength to the last. An agent was buying -prints, for addition to the store, when the Collector was dying. About -four days before his death, Mr. CRACHERODE mustered strength to pay a -farewell visit to the old shop at the Mews-Gate. He put a finely printed -_Terence_ (from the press of FOULIS) into one pocket, and a large paper -_Cebes_ into another; and then,—with a longing look at a certain choice -_Homer_, in the course of which he mentally, and somewhat doubtingly, -balanced its charms with those of its twin brother in Queen -Square,—parted finally from the daily haunt of forty peripatetic and -studious years. - -Clayton Mordaunt CRACHERODE died towards the close of 1799. He -bequeathed the whole of his collections to the Nation, with the -exception of two volumes of books. A polyglot _Bible_ was given to Shute -BARRINGTON, Bishop of Durham; a princeps _Homer_ to Cyril JACKSON, Dean -of Christ Church. Those justly venerated men were his two dearest -friends. - - -The next conspicuous donor to the Library of the British Museum was a -contemporary of the learned recluse of Queen Square, but one whose life -was passed in the thick of that worldly turmoil and conflict of which -Mr. CRACHERODE had so mortal a dread. [Sidenote: THE COLLECTOR OF THE -LANSDOWNE MANUSCRIPTS.] To the Collector of the ‘Lansdowne Manuscripts,’ -political excitement was the congenial air in which it was indeed life -to live. But he, also, was a man beloved by all who had the privilege of -his intimate friendship. - -William PETTY-FITZMAURICE, third Earl of Shelburne, and first Marquess -of Lansdowne, was born in Dublin, in May, 1737. He was the son of John, -Earl of Shelburne in the peerage of Ireland, and afterwards Baron -Wycombe in the peerage of Great Britain. The Marquess’s father united -the possessions of the family founded by Sir William PETTY with those -which the Irish wars had left to the ancient line of Fitzmaurice. - -William, Earl of SHELBURNE, was educated by private tutors, and then -sent to Christ Church, Oxford. He left the University early, to take (in -or about the year 1756) a commission in the Guards. He was present in -the battles of Campen and of Minden. At Minden, in particular, he -evinced distinguished bravery. In May, 1760, and again in April, 1761, -he was elected by the burgesses of High Wycombe to represent them in the -House of Commons. But the death of Earl John, in the middle of 1761, -called his son to take his seat in the House of Lords. He soon evinced -the possession of powers eminently fitted to shine in Parliament. The -impetuosity he had shown on the field of Minden did not desert him in -the strife of politics. Those who had listened to the early speeches of -PITT might well think that the army had again sent them a ‘terrible -cornet of horse.’ So good a judge of political oratory as was Lord -CAMDEN thought SHELBURNE to be second only to CHATHAM himself. - -[Sidenote: BEGINNING OF LORD SHELBURNE’S CAREER IN PARLIAMENT.] - -Lord SHELBURNE’S first speech in Parliament—the first, at least, that -attracted general notice—was made in support of the Court and the -Ministry (November 3, 1762). Within less than six months after its -delivery he was called to the Privy Council, and placed at the head of -the Board of Trade and Plantations. This appointment was made on the -23rd of April, 1763. Just before it he had taken part in that delicate -negotiation between Lord BUTE and Henry FOX (afterwards Lord HOLLAND) -which has been kept well in memory by a jest of the man who thought -himself the loser in it. This early incident is in some sort a key to -many later incidents in Lord SHELBURNE’S life. - -[Sidenote: SHELBURNE AND HENRY FOX.] - -For, in all the acts and offices of a political career, save only one, -Lord SHELBURNE was characteristically a lover of soft words. In debate, -he could speak scathingly. In conversation, he was always under -temptation to flatter his interlocutor. In this conversation of 1763 -with FOX, SHELBURNE’S innate love of smoothing asperities co-operated -with his belief that it was really for the common interest that BUTE and -FOX should come to an agreement, to make him put the premier’s offer -into the most pleasing light. When FOX found he was to get less than he -thought to have, he fiercely assailed the negotiator. Lord SHELBURNE’S -friends dwelt on his love of peace and good fellowship. At worst, said -they, it was but a ‘pious fraud.’ ‘I can see the fraud plainly enough,’ -rejoined FOX, ‘but where is the piety?’ - -The office accepted in April was resigned in September, when the -coalition with ‘the BEDFORD party’ was made. Lord SHELBURNE’S loss was -felt in the House of Lords. But it was in the Commons that the Ministry -were now feeblest. ‘I don’t see how they can meet Parliament,’ said -CHESTERFIELD. ‘In the Commons they have not a man with ability and words -enough to call a coach.’ - -In February, 1765, SHELBURNE married Lady Sophia CARTERET, one of the -daughters of the Earl of GRANVILLE. The marriage was a very happy one. -Not long after it, he began to form his library. [Sidenote: FORMATION OF -LORD SHELBURNE’S LIBRARY.] Political manuscripts, state papers of every -kind, and all such documents as tend to throw light on the arcana of -history, were, more especially, the objects which he sought. And the -quest, as will be seen presently, was very successful. For during his -early researches he had but few competitors. - -[Sidenote: THE SECRETARYSHIP OF STATE.] - -On the organization of the Duke of GRAFTON’S Ministry in 1766 (July 30) -Lord SHELBURNE was made Secretary of State for the Southern Department, -to which at that time the Colonial business was attached. [Sidenote: -1766–1768.] His colleague, in the Northern, was CONWAY, who now led the -House of Commons. As Secretary, Lord SHELBURNE’S most conspicuous and -influential act was his approval of that rejection of certain members of -the Council of Massachusetts by Governor BERNARD, which had so important -a bearing on colonial events to come. - -SHELBURNE, however, was one of a class of statesmen of whom, very -happily, this country has had many. He was able to render more efficient -service in opposition than in office. Of the Board of Trade he had had -the headship but a few months. As Secretary of State, under the GRAFTON -Administration, he served little more than two years. His opponents were -wont to call him an ‘impracticable’ man. But if he shared some of -CHATHAM’S weaknesses, he also shared much of his greatness. And on the -capital question of the American dispute, they were at one. They both -thought that the Colonies had been atrociously misgoverned. They were -willing to make large concessions to regain the loyalty of the -Colonists. They were utterly averse to admit of a severance. - -[Sidenote: LORD SHELBURNE IN OPPOSITION.] - -Under circumstances familiar to all readers, and by the personal urgency -of the King, Lord SHELBURNE was dismissed from his first Secretaryship -in October, 1768. His dismissal led to CHATHAM’S resignation. SHELBURNE -became a prominent and powerful leader of the Opposition, an object of -special dislike to a large force of political adversaries, and of warm -attachment to a small number of political friends. His personal friends -were, at all times, many. - -The nickname under which his opponents were wont to satirize him has -been kept in memory by one of the many infelicities of speech which did -such cruel injustice to the fine parts and the generous heart of -GOLDSMITH. The story has been many times told, but will bear to be told -once again. The author of the _Vicar of Wakefield_ was an occasional -supporter of the Opposition in the newspapers. One day, in the autumn of -1773, he wrote an article in praise of Lord SHELBURNE’S ardent friend in -the City, the Lord Mayor TOWNSHEND. Sitting, in company with Topham -BEAUCLERC, at Drury Lane Theatre, just after the appearance of the -article, GOLDSMITH found himself close beside Lord SHELBURNE. His -companion told the statesman that his City friend’s eulogy came from -GOLDSMITH’S pen. [Sidenote: 1773. November.] ‘I hope,’ said his -Lordship—addressing the poet—‘you put nothing in it about Malagrida?’ -[Sidenote: Hardy, _Life of Lord Charlemont_, vol. i, p. 177.] ‘Do you -know,’ rejoined poor GOLDSMITH, ‘I could never conceive the reason why -they call you “Malagrida,”—_for_ Malagrida was a very good sort of man.’ -This small misplacement of an emphasis was of course quoted in the clubs -against the unlucky speaker. ‘Ah!’ said Horace WALPOLE, with his wonted -charity, ‘that’s a picture of the man’s whole life.’ - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF LORD SHELBURNE’S LIBRARY.] - -Lord SHELBURNE’S library profited by his long releasement from the cares -of office. He bestowed much of his leisure upon its enrichment, and -especially upon the acquisition of manuscript political literature. In -1770, he was fortunate enough to obtain a considerable portion of the -large and curious Collection of State Papers which Sir Julius CÆSAR had -begun to amass almost two centuries before. Two years later, he acquired -no inconsiderable portion of that far more important series which had -been gathered by BURGHLEY. - -[Sidenote: THE CÆSAR PAPERS.] - -Whilst Lord SHELBURNE was serving with the army in Germany, the ‘Cæsar -Papers’ had been dispersed by auction. There were then—1757—a hundred -and eighty-seven of them. About sixty volumes were purchased by Philip -Cartaret WEBB, a lawyer and juridical writer, as well as antiquary, of -some distinction. On Mr. WEBB’S death, in 1770, these were purchased by -SHELBURNE from his executors. On examining his acquisition, the new -possessor found that about twenty volumes related to various matters of -British history and antiquities; thirty-one volumes to the business of -the British Admiralty and its Courts; ten volumes to that of the -Treasury, Star Chamber, and other public departments; two volumes -contained treaties; and one volume, papers on the affairs of Ireland. - -[Sidenote: THE CECIL OR BURGHLEY PAPERS.] - -The ‘Burghley papers,’ acquired in 1772, had passed from Sir Michael -HICKES, one of that statesman’s secretaries, to a descendant, Sir -William HICKES, by whom they were sold to CHISWELL, a bookseller, and by -him to STRYPE, the historian. These (as has been mentioned in a former -chapter) were looked upon with somewhat covetous eyes by Humphrey -WANLEY, who hoped to have seen them become part of the treasures of the -Harleian Library. On STRYPE’S death they passed into the hands of James -WEST, and from his executors into the Library at Shelburne House. They -comprised a hundred and twenty-one volumes of the collections and -correspondence of Lord BURGHLEY, together with his private note-book and -journal. - -Another valuable acquisition, made after Lord SHELBURNE’S retirement in -1768 from political office, consisted of the vast historical Collections -of Bishop White KENNETT, extending to a hundred and seven volumes, of -which a large proportion are in the Bishop’s own untiring hand. -Twenty-two of these volumes contain important materials for English -Church History. Eleven volumes contain biographical collections, ranging -between the years 1500 and 1717. All that have been enumerated are now -national property. - -Other choice manuscript collections were added from time to time. Among -them may be cited the papers of Sir Paul RYCAUT—which include -information both on Irish and on Continental affairs towards the close -of the seventeenth century; the correspondence of Dr. John PELL, and -that of the Jacobite Earl of MELFORT. - -These varied accessions—with many others of minor importance—raised the -Shelburne Library into the first rank among private repositories of -historical lore. To amass and to study them was to prove to its owner -the solace of deep personal affliction, as well as the relief of public -toils. At the close of 1770, he lost a beloved wife, after a union of -less than six years. He remained a widower until 1779. - -Another source of solace was found in labours that have an inexhaustible -charm, for those who are so happy as to have means as well as taste for -them. [Sidenote: LORD SHELBURNE AS A LANDSCAPE GARDENER.] Lord SHELBURNE -lived much at Loakes—now called Wycombe Abbey—a delightful seat, just -above the little town of High Wycombe. Its striking framework of -beech-woods, its fine plane-trees and ash-trees, and its broad piece of -water, make up a lovely picture, much of the attraction of which is due -to the skill and judgment with which its then owner elicited and -heightened the natural beauties of the place.[2] But those of Bowood -exceeded them in Lord SHELBURNE’S eyes. There, too, he did very much to -enhance what nature had already done, and he had the able assistance of -Mr. HAMILTON of Pains-Hill. In consequence of their joint labours, -almost every species of oak may be seen at Bowood, with great variety of -exotic trees of all sorts. Both wood and water combine to make, from -some points of view, a resemblance between Wycombe and Bowood. And both -differ from many much bepraised country seats in the wise preference of -natural beauty—selected and heightened—to artificial beauty. Lord -SHELBURNE himself was wont to say: ‘Mere workmanship should never be -introduced where the beauty and variety of the scenery are, in -themselves, sufficient to excite admiration.’ - -But, in their true place, few men better loved the productions of -artistic genius. He collected pictures and sculpture, as well as trees -and books. He was the first of his name who made Lansdowne House in -London, as well as Loakes and Bowood in the country, centres of the best -society in the intellectual as well as in the fashionable world. - -Years passed on. The course of public events—and especially the death of -Lord CHATHAM and the issues of the American war—together with many -conspicuous proofs of his powers in debate, tended more and more to -bring Lord SHELBURNE to the front. Between him and Lord ROCKINGHAM, as -far as regards real personal ability—whether parliamentary or -administrative—there could, in truth, be little ground for comparison. -But in party connection and following, the claims of the inferior man -were incontestible. Lord SHELBURNE, towards the close of 1779, signified -his readiness to waive his pretensions to take the lead—in the event of -the overthrow of the existing Government—and his willingness to serve -under Lord ROCKINGHAM; so little truth was there in the assertion, -[Sidenote: H. Walpole to Mann; 1780. March 21.] made by Horace WALPOLE -to his correspondent at Florence, that SHELBURNE ‘will stick at nothing -to gratify his ambition.’ - -But that very charge is, in fact, a tribute. WALPOLE’S indignation had -been excited just at that moment by the zealous assistance which -SHELBURNE had given, in the House of Lords, to the efforts of BURKE in -the lower House in favour of economical reforms. He had brought forward -a motion on that subject on the same night on which BURKE had given -notice for the introduction of his famous Bill (December, 1779). He -continued his efforts, and presently had to encounter a more active and -pertinacious opponent of retrenchment than Horace WALPOLE. - -In the course of a vigorous speech on reform in the administration of -the army, Lord SHELBURNE had censured a transaction in which Mr. -FULLERTON, a Member of the House of Commons, was intimately concerned. -[Sidenote: LORD SHELBURNE’S DUEL WITH FULLERTON.] FULLERTON made a -violent attack, in his place in the House, upon his censor. But his -speech was so disorderly that he was forced to break off. In his anger -he sent Lord SHELBURNE a minute, not only of what he had actually -spoken, but of what he had intended to say, in addition, had the rules -of Parliament permitted. And he had the effrontery to wind up his -obliging communication with these words:—‘You correspond, as I have -heard abroad, with the enemies of your country.’ His letter was -presented to Lord SHELBURNE by a messenger. - -The receiver, when he had read it, said to the bearer: ‘The best answer -I can give Mr. FULLERTON is to desire him to meet me in Hyde Park, at -five, to-morrow morning.’ They fought, and SHELBURNE was wounded. On -being asked how he felt himself, he looked at the wound, and said: ‘I do -not think that Lady SHELBURNE will be the worse for this.’ But it was -severe enough to interrupt, for a while, his political labours. - -[Sidenote: HIS SECRETARYSHIP IN THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION.] - -On the formation in March, 1782, of the Rockingham Administration, he -accepted the Secretaryship of State, and took with him four of his -adherents into the Cabinet. But the most curious feature in the -transaction was that Lord SHELBURNE carried on, personally, all the -intercourse in the royal closet that necessarily preceded the formation -of the Ministry, although he was not to be its head. GEORGE THE THIRD -would not admit Lord ROCKINGHAM to an audience until his Cabinet was -completely formed. The man whose exclusion from the Grafton Ministry the -King had so warmly urged a few years before, was now not less warmly -urged by him to throw over his party, and to head a cabinet of his own. -He resisted all blandishment, and virtually told the King that the -triumph of the Opposition must be its triumph as an unbroken whole; -though he doubtless felt, within himself, that the cohesion was of -singularly frail tenacity. - -On the 24th of March, SHELBURNE had the satisfaction of conveying to -Lord ROCKINGHAM the royal concession of his constitutional -demands—obtained after a wearisome negotiation, and only by the piling -up of argument on argument in successive conversations at the ‘Queen’s -House,’ lasting sometimes for three mortal hours. [Sidenote: DEATH OF -LORD ROCKINGHAM, 1782, 1 July.] Three months afterwards, the new Premier -was dead. And with him departed the cohesion of the Whigs. - - -[Sidenote: FORMATION OF LORD SHELBURNE’S MINISTRY.] - -As Secretary of State, Lord SHELBURNE’S chief task had been the control -of that double and most unwelcome negotiation which was carried on at -Paris with France and with America.[3] For it had fallen to the lot of -the utterer of the ‘sunset-speech,’[4]—‘if we let America go, the sun of -Great Britain is set’—to arrange the terms of American pacification. And -the obstructions in that path which were created at home were even more -serious stumbling-blocks than were the difficulties abroad. The cardinal -points of Lord SHELBURNE’S policy, at this time, were to retain, by hook -or crook, some amount or other of hold upon America, and at the worst to -keep the Court of France from enjoying the prestige, or setting up the -pretence, of having dictated the terms of peace. - -That the split in the Whig party was really and altogether inevitable, -now that ROCKINGHAM’S death had placed SHELBURNE above reasonable -competition for the premiership, was made known to him when at Court, in -the most abrupt manner. On the 7th of July (six days after the death of -the Marquess), Fox took him by the sleeve, with the blunt question: ‘Are -you to be First Lord of the Treasury?’ [Sidenote: Walpole to Mann (from -an eye witness), 1782, July 7.] When SHELBURNE said ‘Yes,’ the instant -rejoinder was, ‘Then, my Lord, I shall resign.’ Fox had brought the -seals in his pocket, and proceeded immediately to return them to the -King. - -In his first speech as Premier, Lord SHELBURNE spoke thus:—‘It has been -said that I have changed my opinion about the independence of -America.... My opinion is still the same. When that independence shall -have been established, the sun of England may be said to have set. I -have used every effort, public and private—in England, and out of it—to -avert so dreadful a disaster.... [Sidenote: _Parliamentary Debates_, -vol. xxiii, col. 194.] But though this country should have received a -fatal blow, there is still a duty incumbent upon its Ministers to use -their most vigorous exertions to prevent the Court of France from being -in a situation to dictate the terms of Peace. The sun of England may -have set. But we will improve the twilight. We will prepare for the -rising of that sun again. And I hope England may yet see many, many -happy days.’ - -The best achievements of the brief government of Lord SHELBURNE were -(first) the resolute defence, in its diplomacy at Paris and Versailles, -of our territories in Canada, and (secondly) its consistent assertion of -the principle that underlay a sentence contained in a former speech of -the [Sidenote: MERITS OF THE SHELBURNE MINISTRY.] Premier—a sentence -which, at one time, was much upon men’s lips:—‘I will never consent,’ he -had said, ‘that the King of England shall be a King of the Mahrattas.’ -The merits, I venture to think, of that short Ministry, have had scant -acknowledgment in our current histories. And the reason is, perhaps, not -far to seek. - -The popular history of GEORGE THE THIRD’S reign has been, in a large -degree, imbued with Whiggism. The historians most in vogue have had a -sort of small apostolical succession amongst themselves, which has had -the result of giving a strong party tinge to those versions of the -course of political events in that reign which have most readily gained -the public ear. When the full story shall come to be told, in a later -day and from a higher stand-point, Lord SHELBURNE, not improbably, will -be one among several statesmen whose reputation with posterity (in -common—in some measure—with that of their royal master himself, it may -even be) will be found to have been elevated, rather than lowered, by -the process. - -[Sidenote: _Debates_, vol. xix, col. 850.] - -But, be that as it may, party intrigue, rather than ministerial -incapacity, had to do, confessedly, with the rapid overthrow of the -Government of July, 1782. - -Personally, Lord SHELBURNE was in a position which, in several points of -view, bears a resemblance to that in which another able statesman, who -had to fight against a powerful coterie, was to find himself forty years -later. But in SHELBURNE’S case, the struggle of the politician did not, -as in CANNING’S, break down the bodily vigour of the man. Lord SHELBURNE -had twenty-two years of retirement yet before him, when he resigned the -premiership in 1783. And they were years of much happiness. - -[Sidenote: THE CLOSING YEARS OF LORD LANSDOWNE’S LIFE.] - -Part of that happiness was the result of the domestic union just -adverted to. Another part of it accrued from the rich Library which the -research and attention of many years had gradually built up, and from -the increased leisure that had now been secured, both for study and for -the enjoyment of the choice society which gathered habitually at -Lansdowne House and at Bowood. - -Lord SHELBURNE’S retirement had been followed, in 1784, by his creation -as Earl Wycombe and Marquess of Lansdowne. In the following year, he -sold the Wycombe mansion and its charming park to Lord CARRINGTON. -Thenceforward, Bowood had the benefit, exclusively, of his taste and -skill in landscape-gardening. Unfortunately, his next successor, far -from continuing his father’s work, did much to injure and spoil it. But -the third Marquess, in whom so many of his father’s best qualities were -combined with some that were especially his own, made ample amends. - -The exciting debates which grew out of the French Revolution and the -ensuing events on the Continent, called Lord LANSDOWNE, now and then, -into the old arena. But the domestic employments which have been -mentioned, together with that which was entailed by a large and varied -correspondence, both at home and abroad, were the things which chiefly -filled up his later years. The Marquess died in London on the seventh of -May, 1805. He was but sixty-eight years of age, yet he was then the -oldest general officer on the army list, having been gazetted as a -major-general just forty years before. - - -[Sidenote: THE PURCHASE OF THE LANSDOWNE MANUSCRIPTS.] - -In order to acquire for the nation that precious portion of Lord -LANSDOWNE’S Library which was in manuscript, the national purse-strings -were now, for the first time, opened on behalf of the literary stores of -the British Museum. Fifty-three years had passed since its complete -foundation as a national institution, and exactly twice that number of -years since the first public establishment of the Cottonian Library, yet -no grant had been hitherto made by Parliament for the improvement of the -national collections of books. - -Four thousand nine hundred and twenty-five pounds was the sum given to -Lord LANSDOWNE’S executors for his manuscripts. Besides the successive -accumulations of State Papers heretofore mentioned, the LANSDOWNE -Collection included other historical documents, extending in date from -the reign of HENRY THE SIXTH to that of GEORGE THE THIRD; the varied -Collections of William _Petyt_ on parliamentary and juridical lore; -those of WARBURTON on the topography and family history of Yorkshire, -and of HOLLES, containing matter of a like character for the local -concerns of the county of Lincoln; the Heraldic and Genealogical -Collections of SEGAR, SAINT GEORGE, DUGDALE, and LE NEVE; and a most -curious series of early treatises upon music, which had been collected -by John WYLDE, who was for many years precentor of Waltham Abbey, in the -time of the second of the Tudor monarchs. - - -[Sidenote: THE ACQUISITION OF THE HARGRAVE AND BURNEY LIBRARIES.] - -The Lansdowne Collection did not contain very much of a classical -character. Its strength, it has been seen already, lay in the sections -of Modern History and Politics. The next important addition to the -Library of the Museum—that of the manuscripts and printed books of -Francis HARGRAVE—was likewise chiefly composed of political and -juridical literature. But the third parliamentary acquisition brought to -the Museum a store of classical wealth, both in manuscripts and in -printed books. HARGRAVE’S Legal Library was bought in 1813. Charles -BURNEY’S Classical Library was bought in 1818. In the biographical point -of view neither of these men ran a career which offers much of narrative -interest. The one career was that of a busy lawyer; the other, that of a -laborious scholar. But to BURNEY’S life a few sentences may be briefly -and fitly given. - -The second Charles BURNEY was a younger son of the well-known historian -of Music, who for more than fifty years was a prominent figure in the -literary circles—and especially in the Johnsonian circle—of London; and -in whose well-filled life a very moderate share of literary ability was -made to go a long way, and to elicit a very resonant echo. That ‘clever -dog BURNEY,’ as he was wont to be called by the autocrat of the -dinner-table, had the good fortune to be the father of several children -even more clever than himself. Their reputation enhanced his own. - -[Sidenote: THE LIFE AND LITERARY WORKS OF DR. CHAS. BURNEY.] - -Charles BURNEY, junior, was born at Lynn, in Norfolk, on the 10th of -December, 1757. He was educated at the Charter House in London, at Caius -College, Cambridge, and at King’s College, Aberdeen. At Aberdeen, BURNEY -formed a friendship with Dr. DUNBAR, a Scottish professor of some -distinction, and an incident which grew, in after-years, out of that -connection, determined the scene and character of the principal -employments of BURNEY’S life. He devoted himself to scholastic labours, -in both senses of the term; their union proved mutually advantageous, -and as tuition gave leisure for literary labour, so the successful -issues of that labour spread far and wide his fame as a schoolmaster. He -was one of the not very large group of men who in that employment have -won wealth as well as honour. It was finely said, many years ago—in one -of the State Papers written by GUIZOT, when he was Minister of Public -Instruction in France—‘the good schoolmaster must work for man, and be -content to await his reward from God.’ In BURNEY’S case, the combined -assiduity of an energetic man at the author’s writing-table, at the -master’s desk, and also (it must in truthful candour be added) at his -flogging block,[5] brought him a large fortune as well as a wide-spread -reputation. This fortune enabled him to collect what, for a -schoolmaster, I imagine to have been a Classical Library hardly ever -rivalled in beauty and value. It was the gathering of a deeply read -critic, as well as of an open-handed purchaser. - -The bias of Dr. BURNEY’S learning and tastes in literature led him to a -preference of the Greek classics far above the Latin. Naturally, his -Library bore this character in counterpart. He aimed at collecting Greek -authors—and especially the dramatists—in such a way that the collocation -of his copies gave a sort of chronological view of the literary history -of the books and of their successive recensions. - -For the tragedians, more particularly, his researches were brilliantly -successful. Of _Æschylus_ he had amassed forty-seven editions; of -_Sophocles_, one hundred and two; of _Euripides_, one hundred and -sixty-six. - -His first publication was a sharp criticism (in the _Monthly Review_) on -Mr. (afterwards Bishop) HUNTINGFORD’S Collection of Greek poems entitled -_Monostrophica_. This was followed, in 1789, by the issue of an Appendix -to SCAPULA’S Lexicon; and in 1807 by a collection of the correspondence -of BENTLEY and other scholars. Two years later, he gave to students of -Greek his _Tentamen de Metris ab Æschylo in choricis cantibus -adhibitis_, and to the youthful theologians his meritorious abridgment -of Bishop PEARSON’S _Exposition of the Creed_. In 1812, he published the -Lexicon of PHILEMON. - -The only Church preferments enjoyed by Dr. BURNEY were the rectory of -St. Paul, Deptford, near London, and that of Cliffe, also in Kent. His -only theological publication—other than the abridgment of PEARSON—was a -sermon which he had preached in St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1812. Late in -life he was made a Prebendary of Lincoln. - -Like his father, and others of his family, Charles BURNEY was a very -sociable man. He lived much with PARR and with PORSON, and, like those -eminent scholars, he had the good and catholic taste which embraced in -its appreciations, and with like geniality, old wine, as well as old -books. He was less wise in nourishing a great dislike to cool breezes. -‘Shut the door,’ was usually his first greeting to any visitant who had -to introduce himself to the Doctor’s notice; and it was a joke against -him, in his later days, that the same words were his parting salutation -to a couple of highwaymen who had taken his purse as he was journeying -homewards in his carriage, and who were adding cruelty to robbery by -exposing him to the fresh air when they made off. - -[Sidenote: CHOICE BOOKS IN BURNEY’S LIBRARY.] - -Some of Dr. BURNEY’S choicest books were obtained when the Pinelli -Library was brought to England from Italy. The prime ornament of his -manuscript Collection, a thirteenth century copy of the _Iliad_, of -great beauty and rich in scholia, was bought at the sale of the fine -Library of Charles TOWNELEY, Collector of the Marbles. - -Although classical literature was the strength of the BURNEY Collection, -it was also rich in some other departments. Of English newspapers, for -example, he had brought together nearly seven hundred volumes of the -seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, reaching from the reign of JAMES -THE FIRST to the reign of GEORGE THE THIRD. No such assemblage had been -theretofore formed, I think, by any Collector. He had also amassed -nearly four hundred volumes containing materials for a history of the -British Stage, which materials have subsequently been largely used by -Mr. GENEST, in his work on that subject. For BURNEY’S life-long study of -the Greek drama had gradually inspired him with a desire to trace what, -in a sense, may be termed its modern revival, in the grand sequel given -to it by SHAKESPEARE and his contemporaries. He had also collected about -five thousand engraved theatrical portraits, and two thousand portraits -of literary personages. - -A large number of his printed books contained marginal manuscript notes -by BENTLEY, CASAUBON, BURMANN, and other noted scholars. And in a series -of one hundred and seventy volumes BURNEY had himself collected all the -extant remains and fragments of Greek dramatic writers—about three -hundred in number. These remains he had arranged under the collective -title of _Fragmenta Scenica Græca_. - -A splendid vellum manuscript of the Greek orators, in scription of the -fourteenth century, had been obtained from Dr. CLARKE, by whom it had -been acquired during Lord ELGIN’S Ottoman Embassy, and brought into -England. It supplied lacunæ which are found wanting in all other known -manuscripts. It completed an imperfect oration of _Lycurgus_, and -another of _Dinarchus_. Another MS. of the Greek orators, of the -fifteenth century, is only next in value to that derived from CLARKE’S -researches in the East, of 1800. There is also a very fine manuscript of -the Geography of PTOLEMY, with maps compiled in the fifteenth century, -and two very choice copies of the Greek _Gospels_, one of which is of -the tenth, and the other of the twelfth centuries. - -In Latin classics, the BURNEY Manuscripts include a fourteenth century -_Plautus_, containing no fewer than twenty plays—whereas a manuscript -containing even twelve plays has long been regarded as a rarity. A -fifteenth century copy of the mathematical tracts collected by PAPPUS -ALEXANDRINUS, a _Callimachus_ of the same date, and a curious Manuscript -of the _Asinus Aureus_ of APULEIUS, are also notable. The whole number -of Classical Manuscripts which this Collector had brought together was -stated, at the time of his death, to be three hundred and eighty-five. - - -Dr. BURNEY died on the twenty-eighth of December, 1817, having just -entered upon his sixty-first year. He was buried at Deptford, amidst the -lamentations of his parishioners at his loss. - -[Sidenote: DOCTOR BURNEY’S CHARACTER.] - -For in BURNEY, too, the scholar and the Collector had not been suffered -to dwarf or to engross the whole man. His parishioners assembled, soon -after his death, to evince publicly their sense of what Death had robbed -them of. The testimony then borne to his character was far better, -because more pertinent, laudation, than is usually met with in the -literature of tombstones. Those who had known the man intimately then -said of him: ‘His attainments in learning were united with equal -generosity and kindness of heart. His impressive discourses from the -pulpit became doubly beneficial from the influence of his own example.’ -The parishioners agreed to erect a monument to his memory, ‘as a record -of their affection for their revered pastor, monitor, and friend; of -their gratitude for his services, and of their unspeakable regret for -his loss.’ - -Another meeting was called shortly afterwards, with a like object, but -of another sort. Despite his reverence for Busbeian traditions, Dr. -BURNEY had known how to win the love of his pupils. [Sidenote: _Annual -Biography and Obituary_, vol. iii, p. 225.] A large body of them met, -under the chairmanship of the excellent John KAYE, then Regius Professor -of Divinity at Cambridge, and afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, and they -subscribed for the placing of a monument to their old master in -Westminster Abbey. - -[Sidenote: THE APPLICATION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM TO - PARLIAMENT FOR THE PURCHASE OF BURNEY’S LIBRARY.] - -On the twenty-third of February, 1818, the Trustees of the British -Museum presented to the House of Commons a petition, praying that Dr. -BURNEY’S Library should be acquired for the Public. The prayer of the -petition was supported by Mr. BANKES and by Mr. VANSITTART, and a Select -Committee was appointed to inquire and report upon the application. - -In order to an accurate estimate of the value of the Library, a -comparison was instituted, in certain particulars, between its contents -and those of the Collection already in the national Museum. In comparing -the works of a series of twenty-four Greek authors, it was found that of -those authors, taken collectively, the Museum possessed only two hundred -and thirty-nine several editions, whereas Dr. Charles BURNEY had -collected no fewer than seven hundred and twenty-five editions.[6] -[Sidenote: ACQUISITION OF THE BURNEY LIBRARY BY THE NATION.] His -Collection of the Greek dramatists was not only, as I have said, -extensive, but it was arrayed after a peculiar and interesting manner. -By making a considerable sacrifice of duplicate copies, he had brought -his series of editions into an order which exhibited, at one view, all -the diversities of text, recension, and commentary. His Greek -grammarians were arrayed in like manner. And his collection of -lexicographers generally, and of philologists, was both large and well -selected. - -[Sidenote: _Report of Select Committee_, 1818; passim.] - -The total number of printed books was nearly thirteen thousand five -hundred volumes, that of manuscripts was five hundred and twenty; and -the total sum given for the whole was thirteen thousand five hundred -pounds. - -It was estimated that the Collection had cost Dr. BURNEY a much larger -sum, and that, possibly, if sold by public auction, it might have -produced to his representatives more than twenty thousand pounds. - - -In the same year with the acquisition of the Burney Library, the -national Collections were augmented by the purchase of the printed books -of a distinguished Italian scholar long resident in France, and eminent -for his contributions to French literature. [Sidenote: COLLECTION OF P. -L. GINGUENÉ. (Died 11 Nov., 1816.)] Pier Luigi GINGUENÉ—author of the -_Histoire Littéraire d’Italie_ and a conspicuous contributor to the -early volumes of the _Biographie Universelle_—had brought together a -good Collection of Italian, French, and Classical literature. It -comprised, amongst the rest, the materials which had been gathered for -the book by which the Collector is now chiefly remembered, and extended, -in the whole, to more than four thousand three hundred separate works, -of which number nearly one thousand seven hundred related to Italian -literature, or to its history. This valuable Collection was obtained by -the Trustees—owing to the then depressed state of the Continental -book-market—for one thousand pounds. And, in point of literary value, it -may be described as the first—in point of price, as the cheapest—of a -series of purchases which now began to be made on the Continent. - -A more numerous printed Library had been purchased together with a -cabinet of coins and a valuable herbarium, at Munich, three years -earlier, at the sale of the Collections of Baron VON MOLL. His Library -exceeded fourteen thousand volumes, nearly eight thousand of which -related to the physical sciences and to cognate subjects. [Sidenote: -COLLECTION OF BARON VON MOLL. (1815.)] The cost of this purchase, with -the attendant expenses, was four thousand seven hundred and seventy -pounds. The whole sum was defrayed out of the fund bequeathed by Major -Arthur EDWARDS.[7] - -These successive purchases, together with the Hargrave -Collection—acquired in 1813—increased the theretofore much neglected -Library by an aggregate addition of nearly thirty-five thousand volumes. -And for four successive years (1812–15) Parliament made a special annual -grant of one thousand pounds[8] for the purchase of printed books -relating to British History. - -[Sidenote: FRANCIS HARGRAVE AND HIS COLLECTIONS IN LAW LITERATURE.] - -The peculiar importance of the Hargrave Collection consisted in its -manuscripts and its annotated printed books. The former were about five -hundred in number, and were works of great juridical weight and -authority, not merely the curiosities of black-letter law. Their -Collector was the most eminent parliamentary lawyer of his day, but his -devotion to the science of law had, to some degree, impeded his -enjoyment of its sweets. During some of the best years of his life he -had been more intent on increasing his legal lore than on swelling his -legal profits. And thus the same legislative act which enriched the -Museum Library, in both of its departments, helped to smooth the -declining years of a man who had won an uncommon distinction in his -special pursuit. Francis HARGRAVE died on the sixteenth of August, 1821, -at the age of eighty. - - -[Sidenote: THE EGERTON BEQUEST.] - -Leaving now this not very long list of acquisitions made by the National -Library, in the way of purchase, either at the public cost or from -endowments, we have again to turn to a new and conspicuous instance of -private liberality. Like CRACHERODE, and like BURNEY, Francis Henry -EGERTON belonged to a profession which at nearly all periods of our -history—though in a very different degree in different ages—has done -eminent honour and rendered large services to the nation, and that in an -unusual variety of paths. - -Each of these three clergymen is now chiefly remembered as a -‘Collector.’ Each of them would seem to have been placed quite out of -his true element and sphere of labour, when assuming the -responsibilities of a priest in the Church of England. CRACHERODE was -scarcely more fitted for the work, at all events, of a preacher—save by -the tacit lessons of a most meek and charitable life—than he was fitted -to head a cavalry charge on the field of battle. BURNEY was manifestly -cut out by nature for the work of a schoolmaster; although, as we have -seen, he was able—late, comparatively, in life—so to discharge (for a -very few years) the duties of a parish priest as to win the love of his -flock. EGERTON was unsuited to clerical work of almost any and every -kind. Yet he, too, with all his eccentricities and his indefensible -absenteeism, became a public benefactor. The last act of his life was to -make a provision which has been fruitful in good, having a bearing—very -real though indirect—upon the special duties of the priestly function, -for which he was himself so little adapted. The bequests of Francis -EGERTON had, among their many useful results, the enabling of Thomas -CHALMERS to add one more to his fruitful labours for the Christian -Church and for the world. - -It may not, I trust, be out of place to notice in this connection, and -as one among innumerable debts which our country owes specifically to -its Church Establishment, the impressive and varied way in which the -English Church has, at every period, inculcated the lesson (by no means, -nowadays, a favourite lesson of ‘the age’) that men owe duties to -posterity, as well as duties to their contemporaries. The fact bears -directly on the subject of this book. Into every path of life many men -must needs enter, from time to time, without possessing any peculiar and -real fitness for it. In a path which (in the course of successive ages) -has been trodden by some millions of men, there must needs have been a -crowd of incomers who had been better on the outside. They were like the -square men who get to be thrust violently into round holes. But, even of -these misplaced men, not a few have learnt, under the teaching of the -Church, that if they could not with efficiency do pulpit work or parish -work, there was other work which they could do, and do perpetually. Men, -for example, who loved literature could, for all time to come, secure -for the poorest student ample access to the best books, and to the -inexhaustible treasures they contain. CRACHERODE did this. BURNEY helped -to do it. EGERTON not only did the like, in his degree, in several parts -of England, but he enabled other and abler men to write new books of a -sort which are conspicuously adapted to add to the equipment of divines -for their special duty and work in the world. Neglecting to learn many -lessons which the Church teaches, to her clergy as well as to laymen, he -had at least learnt one lesson of practical and permanent value. - -Hence it is that, in addition to the matchless roll of English worthies -which, in her best days, the Church has furnished—in that long line of -men, from her ranks, who have done honour to her, and to England, under -_every_ point of view—she can show a subsidiary list, comprising men -whose benefactions are more influential than were, or could have been, -the labours of their lives; men of the sort who, being dead, can yet -speak, and to much better purpose than ever they could speak when alive. -Among such is the Churchman whose testamentary gifts have now very -briefly to be mentioned. - - -[Sidenote: LIFE OF FRANCIS HENRY EGERTON, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, AND - FOUNDER OF THE ‘BRIDGEWATER TREATISES.’] - -Francis Henry EGERTON was a younger son of John EGERTON, Bishop of -Durham, by the Lady Anna Sophia GREY, daughter and coheir of Henry GREY, -Duke of Kent. He was born on the eleventh of November, 1756. The Bishop -of Durham was fifth in descent from the famous Chancellor of England, -Thomas EGERTON, Viscount Brachley, to whom, as he lay upon his -death-bed, BACON came with the news of King JAMES’S promise to make him -an Earl. Before the patent could be sealed, the exchancellor, it will be -remembered, was dead, and JAMES, to show his gratitude to the departed -statesman, sold for a large sum the Earldom of Bridgewater to the -Chancellor’s son. Eventually, of that earldom Francis Henry EGERTON was, -in his old age, the eighth and last inheritor. - -Mr. EGERTON was educated at Eton and at All Souls. He took his M.A. in -1780, and in the following year was presented, by his relative, Francis, -Duke of BRIDGEWATER—the father of inland navigation in Britain—to the -Rectory of Middle, in Shropshire, a living which he held for eight and -forty years. - -He was a toward and good scholar. From his youth he was a great reader -and a lover of antiquities, as well as a respectable philologist. His -foible was an overweening although a pardonable pride in his ancestry. -That ancestry embraced what was noblest in the merely antiquarian point -of view, along with the grand historical distinctions of state service -rendered to Queen ELIZABETH, and of a new element introduced into the -mercantile greatness of England under GEORGE THE THIRD. A man may be -forgiven for being proud of a family which included the servant of -ELIZABETH and friend of BACON, as well as the friend of BRINDLEY. But -the pride, as years increased, became somewhat wearisome to -acquaintances; though it proved to be a source of no small profit to -printers and engravers, both at home and abroad. Mr. EGERTON’S writings -in biography and genealogy are very numerous. They date from 1793 to -1826. Some of them are in French. All of them relate, more or less -directly, to the family of EGERTON. - - -In the year 1796, he appeared as an author in another department, and -with much credit. His edition of the _Hippolytus_ of EURIPIDES is also -noticeable for its modest and candid acknowledgment of the assistance he -had derived from other scholars. He afterwards collected and edited some -fragments of the odes of SAPPHO. The later years of his life were -chiefly passed in Paris. His mind had been soured by some unhappy family -troubles and discords, and as years increased a lamentable spirit of -eccentricity increased with them. It had grown with his growth, but did -not weaken with his loss of bodily and mental vigour. - -One of the most noted manifestations of this eccentricity was but the -distortion of a good quality. He had a fondness for dumb animals. He -could not bear to see them suffer by any infliction,—other than that -necessitated by a love of field sports, which, to an Englishman, is as -natural and as necessary as mother’s milk. At length, the Parisians were -scandalised by the frequent sight of a carriage, full of dogs, attended -with as much state and solemnity as if it contained ‘milord’ in person. -To his servants he was a most liberal master. He provided largely for -the parochial service and parochial charities of his two parishes of -Middle and Whitchurch (both in Shropshire). He was, occasionally, a -liberal benefactor to men of recondite learning, such as meet commonly -with small reward in this world.[9] But much of his life was stamped -with the ineffaceable discredit of sacred functions voluntarily assumed, -yet habitually discharged by proxy. - -On the death, in 1823, of his elder brother—who had become seventh Earl -of BRIDGEWATER, under the creation of 1617, on the decease of Francis -third Duke and sixth (Egerton) Earl—Francis Henry EGERTON became eighth -Earl of BRIDGEWATER. But he continued to live chiefly in Paris, where he -died, in April, 1829, at the age of seventy-two years. With the peerage -he had inherited a very large estate, although the vast ducal property -in canals had passed, as is well known, in 1803, to the LEVESON-GOWERS. - -Part of Lord BRIDGEWATER’S leisure at Paris was given to the composition -of a largely-planned treatise on Natural Theology. But the task was far -above the powers of the undertaker. He had made considerable progress, -after his fashion, and part of what he had written was put superbly into -type, from the press of DIDOT. Very wisely, he resolved to enable abler -men to do the work more efficiently. And this was a main object of his -remarkable Will. - -That portion of the document which eventually gave to the world the -well-known ‘Bridgewater Treatises’ of CHALMERS, BUCKLAND, WHEWELL, -PROUT, ROGET, and their fellows in the task, reads thus:— - -[Sidenote: LORD BRIDGEWATER’S BEQUESTS FOR THE PREPARATION OF TREATISES - ON NATURAL THEOLOGY.] - -‘I give and bequeath to the President of the Royal Society the sum of -eight thousand pounds, to be applied according to the order and -direction of the said President of the Royal Society, in full and -without any diminution or abatement whatsoever, in such proportions and -at such times, according to his discretion and judgment, and without -being subject to any control or responsibility whatsoever, to such -person or persons as the said President for the time being of the -aforesaid Royal Society shall or may nominate or appoint and employ. And -it is my will and particular request that some person or persons be -nominated and appointed by him to write, print, publish, and expose to -public sale, one thousand copies of a work “_On Power, Wisdom, and -Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation_,” illustrating such work -by all reasonable arguments; as, for instance, the variety and formation -of God’s creatures, in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; the -effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion; the construction of the -hand of man, and an infinite variety of arrangements; as also by -discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and in the whole -extent of literature. And I desire that the profits arising from and out -of the circulation and sale of the aforesaid work shall be paid by the -said President of the said Royal Society, as of right, as a further -remuneration and reward to such persons as the said President shall or -may so nominate, appoint, and employ as aforesaid. And I hereby fully -authorise and empower the said President, in his own discretion, to -direct and cause to be paid and advanced to such person or persons -during the printing and preparing of the said work the sum of three -hundred pounds, and also the sum of five hundred pounds sterling to the -same person or persons during the printing and preparing of the said -work for the press, out of, and in part of, the same eight thousand -pounds sterling. And I will and direct that the remainder of the said -sum of eight thousand pounds sterling, or of the stocks or funds wherein -the same shall have been invested, together with all interest, dividend, -or dividends accrued thereon, be transferred, assigned, and paid over to -such person or persons, their or his executors, administrators, or -assigns, as shall have been so nominated, appointed, and employed by the -said President of the said Royal Society, at the instance and request of -the same President, as and when he shall deem the object of this bequest -to have been fully complied with by such person or persons so nominated, -appointed, and employed by him as aforesaid.’ - -[Sidenote: BEQUESTS OF LORD BRIDGEWATER TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] - -What was done by the Trustees under this part of Lord BRIDGEWATER’S -Will, and with what result, is known to all readers. That other -portion of the Will which relates to his bequest to the British Museum -reads thus:—‘I give and bequeath to the Trustees for the time being of -the _British Museum_ at Montagu House, in London, to be there -deposited ... for the use of the said Museum, in conformity with the -rules, orders, and regulations of the said establishment, absolutely -and for ever, all and every my Collection of Manuscripts as -hereinafter particularly described. That is to say, the several -volumes of Manuscripts, and all papers, parchments (written or -printed), and all letters, despatches, registers, rolls, documents, -evidences, authorities and signatures, and all impressions of seals -and marks, of every description and sort, and of what nature or kind, -severally and generally belonging to my Collection of Manuscripts, or -in my possession, stamped with my arms or otherwise (except such -letters, notes, papers, &c.), as are hereinafter directed to be burned -and destroyed [‘_two words cancelled_, BRIDGEWATER’], in the -discretion of my Trustees and Executors hereinafter appointed; and -also save and except all such letters, papers, and writings as are -attached to and accompanying the printed books specifically bequeathed -by me to the Library at _Ashridge_, and which said last-mentioned -letters, papers, and writings are also, if I mistake not, stamped with -my arms. And I also will and require that all and every the aforesaid -manuscripts, papers, parchments (written or printed), letters, -despatches, registers, rolls, documents, evidences, authorities, -signatures, impressions of seals and marks of every description and -sort, and every other Manuscript or Manuscripts appertaining to my -said Collection whatsoever and wheresoever, or which shall or may -hereafter, during my life, be added thereto (but not private letters, -notes, or memorandums of any sort or kind, which I direct to be burned -or destroyed), shall, within the space of two years from the day of my -decease, be collected and removed to the _British Museum_ as -aforesaid, under the particular care, superintendence, and direction -of Eugene Auguste BARBIER, one of my Trustees and Executors -hereinafter appointed; for which particular service I give and -bequeath to him, the said Eugene Auguste BARBIER, the sum of two -thousand pounds sterling. I also give, bequeath, and demise unto the -said Trustees of the _British Museum_ all my estate, lands, parcels of -land, ground, hereditaments and appurtenances, situate in the parish -of _Whitchurch-cum-Marbury_, or in any other parish or place in the -Counties of Salop or Chester, or in either or both of the said -Counties, and also all the trees growing thereon, and all seats, -sittings, and pews in the Parish Church of Whitchurch-cum-Marbury -aforesaid, all or any of which I shall or may have bought or -purchased, and which now belong to me by right of purchase, descent, -or otherwise, to have and to hold the same estate, lands, parcels of -land, ground, hereditaments and appurtenances, to them the said -Trustees of the said _British Museum_ for the time being for ever, -upon the trusts nevertheless, and to and for the ends, intents, and -purposes hereinafter particularly mentioned, expressed, and declared; -that is to say, that the trees growing on the aforesaid estate, lands, -parcels of lands, ground, hereditaments, and appurtenances, shall not -be cut or brought down or destroyed, but shall and may be suffered to -grow during their natural life, and that the smaller trees only may be -thinned here and there, with care and judgment, so as to promote the -growth of the larger trees; and that the same estate, lands, parcels -of land, ground, hereditaments and appurtenances, seats, sittings or -pews, or any part thereof, shall not be susceptible of being let, -underlet or rented, by or to any person or persons who shall hold, -have, take, or rent any estate, farm, lands, or property of or from -the family of EGERTON, or of or from any person or persons having that -name, or of or from the Rector of _Whitchurch-cum-Marbury_ aforesaid -for the time being; and upon further trust that they the said Trustees -of the British Museum for the time being do and shall lay out and -apply the rents, issues, and profits which shall from time to time -arise from and out of the said estate, lands, parcels of land, ground, -hereditaments and appurtenances, in the purchase of manuscripts for -the continual augmentation of the aforesaid Collection of Manuscripts. -I further will and direct that my said Trustees hereinafter appointed, -within the space of eighteen calendar months after my decease, do lay -out and invest in the Three per cent. Consolidated stocks or funds of -England, in the names of the Trustees of the _British Museum_ for the -time being, or in such names and for such account as the said Trustees -shall direct, the sum of seven thousand pounds sterling, the interest -and dividends whereof, as the same shall from time to time become due -and payable, I desire and direct shall and may be paid over by the -said Trustees to such person or persons as shall from time to time be -charged with the care and superintendence of the said Collection of -Manuscripts. I also give, grant, bequeath, and devise unto my Trustees -hereinafter appointed all and singular my house, land, tenements, -hereditaments, and appurtenances at or near _Little Gaddesden_, in the -County of Herts, upon trust that they my said Trustees do and shall, -during their joint lives and the life of the survivor of them, let and -demise the same for such term or time as they shall think fit, for the -best rent that can be had and gotten for the same; but the same -premises, under no circumstances, to be let, underlet, or rented by or -to any person or persons who shall have, hold, take, or rent any -estate, farm, or property of or from the family of EGERTON, or any -person or persons bearing that name, and do and shall pay over the -rents, issues, and profits thereof, as and when received, to the -Trustees for the time being of the _British Museum_ aforesaid, to be -laid out and applied by such last-mentioned Trustees in the service -and for the continued augmentation of the said Collection of -Manuscripts; and from and after the decease of the survivor of them my -said Trustees hereinafter appointed, I give and devise the said house, -land, tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances, unto and for the use -of the proprietor or proprietors of the Manor and Estate of -_Ashridge_, his heirs and assigns for ever. And as to all the rest, -residue and remainder of my real and personal estate and effects, of -every nature and kind soever and wheresoever situate, not hereinbefore -disposed of, or availably so, for the purposes intended, I give, -devise, and bequeath the same to my said Trustees, upon trust that -they my said Trustees do pay over and transfer the same to the said -Trustees of the _British Museum_, and do otherwise render the same -available for the service of and towards maintaining, preserving, -keeping up, improving, augmenting, and extending, as opportunities may -offer, [Sidenote: _Will of Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater._ -(Official copy.)] my said Collection of Manuscripts so deposited in -the _British Museum_ as aforesaid, in the most advantageous manner, -according to their judgment and discretion.’ - -The eccentricity of which I have spoken showed itself in the successive -changes of detail and other modifications which these bequests underwent -before the testator’s death. What with the Will and its many codicils, -the documents, collectively, came to be of a kind which might task the -acumen of a FEARNE or a St. LEONARDS. But the drift of the Will was -undisturbed. The restrictions as to the underletting of the Whitchurch -estate, and the like, were now limited by codicils to a prescribed term -of years after the testator’s death; power was given to the Museum -Trustees to sell, also after a certain interval, the landed estate -bequeathed for the purchase of manuscripts, should it be deemed -conducive to the interest of the Library so to do; and an additional sum -of five thousand pounds was given to the Trustees for the further -increase of the Collection of Manuscripts, and for the reward of its -keeper, in lieu of the residuary interest in the testator’s personal -estate. - -[Sidenote: _Minutes of Trustees_; (printed in Parliamentary Paper of - 1835–6).] - -On the 10th of March, 1832, the Trustees resolved that the yearly -proceeds of the last-named bequest should be paid to the Librarians in -charge of the MSS., but that their ordinary salaries, on the -establishment, should be diminished by a like amount. - -[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE EGERTON MSS.;] - -The Manuscripts bequeathed by Lord BRIDGEWATER comprise a considerable -collection of the original letters of the Kings, Queens, Statesmen, -Marshals, and Diplomatists, of France; another valuable series of -original letters and papers of the authors and scientific men of France -and of Italy; many papers of Italian Statesmen; and a portion of the -donor’s own private correspondence. The latter series of papers -includes, amongst others, letters by Andres, D’Ansse de Villoisin, the -Prince of Aremberg, Auger, Barbier, the Duke of Blacas, Bodoni, -Boissonade, Bonpland, Canova, Cuvier, Ginguené, Humboldt, Valckenaer, -and Visconti. Some of these are merely letters of compliment. -Others—and, in an especial degree, those of D’Ansse de Villoisin, of -Boissonade, of Ginguené, of Humboldt, and of Visconti—contain much -interesting matter on questions of archæology, art, and history. - -[Sidenote: AND OF THE ADDITIONS MADE TO IT FROM 1832 TO 1870.] - -The earliest additions to the Egerton Collection were made by the -Trustees in May, 1832. In the selection of MSS. for purchase the -Trustees, with great propriety, have given a preference—on the whole; -not exclusively—to that class of documents of which the donor’s own -Collection was mainly composed—the materials, namely, of Continental -history. Amongst the earliest purchases of 1832 was a curious Venetian -_Portolano_ of the fifteenth century. [Sidenote: THE HARDIMAN MSS. ON -IRISH ARCHÆOLOGY AND ENGLISH HISTORY.] In the same year a large series -of Irish Manuscripts, collected by the late John HARDIMAN, was acquired. -This extends from the Egerton number ‘74’ to ‘214’; and from the same -Collector was obtained the valuable _Minutes of Debates in the House of -Commons_, taken by Colonel CAVENDISH, between the years—so memorable in -our history—from 1768 to 1774.[10] In the year 1835, a large collection -of manuscripts illustrative of Spanish history was purchased from Mr. -RICH, a literary agent in London, and another large series of -miscellaneous manuscripts—historical, political, and literary—from the -late bookseller, Thomas RODD. From the same source another like -collection was obtained in 1840. An extensive series of French State -Papers was acquired (by the agency of Messrs. BARTHES and LOWELL) in -1843; and also, in that year, a collection of Persian MSS. In the -following year a curious series of drawings, illustrating the -antiquities, manners, and customs of China, was obtained; and, in 1845, -another valuable series of French historical manuscripts. - -Meanwhile, the example set by Lord BRIDGEWATER had incited one of those -many liberal-minded Trustees of the British Museum who have become its -benefactors by augmentation, as well as by faithful guardianship, to -follow it in exactly the same track. [Sidenote: AUGMENTATION OF LORD -BRIDGEWATER’S GIFT BY THAT OF LORD FARNBOROUGH, 1838.] Charles LONG, -Lord Farnborough, bequeathed (in 1838) the sum of two thousand eight -hundred and seventy-two pounds in Three per cent. Consols, specifically -as an augmentation of the Bridgewater fund. Lord FARNBOROUGH’S bequest -now produces eighty-six pounds a year; Lord BRIDGEWATER’S, about four -hundred and ninety pounds a year. Together, therefore, they yield five -hundred and seventy pounds, annually, for the improvement of the -National Collection of Manuscripts. - -In 1850 and 1852, an extensive series of German _Albums_—many of them -belonging to celebrated scholars—was acquired. These are now ‘Egerton -MSS. 1179’ to ‘1499,’ inclusive, and ‘1540’ to ‘1607.’ A curious -collection of papers relating to the Spanish Inquisition was also -obtained in 1850. [Sidenote: _Egerton MSS._ 1704–1756.] [Sidenote: _Ib._ -1758–1772.] In 1857, the important historical collection, known as ‘the -Bentinck Papers,’ was purchased from Tycho MOMMSEN, of Oldenburgh. In -the following year, another series of Spanish State Papers, and also the -Irish Manuscripts of Henry MONCK MASON;—in 1860, a further series of -‘Bentinck Papers,’—and in 1861, an extensive collection of the -Correspondence of POPE and of Bishop WARBURTON, were successively -acquired. - -To these large accumulations of the materials of history were added, in -the succeeding years, other important collections of English -correspondence, and of autograph MSS. of famous authors; and also a -choice collection of Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts brought together -by Count DA PONTE, and abounding with historical information. [Sidenote: -_Egerton MSS._ 2047–2064.] To this an addition was made last year (1869) -of other like papers, amongst which are notable some Venetian -_Relazioni_; papers of Cardinals Carlo CARAFFA and Flavio ORSINI; and -some letters of Antonio PEREZ. [Sidenote: _Ib._ 2077–2084.] In 1869, -there was also obtained, by means of the conjoined Egerton and -Farnborough funds, [Sidenote: _Ib._ 2087–2099.] a curious parcel of -papers relating to the early affairs of the Corporation and trade of -Dover, from the year 1387 to 1678; [Sidenote: _Ib._ 2086; 2100.] -together with some other papers illustrative of the cradle-years of our -Indian empire. - -Amongst the latest accessions obtained from the Bridgewater fund are -some MSS. from the hand of a famous English poet of the last generation. -These have now an additional, and special, interest in English eyes, -from a recent lamentable occurrence. [Sidenote: THE ‘BYRON MSS.’ IN THE -EGERTON COLLECTION (1867).] The pen of a slanderer has aimed at gaining -a sort of celebrity, more enduring than anything of its own proper -production could hope to secure, by attempting to affix on BYRON and on -Augusta LEIGH—after both the great poet and the affectionate sister have -lain many years in their several graves, and can no longer rebut the -slander—the stain of an enormous guilt. Some, however, are yet alive, by -whom the calumny _can_, and will, be conclusively exposed. Meanwhile, -the slanderer’s poor aim will, probably, have been reached—but in an -unexpected and unenviable way. - - ‘The link - _Thou_ formest in his fortunes, bids us think - Of thy poor malice, naming thee with scorn.’ - -Very happily, the calumniating pen was not held in any English hand. - - -Much more might, and not unfitly, be said in illustration of the -historical and literary value of those manuscript accessions to the -National Library which, in these later years, have accrued out of the -proceeds of Lord BRIDGEWATER’S gift. Enough, however, has been stated, -to serve by way of sample. - -[Sidenote: OTHER BENEFACTIONS OF LORD BRIDGEWATER.] - -Nor were these the only literary bequests and foundations of the last -Earl of BRIDGEWATER. He bequeathed, as heir-looms, two considerable -Libraries, rich both in theology and in history—to the respective -rectors, for ever, of the parishes of Middle and of Whitchurch. These, I -learn—from MS. correspondence now before me—are of great value, and are -gladly made available, by their owners for the time being, to the use of -persons able and willing to profit by them. He also founded a Library, -likewise by way of heirloom, at Ashridge. - - -Whilst the National Library was thus being gradually improved, both by -increased liberality on the part of Parliament and, far more largely, by -the munificent gifts of individuals, other departments of the Museum had -not been neglected. - -[Sidenote: THE ACQUISITION OF THE GREVILLE MINERALS;] - -Charles GREVILLE, the nephew of Sir William HAMILTON, had collected, in -his residence at Paddington Green, a noble cabinet of minerals. It was -the finest assemblage of its kind which had yet been seen in England. -For the purchase of this Collection Parliament made a grant, in the year -1810, of thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven pounds. - -[Sidenote: OF THE MONTAGU MUSEUM; [See, hereafter, Book III, c. I.]] - -In 1816, a valuable accession came to the zoological department, by the -purchase, for the sum of eleven hundred pounds, of a Collection of -British Zoology, which had been formed at Knowle, in Devonshire, by -Colonel George MONTAGU. The Montagu Collection was especially rich in -birds. - -[Sidenote: AND OF THE COLLECTIONS OF SIR R. C. HOARE.] - -Nine years later, the Library was further benefited, in the way of gift, -by a choice Italian Collection, gathered and given by Sir Richard Colt -HOARE, of Stourhead; and, in the way of Parliamentary grant, by the -acquisition of the collection of manuscripts, coins, and other -antiquities, which had been made in the East, during his years of -Consulship at Baghdad, by Claudius James RICH. - -Sir Richard HOARE was not less distinguished for the taste and judgment -with which he had collected the historical literature of Italy, than for -the zeal and ability with which he cultivated, both as author and as -patron, the—in Britain—too much neglected department of provincial -topography. He had spent nearly five years in Italy—partly during the -reign of NAPOLEON—and amassed a very fine collection of books -illustrative of all departments of Italian history. In 1825, Sir Richard -presented this Collection to the Trustees of the British Museum in these -words:—‘Anxious to follow the liberal example of our gracious monarch -GEORGE THE FOURTH, of Sir George BEAUMONT, and of Richard Payne KNIGHT -(though in a very humble degree), I do give unto the British Museum my -Collection of Topography, made during a residence of five years abroad; -and hoping that the more modern publications may be added to it -hereafter.’ The Library so given included about seventeen hundred and -thirty separate works. Sir Richard did something, himself, to secure the -fulfilment of the annexed wish, by adding to his first gift, made in -1825, in subsequent years. - -[Sidenote: COLLECTIONS OF CLAUDIUS RICH. [See, hereafter, Book III, c. - 3.]] - -The researches of Claudius RICH merit some special notice. He may be -regarded as the first explorer of Assyria. Had it not been for his early -death, it is very probable that he might have anticipated some of the -brilliant discoveries of Mr. LAYARD. But his quickly intercepted -researches will be best described, in connection with the later -explorations in the same field. Here it may suffice to say that from Mr. -RICH’S representatives a Collection of Manuscripts, extending to eight -hundred and two volumes—Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish—was -obtained, by purchase, in 1825, together with a small Collection of -Coins and miscellaneous antiquities. - -To the Oriental Manuscripts of RICH, an important addition was made in -the course of the same year by the bequest of [Sidenote: HULL’S ORIENTAL -MSS.] Mr. John Fowler HULL—another distinguished Orientalist who passed -from amongst us at an early age—who also bequeathed a Collection of -Oriental and Chinese printed books. Mr. HULL’S legacy was the small -beginning of that Chinese Library which has now become so large. - -[Sidenote: THE PERSEPOLITAN MARBLES.] - -It was also in the year 1825 that Sir Gore OUSELEY presented a -Collection of Marbles obtained from Persepolis. These will be mentioned -hereafter in connection with the antiquarian explorations of Claudius -RICH and his successors. The donor of the Persepolitan Marbles died on -the eighteenth of November, 1844. - - -[Sidenote: HISTORY OF ‘THE PORTLAND VASE.’] - -In addition to these many liberal benefactions made during the earlier -years of the present century, a smaller gift (virtually a gift, though -in name a ‘deposit’) of the same period claims brief notice, on account -both of its artistic value and of its curious history. I refer to that -exquisite monument of ancient art known, for many years, as the -‘Barberini Vase,’ but now more commonly as the ‘Portland Vase,’ from the -name of its last individual possessor. - -This vase is one of the innumerable acquisitions which the country owes -to the intelligent research and cultivated taste of Sir William -HAMILTON. It had been found more than a century before his time -(probably in the year 1640), beneath the Monte del Grano, about three -miles from Rome, on the road to Tusculum. The place of the discovery was -a sepulchral chamber, within which was found a sarcophagus containing -the vase, and bearing an inscription to the memory of the Emperor -ALEXANDER SEVERUS (_A.D._ 222–235) and to his mother. About this -sarcophagus and its inscription there have been dissertations and -rejoinders, essays and commentaries, illustrative and obscurative, in -sufficient number to immortalise half a dozen Jonathan OLDBUCKS and -‘Antigonus’ MAC-CRIBBS. And the controversy is still undetermined. - -After having been long a conspicuous ornament of the Barberini Palace, -the ‘Barberini Vase’ was bought by HAMILTON. When, in December, 1784, he -paid one of his visits to England, the vase came with him. Its fame had -previously excited the desires of many virtuosi. By the Duchess of -PORTLAND it was so strongly coveted, that she employed a niece of Sir -William to conduct a negotiation with much more solemnity and mystery -than the ambassador would have thought needful in conducting a critical -Treaty of Peace. [Sidenote: _Correspondence of Mrs. Delany_, vol. ii (in -many places).] The Duchess’s precautions foiled the curiosity of not a -few of her fellow-collectors in virtû. ‘I have heard,’ wrote Horace -WALPOLE, ‘that Sir W. HAMILTON’S renowned vase, which had disappeared -with so much mystery, is again recovered; not in the tomb, but the -treasury, of the Duchess of PORTLAND, in which, I fancy, it had made -ample room for itself. Sir William told me it would never go out of -England. I do not see how he could warrant _that_. The Duchess and Lord -Edward have both shown how little stability there is in the riches of -that family.’ [Sidenote: H. Walpole to Lady Upper-Ossory, 10 August, -1785. (Cunn. Edit., vol. ix, p. 3.)] As yet, the reader will remember, -that ‘Portland Estate,’ which was so profitably to turn farms into -streets, was but in expectancy. - -And then WALPOLE adds: ‘_My_ family has felt how insecure is the -permanency of heir-looms,’—the thought of that grand ‘Houghton Gallery,’ -and its transportation to Russia, coming across his memory, whilst -telling Lady UPPER-OSSORY the story of the coveted vase, just imported -from the Barberini Palace at Rome. - -The Duchess of PORTLAND enjoyed the sight of her beautiful purchase only -during a few weeks. It was bought in by the family (at the nominal price -of £1029[11]) at the sale of her famous museum of curiosities—a sale -extending to more than four thousand lots—and twenty-four years -afterwards, it was lent, for exhibition (1810), by the third Duke of -PORTLAND, to the Trustees of the British Museum, where it has since -remained. - -When WEDGWOOD set about imitating the Portland Vase in his manufactory -at Etruria—for which purpose the then Duke liberally lent it to him—he -discovered that the vase had been broken and skilfully put together -again. After it had been publicly exhibited during almost thirty-five -years in London, the frenzy of a maniac led—as it seemed at the -moment—to its utter destruction. But, mainly by the singular skill and -patience of the late John DOUBLEDAY (a craftsman attached to the -Department of Antiquities for many years), it was soon restored to its -pristine beauty. That one act of violence in 1845 is the only instance -of very serious injury arising from open exhibition to all comers which -the annals of the Museum record. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - THE KING’S OR ‘GEORGIAN’ LIBRARY;—ITS COLLECTOR, AND ITS DONOR. - - ‘A crown, - Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns; - Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, - To him who wears the regal diadem.’ - - · · · · · - - ‘O polish’d perturbation! golden care! - That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide - To many a watchful night!’— - _Henry IV_, Part 2, iv, 4. - - _Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King_ GEORGE THE - THIRD.—_His Conversations with Men of Letters.—History of his - Library and of its Transfer to the British Nation by_ GEORGE THE - FOURTH. - - -The strong antagonisms in mind, in disposition, and in tastes, which -existed between GEORGE THE THIRD and GEORGE THE FOURTH, may be seen in -the small and incidental acts of their respective lives, almost as -distinctly, and as sharply defined, as they are seen in their private -lives, or in their characteristic modes of transacting the public -business. [Sidenote: THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN GEORGE III AND GEORGE IV.] -GEORGE THE THIRD regretted the giving away of the old ‘Royal Library’ of -the Kings his ancestors, not because he grudged a liberal use of royal -books by private scholars, but because he thought a fine Library was the -necessary appendage of a palace. He occasionally stinted himself of some -of his personal enjoyments in life, in order to have the more means to -amass books. He formed, during his own lifetime, a Library which is -probably both larger and finer than any like Collection ever made by any -one man, even under the advantageous conditions of royalty. When he had -collected his books, he made them liberally accessible. To himself, as -we all know, Nature had not given any very conspicuous faculty for -turning either books or men to good account; nor had education done much -to improve the parts he possessed. - -GEORGE THE FOURTH, as it seems, regretted the formation of the new Royal -Library by the King his father, because, when he inherited it, he found -that its decent maintenance and upkeeping would demand every year a sum -of money which he could spend in ways far more to his taste. He had been -far better educated than his father had been. And to him Nature had -given good abilities; but study was about the last and least likely use -to which, at any time, he was inclined to apply them. If he saw any good -at all in having, on his accession, the ownership of a large Library, it -lay, not in the power it afforded him of benefiting literature, and the -labourers in literature, but in the possibility he saw that so fine a -collection of books might be made to produce a round sum of money. One -of his first thoughts about the matter was, that it would be a good -thing to offer his father’s beloved Library for sale—to the Emperor of -Russia. By what influences that shrewd scheme of turning a penny was -diverted will be seen in the sequel. - - -If GEORGE THE THIRD was, in respect to his parts, only slenderly -endowed, he had in another respect large gifts. Both his industry and -his power of sustained application were uncommon. And his conscientious -sense of responsibility for the use of such abilities as he had was no -less remarkable. Whatever may have been his mistakes in government, no -man ever sat on the British throne who was more thoroughly honest in his -intentions, or more deeply anxious to show, in the discharge of his -duties, his consciousness of being - - ‘Ever in his great taskmaster’s eye.’ - -That his public acts did not more adequately correspond with his good -desires was due, in large measure, to an infelicitous parentage and a -narrow education. - -As the father of lies sometimes speaks truth, so a mere party manifesto -may sometimes give sound advice, though clothed in a discreditable garb. -[Sidenote: THE EDUCATION OF GEORGE III, AFTER THE DEATH OF FREDERICK, -PRINCE OF WALES.] When public attention came first to be attracted to -the character of the peculiar influences which began to mould the -training of the young Prince of WALES soon after his father’s death, a -Court Chamberlain received, one morning, by the post, an unsigned -document, which he thought it his duty to place in the hands of the -Prime Minister, and he, when he had read it, thought the paper important -enough to be laid before the King. This anonymous memorial denounced, as -early as in the winter of 1752 (when the Prince was but fourteen years -old), the sort of education which GEORGE THE THIRD was receiving as -being likely to initiate an unfortunate reign. - -The paper (which I have now before me) is headed: ‘_A Memorial of -several Noblemen and Gentlemen of the first rank_,’ and in the course of -it there is an assertion—as being already matter of public -notoriety—‘that books inculcating the worst maxims of government, and -defending the most avowed tyrannies, have been put into the hands of the -Prince of Wales,’ and such a fact, it is said, ‘cannot but affect the -memorialists with the most melancholy apprehensions when they find that -the men who had the honesty and resolution to complain of such -astonishing methods of instruction are driven away from Court, and the -men who have dared to teach such doctrines are continued in trust and -favour.’[12] - -[Sidenote: _A Memorial_, &c.; MS. ADDIT. 6271, fol. 3.] - -Making all allowance for partisan feeling and for that tinge of Whig -oligarchism which peeps out, as well in the very title, as in the -contents of this ‘Memorial,’ there was obvious truth in the -denunciation, and a modicum of true prophecy in the inference. But such -a remonstrance had just as little effect, in the way of checking undue -influences, as it had of wisdom in the form given to it, or in the mode -of its presentation at Court. - -[Sidenote: NARROW RANGE OF GEORGE THE THIRD’S TASTES FOR BOOKS.] - -The Prince’s education was not merely imbued with ideas and maxims -little likely to conduce towards a prosperous reign. It was -intellectually narrow and mean. He grew up, for example, in utter -ignorance of many of the great lights of English literature. In respect -to all books, save one (that, happily, the greatest of all), he became -one of those who, through life, draw from the small cisterns, instead of -going to the deep wells. He seems to have been trained to think that the -literary glories of his country began with the age of Queen ANNE. - -In after-years, GEORGE THE THIRD attained to some dim consciousness of -his own narrowness of culture. The ply, however, had been too early -taken to be got rid of. No training, probably, could have made him a -scholar. But his powers of application under wise direction would have -opened to him stores of knowledge, from which unwise influences shut him -out for life. His faculty of perseverance in study, it must be -remembered, was backed by thorough honesty of nature, and by an ability -to withstand temptations. When he was entering his nineteenth year, a -sub-preceptor, who had watched him sedulously, said of him: ‘He is a lad -of good principle. He has no heroic strain, and no turn for -extravagance. He loves peace, and, as yet, has shown very virtuous -principles. He has the greatest temptation to gallant with ladies, who -lay themselves out in the most shameless manner to draw him on, but to -no purpose.’ Certainly this last characteristic was neither an inherited -virtue nor an ancestral tradition. And it stands in curious contrast -with the tendencies of all his brothers and of almost all his sons. - -From youth upwards the Prince read much, though he did not read wisely. -No sooner was he King than he began to set about the collection of his -noble Library. In the choice of a librarian he was not infelicitous, -though the selection was in part dictated by a feeling of brotherly -kindness. For he chose a very near relative—Mr. afterwards Sir Frederick -Augusta BARNARD. Mr. BARNARD had many qualities which fitted him for his -task. - -[Sidenote: FOUNDATION OF THE NEW ROYAL LIBRARY.] - -The foundation of the Library was laid by a very fortunate purchase on -the Continent. Its increase was largely promoted by a political -revolution which ensued shortly afterwards; and, in order to turn his -large opportunities to most account, the King’s Librarian modestly -sought and instantly obtained the best advice which that generation -could afford him—the advice of Samuel JOHNSON. - -In 1762, the fine Library of Joseph SMITH, who had been British Consul -at Venice during many years, was bought for the King. It cost about ten -thousand pounds. SMITH had ransacked Italy for choice books, much as his -contemporary, Sir William HAMILTON, had ransacked that country for -choice vases. And he had been not less successful in his quest. In -amassing early and choice editions of the classics, and also the -curiosities and rarities of fifteenth century printing, he had been -especially lucky. From the same source, but at a later date, GEORGE THE -THIRD also obtained a fine gallery of pictures and a collection of coins -and gems. For these he gave twenty thousand pounds. [Sidenote: -_Dactyliotheca Smithiana_; 1767; Lady M. W. Montagu, _Letters_, vol. -iii, p. 89.] For seven or eight years the shops and warehouses of -English booksellers were also sedulously examined, and large purchases -were made from them. In this labour JOHNSON often assisted, actively, as -well as by advice. - -When the suppression of the Jesuits in many parts of Europe made the -literary treasures which that busy Society had collected—often upon a -princely scale and with admirable taste, so far as their limitations -permitted—both the King and his librarian were struck with the idea that -another fine opportunity opened itself for book-buying on the Continent. -It was resolved that Mr. BARNARD should travel for the purpose of -profiting by it. Before he set out on his journey, he betook himself to -JOHNSON for counsel as to the best way of setting about the task. - -JOHNSON’S counsel may be thus abridged: The literature of every country -may be best gathered on its native soil. And the studies of the learned -are everywhere influenced by peculiarities of government and of -religion. In Italy you may, therefore, expect to meet with abundance of -the works of the Canonists and the Schoolmen; in Germany with store of -writers on the Feudal Laws; in Holland you will find the booksellers’ -shops swarming with the works of the Civilians. [Sidenote: SUBSTANCE OF -JOHNSON’S ADVICE ON THE COLLECTION OF THE KING’S LIBRARY.] Of Canonists -a few of the most eminent will suffice. Of the Schoolmen a liberal -supply will be a valuable addition to the King’s Library. The -departments of Feudal and Civil Law you can hardly render too complete. -In the Feudal Constitutions we see the origin of our property laws. Of -the Civil Law it is not too much to say that it is a regal study. - -In respect to standard books generally, continued JOHNSON, a Royal -Library ought to have the earliest or most curious edition, the most -sumptuous edition, and also the most useful one, which will commonly be -one of the latest impressions of the book. As to the purchase of entire -libraries in bulk, the Doctor inclined to think—even a century ago—that -the inconvenience would commonly almost overbalance the advantage, on -the score of the excessive accumulation of duplicate copies. - -And then he added a remark which (long years afterwards) Sir Richard -Colt HOARE profited by, and made a source of profit to our National -Museum. ‘I am told,’ said JOHNSON, ‘that scarcely a village of Italy -wants its historian. And it will be of great use to collect, in every -place, maps of the adjacent country, and plans of towns, buildings, and -gardens. By this care you will form a more valuable body of geography -than could otherwise be had.’ - -On that point—as, indeed, on all the points about which he gave -advice—JOHNSON’S counsel bore excellent fruit. The ‘body of geography’ -contained in the Georgian Library has never, I think, been surpassed in -any one Collection (made by a single Collector) in the world. It laid, -substantially, the foundation of the noble assemblage of charts and maps -which now forms a separate Department of the Museum, under the able -superintendence of Mr. Richard Henry MAJOR, who has done much for the -advancement of geographical knowledge in many paths, but in none more -efficiently than in his Museum labours. - -Like good counsel was given to BARNARD by the great lexicographer, in -relation to the gathering of illustrated books. He told the King’s -Librarian that he ought to seek diligently for old books adorned with -woodcuts, because the designs were often those of great masters. - -[Sidenote: JOHNSON’S REMARK ON MODERN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.] - -When to this remark the Doctor added the words: ‘Those old prints are -such as cannot be made by any artist now living,’ he asserted what was -undoubtedly true, if he limited that high praise to the best class of -the works of which he was speaking. But his words carry in them also an -indirect testimony of honour to GEORGE THE THIRD. If, in the century -which has passed since Samuel JOHNSON discussed with Frederick BARNARD -the wisest means of forming a Royal Library, a great stride has been -made by the arts of design in Britain, a share of the merit belongs to -the patriotic old King. He was amongst the earliest in his dominions to -encourage British art with an open hand. He was not only the founder of -the Royal Academy, but a most liberal patron to artists; and he did not -limit his patronage to those men alone who belonged to his own Academy. -If for a series of years the Royal Academy did less for Art, and did its -work in a more narrow spirit of coterie than it ought to have done, the -fault was not in the founder. And, of late years, the Academy itself -has, in many ways, nobly vindicated its foundation and the aid it has -received from the Public. Towards the foundation of the Academy, GEORGE -THE THIRD gave, from his privy purse, more than five thousand pounds. To -many of its members he was a genial friend, as well as a liberal patron. - -Many other institutions of public education shared his liberality. Some -generous benefactions which he gave to the British Museum itself, in the -earlier years of his reign, have been mentioned already. But there were -a crowd of other gifts, both in the earlier and in the later years, of -which the limits of this volume at present forbid me to make detailed -mention. - - -The Continental tour of Mr. BARNARD was very successful as to its main -object. He obtained such rich accessions for the Library as raised -it—especially in the various departments of Continental history and -literature—much above all other Libraries in Britain. - -[Sidenote: _Bibliotheca Askeviana_ (1775). _Literary Anecdotes of - Eighteenth Century_, vol. iv, p. 513 (183–).] - -Within a few years of his return to England the very choice Collection -which had been formed by Dr. Anthony ASKEW came into the market. For -this Library, in bulk, the King offered ASKEW’S representatives five -thousand pounds. They thought they could make more of the Collection by -an auction, but, in the event, obtained less than four thousand pounds. -The Askew Library extended only to three thousand five hundred and -seventy separate printed works, but it contained a large proportion of -rare and choice books. The chief buyers at the sale were the Duke of LA -VALLIÈRE and (through the agency of DE BURE) LEWIS THE SIXTEENTH. The -King of England bought comparatively little, although on this occasion -Mr. BARNARD could scarcely have withholden his hand on the score of the -special injunctions which the King had formerly laid down for his -guidance in such public competitions. - -For it deserves to be remembered that GEORGE THE THIRD’S conscientious -thoughtfulness for other people led him, early in his career as a -Collector, to give to his librarian a general instruction such as the -servants of wealthy Collectors rarely receive. ‘I do not wish you,’ he -said, ‘to bid either against a literary man who wants books for study, -or against a known Collector of small means.’ He was very free to bid, -on the other hand, against a Duke of ROXBURGHE or an Earl SPENCER. - -The King’s kindness of nature was also shown in the free access which he -at all times afforded to scholars and students in his own Library. To -this circumstance we owe some of the most interesting notices we have of -his opinions of authors and of books. - -[Sidenote: THE OLD LOCALITIES OF THE GEORGIAN LIBRARY.] - -In the earliest years of the Royal Collectorship part of the Library was -kept in the old palace at Kew, which has long since disappeared, the -site of it being now a gorgeous flower-bed. Afterwards, and on the -acquisition for the Queen, of Buckingham House,[13] the chief part of -the Collection was removed to Pimlico, and arranged in the handsome -rooms of which a view appears, by way of vignette, on the title-pages of -the sumptuously printed catalogue prepared by BARNARD. It was at -Buckingham House that JOHNSON’S well-known conversation with the King -took place, in February, 1767. - -When JOHNSON first began to use the Royal Collection it was still in its -infancy. He was surprised both at its extent and at the number of rare -and choice books which it already included. He had seen BARNARD’S -assiduity, and had helped him occasionally in his book-researches, long -prior to the tour of 1768. But it astonished him to see that the King, -within six or seven years, had gathered so fine a Library as that which -he saw in 1767. He became a frequent visitor. The King, hearing of the -circumstance, desired his librarian to let him know when the literary -autocrat came again. - -[Sidenote: THE INTERVIEW AT BUCKINGHAM HOUSE BETWEEN GEORGE III AND DR. - JOHNSON.] - -The King’s first questions were about the doings at Oxford, whence, he -had been told, Johnson had recently returned. The Doctor expressed his -inability to bestow much commendation on the diligence then exhibited -by the resident scholars of the University in the way of any -conspicuous additions to literature. [Sidenote: 1767, February.] -Presently, the King put to him the question, ‘And what are you about -yourself?’ ‘I think,’ was the answer—given in a tone more modest than -the strict sense of the words may import—‘that I have already done my -part as a writer.’ To which the King rejoined, ‘I should think so too, -had you not written so well.’ After this happy retort, the King turned -the conversation on some recent theological controversies. About that -between WARBURTON and LOWTH he made another neat though obvious -remark—‘When it comes to calling names, argument, truly, is pretty -well at an end.’ They then passed in review many of the periodical -publications of the day, in the course of which His Majesty displayed -considerable knowledge of the chief books of that class, both English -and French. [Sidenote: Croker’s _Boswell_, pp. 184–186.] He showed his -characteristic and kingly attention to minutiæ by an observation which -he made when JOHNSON had praised an improved arrangement of the -contents of the _Philosophical Transactions_—oblivious, at the moment, -that he had himself suggested the change. ‘They have to thank Dr. -JOHNSON for that,’ said the King. - -Another remark made by GEORGE THE THIRD during this conversation -deserves to be remembered. ‘I wish,’ said he, ‘that we could have a -really well-executed body of British Biography.’ This was a desideratum -in the seventh year of the old King, and it is a desideratum still in -the thirty-fourth year of his granddaughter. The reign of Queen VICTORIA -was comparatively young when the late Mr. MURRAY first announced, not -without some flourish of trumpets, a forthcoming attempt at such a -labour, but the little that was said as to the precise plan and scope of -the work then contemplated, gave small promise of an adequate -performance; and hitherto there has been no performance at all. - -[Sidenote: THE KING’S CONVERSATION WITH DR. BEATTIE;] - -Six years after the interview with JOHNSON, another literary -conversation, of which we have a record, was held in the Royal Library. -But on this occasion the scene was Kew. Dr. BEATTIE’S fame is now a -thing of the past. There is still, however, some living interest in the -account of the talk between the author of _The Minstrel_ and his -sovereign, held in 1773, [Sidenote: 1773. August.] about liturgies, -[Sidenote: Forbes, _Life of Beattie_, vol. i, pp. 347–354.] about -prayers occasional and prayers _ex tempore_, and about the methods of -education adopted in the Scottish universities. - -The King’s least favourable—but not least characteristic—appearance, as -a talker on literary subjects, is made in that conversation with Miss -BURNEY, [Sidenote: AND WITH MISS BURNEY.] in which he uttered his -often-quoted remark on SHAKESPEARE:—‘Was there ever such stuff as great -part of _Shakespeare_—only one must not say so?’ [Sidenote: 1785. -December.] The sense of the humorous seems in GEORGE III to have been -wholly lacking. And some part of the sadness of his life has probably a -vital connexion with that deficiency. - -In the last-mentioned conversation, the King evinced considerable -acquaintance with French literature. He shared, to some extent, the then -very general admiration for ROUSSEAU, on whom he had bestowed more than -one act of kindness during the brief English exile of the author of -_Emile_. [Sidenote: D’Arblay, _Diary_, vol. ii, pp. 395–398.] He shared, -also, the common impression as to the absence of gratitude in the -brilliant Frenchman’s character. When Miss BURNEY told him that his own -portrait had been seen to occupy the most conspicuous place in -ROUSSEAU’S living-room after his return to France, the King was both -surprised and touched. - - -Next after the large and choice acquisitions made for the King’s Library -on the Continent, some of its most conspicuous and valuable literary -treasures were acquired at the several sales, in London, of the -Libraries of James WEST (1773), of John RATCLIFFE (1776), and of Richard -FARMER (1798). It was at the first of these sales that GEORGE THE THIRD -laid the foundation of his unequalled series of the productions of the -father of English printing. - -[Sidenote: GEORGE THE THIRD’S SERIES OF BOOKS FROM CAXTON’S PRESS.] - -The _Caxtons_ bought for the King at West’s sale included the dearly -prized _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_ (1472–1474?), the _Booke of -the Chesse_ (1476?), the _Canterbury Tales_ of CHAUCER (1478?), the -_Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers_ (1480), the _Mirrour of the -World_ (1481), the _Godfrey of Boloyne_ (1482), the _Confessio Amantis_ -(1483), the _Paris and Vienne_ (1485), and the _Royal Booke_ (1487?). Of -these, the lowest in price was the _Confessio_ of 1483, which the King -acquired for nine guineas, and the highest in price was the _Chaucer_ of -1478, which cost him forty-seven pounds fifteen shillings. - -At the same sale, he also acquired another Caxton, which has a peculiar -interest. The King’s copy of the _Troylus and Creside_ (probably printed -in the year 1484) formerly belonged - - ‘To Her, most gentle, most unfortunate, - Crowned but to die—who in her chamber sate - Musing with Plato, though the horn was blown, - And every ear and every heart was won, - And all, in green array, were chasing down the sun;’ - -and it bears her autograph. - -Three years after the dispersion of WEST’S Library came that of the -extraordinary Collection which had been made by a Bermondsey -ship-chandler, John RATCLIFFE by name. This worthy and fortunate -Collector has been said, commonly, to have amassed his black-letter -curiosities by buying them, at so much a pound, over his counter.[14] -But of such windfalls no man has ever been so lucky as to have more than -a few. [Sidenote: JOHN RATCLIFFE OF BERMONDSEY AND HIS CURIOUS LIBRARY.] -John RATCLIFFE was, like his King, a large buyer at WEST’S sale, and at -many other sales, upon the ordinary terms. - -By pains and perseverance he had collected of books printed by CAXTON -the extraordinary number of forty-eight. No Collector ever surpassed, or -even reached, that number, except Robert HARLEY, in whose days books -that are now worth three hundred pounds could, not infrequently, be -bought for much less than the half of three hundred pence. - -RATCLIFFE’S forty-eight _Caxtons_ produced at his sale two hundred and -thirty-six pounds. The King bought twenty of them at an aggregate cost -of about eighty-five pounds. Amongst them were the _Boethius_, of 1478; -the _Reynarde the Foxe_, of 1481; the _Golden Legende_, and the -_Curial_, both of 1484; and the _Speculum Vitæ Christi_, probably -printed in 1488. The _Boethius_ is a fine copy, and was obtained for -four pounds six shillings. A few years ago an imperfect copy of the same -book brought more than sixteen times that sum. - -[Sidenote: GIFTS TO THE KING’S LIBRARY.] - -Two others of the King’s _Caxtons_ were the gift of Jacob BRYANT. One of -these is Ralph LEFEVRE’S _Recueil des histoires de Troye_, printed, -probably, in 1476. The other is the _Doctrinal of Sapience_, printed in -1489. This last-named volume is on vellum, and is the only copy so -printed which is known to exist. A third Caxton volume was bequeathed to -GEORGE THE THIRD by Mr. HEWETT, of Ipswich. This is the _Æsop_ of 1484, -and is the only extant copy. [Sidenote: GEORGE III AND THE BIBLIOMANIA.] -It was delivered to the King by Sir John HEWETT and Mr. Philip BROKE, -the legator’s executors. GEORGE THE THIRD was very sensitive to the -special triumphs of collectorship, and would be sure to prize the _Æsop_ -all the more for its attribute of uniqueness. - -A story in illustration of this specific tinge of the bibliomania in our -royal Collector was wont to be told by Sir Walter SCOTT, and is -mentioned in his interesting obituary notice of the King, printed in the -_Edinburgh Weekly Journal_[15] immediately after the King’s death. -According to SCOTT, GEORGE THE THIRD was fond of crowing a little over -his brother-collector, the Duke of ROXBURGHE, on the score that the -royal copy of the famous _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_ had a -pre-eminence over the Roxburghe copy. The pre-eminence was of a sort, -indeed, to which no one but a thorough-paced Collector would be -sensible. For it consisted in the ‘locking,’ or wrong imposing, of -certain pages, afterwards corrected at press. The fault, therefore, -indicated priority of working off. But I do not find in the King’s -_Recuyell_—which now lies before me—the peculiarity spoken of in the -poet’s story. Such a fault does exist in the Roxburghe copy, which now -belongs to the Duke of DEVONSHIRE. Other and authenticated anecdotes, -however, are abundant, which suffice to show the close knowledge of, and -the keen interest in, his books, by which GEORGE THE THIRD was -characterised. It was a still better trait in him that he found real -pleasure in knowing that the treasures and rarities of his Library -subserved the inquiries and studies of scholars. Nor did he make narrow -limitations. Men like JOHNSON and Bishop HORSLEY profited by the -Collection. So, too, did men like GIBBON and PRIESTLEY. - -The total number of Caxton prints amassed by GEORGE III was thirty-nine. -Of these three are in the Royal Library at Windsor—namely, the _Recueil_ -(1476?), the _Æsop_ (1484), and the _Doctrinal_ (1489). - - -[Sidenote: GEORGE THE THIRD’S APPEARANCE AS AN AUTHOR.] - -To a keen enjoyment of the pleasures of collectorship, the King added, -in 1787, a passing taste of those of authorship. As a Collector, the -bibliomania did not engross him. He had a delight in amassing fine -plants as well as fine books. The _Hortus Kewensis_ (in both -applications of the term) was largely indebted to his liberality of -expenditure and to his far-spread research. He sent botanic missionaries -to the remotest parts of Asia, as well as to Africa. He took the most -cordial interest in those varied voyages of discovery which—as I have -observed in a former chapter—cast so distinctive a lustre on his reign, -and in consequence of which such large additions were made to our -natural history collections, public and private. And he did much to -promote scientific agriculture, both by precept and by example. It was -as a practical agriculturist that the King (under a slight veil of -pseudonymity[16]) made his bow to the reading public by the publication -of seven articles in Arthur YOUNG’S useful and then well-known -periodical, the _Annals of Agriculture_. - -Those articles have a threefold aim. They inculcate the wisdom, for -certain soils, of an intermediate system of treatment and of cropping, -midway between the old routine and the drill-husbandry, then of recent -introduction; they describe several new implements, introduced by DUCKET -of Esher and of Petersham; and they advocate an almost entire rejection -of fallows. They further describe a method, also introduced by Farmer -DUCKET, and then peculiar, of destroying that farmer’s pest, couch-grass -(_triticum repens_), by trench-ploughing it deep into the ground, and -contain many other practical suggestions, some of which seem to have -been empirical, and others so good that they have become trite. - -But the best service rendered by GEORGE THE THIRD to the agricultural -pursuits, of which he was so fond, was his introduction of the Merino -flocks, which became conspicuous ornaments to the great and little parks -at Windsor. Part of the success which, for a time, attended the -importation of those choice Merino breeds was due to the zealous -co-operation of Lord SOMERVILLE and of Sir Joseph BANKS [see the next -chapter], but the King himself took a real initiative in the matter; -acquired real knowledge about it; and deserved, by his personal efforts, -the cognomen given him (by some of those worthy farmers who used to -attend the annual sales at Windsor) of ‘the Royal Shepherd.’ - -[Sidenote: ILLNESS OF GEORGE III;] - -The recreative pursuits, alike of the book-collector and of the -agriculturist, as well as the labours of the conscientious monarch, were -at length to be arrested by that great calamity which, after clouding -over some months of the years of vigour, was destined to veil in thick -gloom all the [Sidenote: 1810.] years of decline—the years when great -public triumphs and crushing family afflictions passed equally unnoted -by the recluse of Windsor. - - ‘Thy lov’d ones fell around thee. - ... Thou, meanwhile, - Didst walk unconscious through thy royal towers, - The one that wept _not_, in the tearful isle! - - · · · · · - - But who can tell what visions might be thine? - The stream of thought, though broken, still was pure. - Still on that wave the stars of Heaven might shine - Where earthly image would no more endure. - Nor might the phantoms to thy spirit known, - Be dark or wild,—creations of Remorse,— - Unstain’d by thee, the blameless Past had thrown - No fearful shadows o’er the Future’s course.’ - -[Sidenote: AND HIS DEATH.] - -When GEORGE THE THIRD died at Windsor Castle, on the 29th of January, -1820, the public mourning was sincere. [Sidenote: 1820. January.] During -its ten years of rule, the Regency had done very much to heighten and -intensify regret for the calamity of 1810. The errors of the old monarch -came, naturally, to be dwarfed to the view, when his private virtues -acquired all the sharp saliency of contrast. - -Since his death, political writers have usually been somewhat harsh to -his memory. But the verdict of history has not yet been given in. When -the time for its delivery shall at length come, there will be a long -roll of good deeds to set off against many mistakes in policy. Nor will -the genuine piety, and the earnest conscientiousness of the individual -man—up to the measure of the light vouchsafed to him—be forgotten in the -preliminary summing up. What GEORGE THE THIRD did for Britain simply in -conferring upon it the social blessings of a pure Court, and of a bright -personal example, is best to be estimated by contemplating what, in that -respect, existed before it, and also what came immediately after it. -Comparisons of such a sort will serve, eventually, to better purpose -than that of feathering the witty shafts of reckless satirists, whether -in prose or in verse. Meanwhile, it is enough to say that no honester, -no more God-fearing man, than was GEORGE THE THIRD, ever sat upon the -throne of England. - - -During all the time of his long illness, the King’s Library had -continued, more or less, to grow. When he died, it contained sixty-five -thousand two hundred and fifty volumes, besides more than nineteen -thousand unbound tracts. [Sidenote: STATE OF THE KING’S LIBRARY IN -JANUARY, 1820.] These have since been bound severally. The total number -of volumes, therefore, which the Collection comprised was about -eighty-four thousand. At the time of the King’s decease, the annual cost -of books in progress, and of periodical works, somewhat exceeded one -thousand pounds. The annual salaries of the staff—four officers and two -servants—amounted to eleven hundred and seventy-one pounds. The Library -occupied a fine and extensive suite of rooms in Buckingham Palace. One -of them was large enough to make a noble billiard-room. - -The Royal Library, therefore, embarrassed King GEORGE THE FOURTH in two -ways. It cost two thousand two hundred pounds a year, even without -making any new additions to its contents. It occupied much space in the -royal residence which could be devoted to more agreeable purposes. Then -came the welcome thought that, instead of being a charge, it might be -made a source of income. The Emperor of Russia was known to covet, as a -truly imperial luxury, what to the new King of Great Britain was but a -costly burden. He broached the idea—but met, instead of encouragement, -with strong remonstrance. - -The news of the royal suggestion soon spread abroad. Amongst those who -heard of it with disgust were Lord FARNBOROUGH (who is said to have -learnt the design in talking, one day, with Princess LIEVEN) and Richard -HEBER. Both men bestirred themselves to prevent the King from publicly -disgracing the country in that way. Lord FARNBOROUGH betook himself to a -conference with the Premier, Lord LIVERPOOL. Mr. HEBER discussed the -matter with Lord SIDMOUTH. By the ministers, public opinion upon the -suggested sale was pretty strongly and emphatically conveyed to His -Majesty, whatever may have been the courtliness of tone employed about -it. - -[Sidenote: CONFERENCE BETWEEN GEORGE IV AND HIS MINISTERS ON DISPOSAL OF - THE LIBRARY.] - -GEORGE THE FOURTH, however, was not less strongly impressed by the -charms of the prospective rubles from Russia. He felt that he could find -pleasant uses for a windfall of a hundred and eighty thousand pounds, or -so. And he fought hard to secure his expected prize—or some indubitably -solid equivalent. [Sidenote: R. Ford, in the _Quarterly Review_ (Dec., -1850), vol. lxxxviii, p. 143;] ‘If I can’t have the rubles,’ said the -King, ‘you must find me their value in pounds sterling.’ The Ministers -were much in earnest to save the Library, and, in the emergency, laid -their hands upon a certain surplus which had accrued from a fund -furnished some years before by France, to meet British claims for losses -sustained at the date of the first French Revolution. [Sidenote: Comp. -_Minutes of Evidence taken by the Commissioners on Brit. Mus._ (also in -1850), pp. 117, 118.] But the expedient became the subject of an -unpleasant hint in the House of Commons. And the Government, it is said, -then resorted to that useful fund, the ‘Droits of Admiralty.’ By hook or -crook, GEORGE THE FOURTH received his ‘equivalent.’ He then sat down to -his writing-table (at Brighton), to assure Lord LIVERPOOL—in his -official capacity—of the satisfaction he felt in having ‘this means of -advancing the Literature of my Country.’ Then he proceeded to add:—‘I -also feel that I am paying a just tribute to the memory of a Parent, -whose life was adorned with every public and private virtue.’ - - -The Executors or Trustees of King GEORGE THE THIRD knew well what the -monarch’s feelings about his Library would, in all reasonable -probability, have been, had he possessed mental vigour when preparing -for his last change. They exacted from the Trustees of the Museum a -pledge that the Royal Library should be preserved apart, and entire. - -[Sidenote: THE NEW BUILDING ERECTED FOR THE GEORGIAN LIBRARY.] - -Parliament, on its side, made a liberal provision for the erection of a -building worthy to receive the Georgian Library. The fine edifice raised -in pursuance of a parliamentary vote cost a hundred and forty thousand -pounds. [Sidenote: 1821–28.] It provided one of the handsomest rooms in -Europe for the main purpose, and it also made much-needed arrangements -for the reception and exhibition of natural-history Collections, above -the books. - -The removal of the Royal Library from Buckingham House was not completed -until August, 1828. All who saw the Collection whilst the building was -in its first purity of colour—and who were old enough to form an opinion -on such a point—pronounced the receptacle to be eminently worthy of its -rich contents. The floor-cases and the heavy tables—very needful, no -doubt—have since detracted not a little from the architectural effect -and elegance of the room itself. - -Along with the printed books, and the extensive geographical -Collections, came a number of manuscripts—on historical, literary, and -geographical subjects.[17] By some transient forgetfulness of the pledge -given to Lord FARNBOROUGH, the manuscripts, or part of them, were, in -March, 1841, sent to the ‘Manuscript Department’ of the Museum. -[Sidenote: _Minutes of Evidence_ (1850), as above.] But Mr. PANIZZI, -then the Keeper of the Printed Books, successfully reclaimed them for -their due place of deposit, according to the arrangement of 1823. Nor -was such a claim a mere official punctilio. - -In every point of view, close regard to the wishes of donors, or of -those who virtually represent them, is not more a matter of simple -justice than it is a matter of wise and foreseeing policy in the -Trustees of Public Museums. The integrity of their Collections is often, -and naturally, an anxious desire of those who have formed them. In a -subsequent chapter (C. ii of Book III) it will be seen that the wish -expressed by the representatives of King GEORGE THE THIRD was also the -wish of a munificent contemporary and old minister of his, who, many -years afterwards, gave to the Nation a Library only second in splendour -to that which had been gathered by GEORGE THE THIRD. - -Not the least curious little fact connected with the Georgian Library -and its gift to the Public, is that the gift was _predicted_ thirty-one -years before GEORGE THE FOURTH wrote his letter addressed to Lord -LIVERPOOL from the Pavilion at Brighton, and twenty-eight years before -the death of GEORGE THE THIRD. - -In 1791, Frederick WENDEBORN wrote thus:—‘The King’s private Library ... -can boast very valuable and magnificent books, which, as it is said, -will be one time or another joined to those of the British Museum.’ -WENDEBORN[18] was a German preacher, resident in London for many years. -He was known to Queen CHARLOTTE, and had occasional intercourse with the -Court. May it not be inferred that on some occasion or other the King -had intimated, if not an intention, at least a thought on the matter, -which some courtier or other had repeated in the hearing of Dr. -WENDEBORN? - - - - - CHAPTER V. - THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY. - - ‘It may be averred for truth that they be not the highest instances - that give the best and surest information.... It often comes to pass - [in the study of Nature] that small and mean things conduce more to - the discovery of great matters, than great things to the discovery of - small matters.’—BACON. - - ‘Not every man is fit to travel. Travel makes a wise man better, but a - fool worse.’—OWEN FELLTHAM. - - _The Life, Travels, and Social Influence, of Sir Joseph_ BANKS.—_The - Royal Society under his Presidency.—His Collections and their - acquisition by the Trustees of the British Museum.—Notices of some - other contemporaneous accessions._ - - -[Sidenote: BOOK II, Chap. V. THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND - LIBRARY.] - -We have now to glance at the career—personal and scientific—of an -estimable public benefactor, with whom King GEORGE THE THIRD had much -pleasant intercourse, both of a public and a private kind. Sir Joseph -BANKS was almost five years younger than his royal friend and -correspondent, but he survived the King by little more than three -months, so that the Georgian and the Banksian Libraries were very nearly -contemporaneous accessions. The former, as we have seen, was given in -1823, and fully received in 1828; the latter was bequeathed -(conditionally) in 1820, and received in 1827. These two accessions, -taken conjointly, raised the Museum collection of books (for the first -time in its history) to a respectable rank amongst the National -Libraries of the day. The Banksian bequest made also an important -addition to the natural-history collections, especially to the herbaria. -It is as a cultivator and promoter of the natural sciences, and -pre-eminently of botany, that Sir Joseph won for himself enduring fame. -But he was also conspicuous for those personal and social qualities -which are not less necessary to the man, than are learning and -liberality to the philosopher. For the lack of such personal qualities -some undoubted public benefactors have been, nevertheless, bad citizens. -In this public benefactor both sets of faculties were harmoniously -combined. They shone in his form and countenance. They yet dwell in the -memory of a survivor or two, here and there, who were the contemporaries -of his closing years. - -Joseph BANKS was born at Reresby Abbey, in Lincolnshire, on the -thirteenth of December, 1743. He was the only son of William -BANKS-HODGKENSON, of Reresby ABBEY, by his wife Sophia BATE. - -[Sidenote: THE BANKESES OF RERESBY ABBEY.] - -Mr. BANKS-HODGKENSON was the descendant of a Yorkshire family, which was -wont, of old, to write itself ‘Banke,’ and was long settled at -Banke-Newton, in the wapentake of Staincliffe. The second son of a -certain Henry BANKE, of Banke-Newton, acquired, by marriage, Beck Hall, -in Giggleswick; and by his great-grandson, the first Joseph BANKES, -Reresby Abbey was purchased towards the close of the seventeenth -century. His son (also Joseph) sat in Parliament for Peterborough, and -served as Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1736. The second (and eldest -surviving) son of the Member for Peterborough took the name of -HODGKENSON, as heir to his mother’s ancestral estate of Overton, in -Derbyshire, but on the death of his elder brother (and his consequent -heirship) resumed the paternal name, and resigned the Overton estate to -his next brother, who became Robert HODGKENSON, of Overton. Mr. -BANKS-HODGKENSON died in 1761, leaving to his son, afterwards Sir Joseph -BANKS, a plentiful estate. - -The youngster was then little more than beginning his career at Oxford, -whither he had recently come from Eton, though his schooling had been -begun at Harrow. [Sidenote: EARLY YEARS OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS.] He was -‘lord of himself,’ and of a fine fortune, at the critical age of -eighteen. To many, such an inheritance, under like circumstances, has -brought misery. To Joseph BANKS, it brought noble means for the -prosecution of a noble aim. It was the ambition of this young -Etonian—not to eclipse jockies, or to dazzle the eyes of fools, but—to -tread in the footsteps of LINNÆUS. Rich, hardy, and handsome in person, -sanguine in temperament, and full of talent, he resolved that, for some -years to come, after leaving the University, the life that might so -easily be brimmed with enjoyments should incur many privations and face -many hardships, in order to win both knowledge and the power of -benefiting the Public by its communication. That object of early -ambition, it will be seen, was abundantly realised in the after-years. - -There is no reason to think that a resolution, not often formed at such -an age as eighteen, was come to in the absence of temptation to a -different course. BANKS was no ascetic. Nor was it his fortune, at any -time, to live much with ascetics. One of his earliest friends was that -Lord SANDWICH[19] whose memory now chiefly connects itself with the -unsavoury traditions of Medmenham Abbey, and with the peculiar pursuits -in literature of John WILKES. With SANDWICH he spent many of the bright -days of youth in fishing on Whittlesea Mere. BANKS had the good -fortune—and the skill—to make his early acquaintanceship with the future -First Lord of the Admiralty conducive to the interests of science. The -connexion with the Navy of another friend of his youth, Henry PHIPPS, -afterwards Earl of MULGRAVE, was also turned, eventually, to good -account in the same way. - -Part of young BANKS’ vacations were passed at Reresby and in frequent -companionship with Lord SANDWICH; part at his mother’s jointure-house at -Chelsea, very near to the fine botanic garden which, a few years before, -had been so much enriched by the liberality of Sir Hans SLOANE. In that -Chelsea garden, and in other gardens at Hammersmith, BANKS studied -botany with youthful ardour. And he made frequent botanic excursions in -the then secluded neighbourhood. In the course of one of these rambles -he fell under suspicion of felony. - -[Sidenote: BANKS’ YOUTHFUL ADVENTURE NEAR HAMMERSMITH.] - -He was botanizing in a ditch, and his person happened to be partially -concealed by a thick growth of briars and nettles, at a moment when two -or three constables, who were in chase of a burglar, chanced to approach -the spot. The botanist’s clothes were in a miry condition, and his -suspicious posture excited in the minds of the local Dogberries the idea -that here they had their man. They were deaf to all expostulations. The -future President of the Royal Society was dragged, by ignominious hands, -before the nearest justice. The magistrate agreed with the constables -that the case looked black, but, before committing either the prisoner -or himself, he directed that the culprit’s pockets should be searched. -They contained little money, and no watches; but an extraordinary -abundance of plants and wild flowers. The explanations which before had -been refused were now accepted, and very courteous apologies were -tendered to the victim of an excess of official zeal. But the -awkwardness of the adventure failed to deter the sufferer from his eager -pursuit, in season and out of it, of his darling science. A botanist he -was to be. - -He left Oxford in 1763, and almost instantly set out on a scientific -voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador. [Sidenote: THE FIRST VOYAGE OF -EXPLORATION TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR.] Here he laid the first -substantial groundwork of his future collections in natural history. He -sailed with PHIPPS, who was already a captain in the Navy, and had been -charged with the duty of protecting the Newfoundland fisheries. -[Sidenote: 1763.] The voyage proved to be one of some hardship, but its -privations rather sharpened than dulled the youthful naturalist’s -appetite for scientific explorations. He had learned thus early to -endure hardness, for a worthy object. - -[Sidenote: THE SECOND VOYAGE;—TO THE SOUTH SEAS.] - -His second voyage was to the South Seas, and it was made in company with -the most famous of the large band of eighteenth century maritime -discoverers—James COOK, [Sidenote: 1768.] and also with a favourite -pupil of LINNÆUS (the idol of BANKS’ youthful fancy), Daniel Charles -SOLANDER, who, though he was little above thirty years of age, had -already won some distinction in England, and had been made an -Assistant-Librarian in the British Museum.[20] - -To make the voyage of _The Endeavour_ as largely conducive as was -possible to the interests of the natural sciences, Mr. BANKS incurred -considerable personal expense, and he induced the Admiralty to make -large efforts, on its part, to promote and secure the various objects of -the new expedition. One of those objects was the observation at Otaheite -of a coming transit of Venus over the Sun; another was the further -progress of geographical discovery in a quarter of the world to which -public interest was at that time specially and strongly turned. BANKS, -individually, was also bent on collecting specimens in all departments -of natural history, and on promoting geographical knowledge by the -completest possible collection of drawings, maps, and charts of all that -was met with. He engaged Dr. SOLANDER as his companion, and gave him a -salary of four hundred pounds a year. With them sailed two draughtsmen -and a secretary, besides four servants. - -[Sidenote: THE BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS AT TERRA-DEL-FUEGO.] - -_The Endeavour_ set sail from Plymouth on the twenty-sixth of August, -1768, and from Rio-de-Janeiro on the eighth of December. [Sidenote: -1769. January.] On the fourteenth of January, 1769, the naturalists -landed at Terra-del-Fuego, and they gathered more than a hundred plants -theretofore unknown to European botanists. Proud of their success, they -resolved that, after a brief rest, they would explore the higher -regions, in hope to reap a rich harvest of Alpine plants. SOLANDER, as a -Swede and as a traveller in Norway, knew something of the dangers they -would have to face. BANKS himself was not without experience. But both -were enterprising and resolute men. They set out on their long march in -the night of the fifteenth of January, in order to gain as much of -daylight as possible for the work of botanizing. They hoped to return to -the ship within ten hours. As they ascended, SOLANDER warned his -companions against the temptation that he knew awaited them of giving -way to sleep when overcome by the toil of walking. ‘Whoever sits down,’ -said he, ‘will be sure to sleep, and whoever sleeps will wake no more.’ -But the fatigue proved to be excessive. The foreseeing adviser was borne -down by it, and was the first to throw himself upon the snow. BANKS was -the younger man by six or seven years, and had a strong constitution. He -fought resolutely against temptation, and, with the help of the -draughtsmen, exerted himself with all his might to keep SOLANDER awake. -They succeeded in getting him to walk on for a few miles more. Then he -lay down again, with the words, ‘Sleep I must, for a few minutes.’ In -those few minutes the fierce cold almost paralysed his limbs. Two -servants (a seaman and a negro) imitated the Swede’s example, and were -really paralysed. With much grief, it was found that the servants must, -inevitably, be left to their fate. The party had wandered so far that -when they set about to return they were—if the return should be by the -way they had come—a long day’s journey from the ship. And their route -had lain through pathless woods. Their only food was a vulture. A third -man seemed in peril—momentarily—of death by exhaustion. Happily, a -shorter cut was found. Their journey had not been quite fruitless. But -they all felt that they had bought their botanical specimens at too dear -a rate. Two men were already dead. One of the draughtsmen seems to have -suffered so severely that he never recovered from the effects of the -journey. Mr. BUCHAN died, three months afterwards, in Otaheite, just -four days after they had landed in the celebrated island, to visit which -was among the especial objects of their mission. - -[Sidenote: THE STAY IN OTAHEITE.] - -The transit of Venus over the Sun’s disc was satisfactorily observed on -the third of June, [Sidenote: 1769.] but the observation had been nearly -foiled by the roguery of a native, who had carried off the quadrant. The -thief was found amongst several hundred of his fellows, and, but for a -characteristic combination in BANKS of frank good humour and of firm -hardihood, the spoil would not have been recovered. On this, as upon -many other occasions, both his fine personal qualities and his genial -manners marked him as a natural leader of men. On occasions, however, of -a more delicate kind they brought him into a peculiar peril. Queen -OBEREA fell in love with him. She was not herself without attractions. -And they were clad in all the graces of unadorned simplicity. The -poetical satirists of his day used Sir Joseph—after his return—with -cruel injustice if he was really quite so successful, in resisting -feminine charms in Otaheite, as he had formerly been at home. - -[Sidenote: THE VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND.] - -But however that may have been, his researches, as a naturalist, at -Otaheite were abundantly successful. And to the island, in return, he -was a friend and benefactor. [Sidenote: 1769–1770.] After a stay of -three months the explorers left Otaheite for New Holland on the 15th of -August, 1769. In Australia their collections were again very numerous -and valuable. But their long stay in explorations exposed them to two -great dangers, each of which was very nearly fatal to Mr. BANKS and to -most of his companions. They struck upon a rock, while coasting New -South Wales. Their escape was wonderful. The accident entailed an amount -of injury to the ship which brought them presently within a peril more -imminent still. Whilst making repairs in the noxious climate of Batavia, -a pestilence seized upon nearly all the Europeans. Seven, including the -ship’s surgeon, died in Batavia. Twenty-three, including the second -draughtsman, Mr. PARKINSON, died on shipboard afterwards. BANKS and -SOLANDER were so near death that their recovery seemed, to their -companions, almost miraculous. - -[Sidenote: THE RETURN HOME.] - -After leaving New South Wales and Batavia they had a prosperous passage -[Sidenote: 1771. June.] to the Cape—prosperous, save for the loss of -those whom the pestilence had previously stricken—and made some -additions to their scientific stores. _The Endeavour_ anchored in the -Downs on the 12th of June, 1771, after an absence of nearly three years. -Beyond the immediate and obvious scientific results of the voyage, it -was the means, eventually, of conferring an eminent benefaction on our -West Indian Colonies. It gave them the Bread-Fruit tree (_Artocarpus -incisa_). The transplantation of GOD’S bounties from clime to clime was -a favourite pursuit—and a life-long one—with Sir Joseph BANKS, and its -agencies cost him much time and thought, as well as no small expenditure -of fortune. - - -The hardships and sufferings of Terra-del-Fuego and of Batavia had not -yet taken off the edge of his appetite for remote voyages. [Sidenote: -THE EXPEDITION TO ICELAND.] He expended some thousands of pounds in -buying instruments and making preparations for a new expedition with -COOK, [Sidenote: 1772. July.] but the foolish and obstructive conduct of -our Navy Board inspired him with a temporary disgust. He then turned his -attention to Northern Europe. He resolved that after visiting the -western isles of Scotland he would explore Iceland. SOLANDER was again -his companion, together with two other northern naturalists, Drs. LIND -and VON TROIL. BANKS chartered a vessel at his own cost (amounting, for -the ship alone, to about six hundred pounds). - -Before starting for the cold north, they refreshed their eyes with the -soft beauties of the Isle of Wight. There, said one of the delighted -party, ‘Nature has spared none of her favours;’ and a good many of us -have unconsciously repeated his remark, long afterwards. They reached -the Western Isles of Scotland before the end of July, and, after a long -visit, explored Staffa, the wonders of which were then almost unknown. -Scientific attention, indeed, was first called to them by BANKS, when he -communicated to Thomas PENNANT, of Downing, his minute survey, and his -drawings of the basaltic columns. - -He thought that the mind can scarcely conceive of anything more -splendid, in its kind, than the now famous cave. [Sidenote: THE VISIT TO -STAFFA.] When he asked the local name of it, his guide gave him an -answer which, to Mr. BANKS, seemed to need explanation, [Sidenote: 1772. -August 12.] though the name has nowadays become but too familiar to our -ears. ‘The Cave of FIUHN,’ said the islander. ‘Who or what is “Fiuhn”?’ -rejoined BANKS. The stone, he says, of which the pillars are formed, is -a coarse kind of basalt, much resembling the ‘Giants’ Causeway’ in -Ireland, ‘though none of them so neat as the specimens of the latter -which I have seen at the British Museum.... [Sidenote: Banks to Pennant; -Aug., 1772.] Here, it is dirty brown; in the Irish, a fine black.’ But -he carried away with him the fullest impression of the amazing grandeur -of the whole scene. - -[Sidenote: THE TOUR IN ICELAND.] - -The tourists reached Iceland on the twenty-eighth of August. They -explored the country, and saw everything notable which it contained. On -the twenty-first of September they visited the most conspicuous of the -_geysers_, or hot-springs, and spent thirteen hours in examining them. -On the twenty-fourth, they explored Mount Hecla. - -The most famous geyser described by VON TROIL (who acted usually as -penman for the party) was situate near a farm called Harkaudal, about -two days’ journey from Hecla. You see, he tells us, a large expanse of -fields shut in, upon one side, by lofty snow-covered mountains, far -away, with their heads commonly shrouded in clouds, that occasionally -sink (under the force of a prevalent wind) so as to conceal the slopes, -while displaying the peaks. The peaks, at such moments, seem to spring -out of the clouds themselves. On another hand, Hecla is seen, with its -three ice-capped summits, and its volcanic vapours; and then, again, a -ridge of stupendous rocks, at the foot of which the boiling springs gush -forth, with deafening roar, and are backed by a broad marsh containing -forty or fifty other springs, or ‘geysers,’ from which arise immense -columns of vapour, subject of course to all the influences and -lightings-up of wind and sky. Our tourists carefully watched the -‘spoutings’ of the springs—which are always fitful—and, according to -their joint observations, some of these rose to the height of sixty -feet. [Sidenote: Von Troil to Bergmann; 7 Sept., 1773. (Abridged.)] -Occasionally—it has since been observed by later explorers—they reach to -an elevation of more than three times that number of feet. - -Nor did Mr. BANKS neglect the literature of Iceland, which abounds with -interest. He bought the Library of Halfdan EINARSSON, the literary -historian of Iceland, and made other large and choice collections. And -he presented the whole to the British Museum—after bestowing, I believe, -some personal study on their contents—upon his return to England at the -close of the year. - - -[Sidenote: SOCIAL POSITION AND INFLUENCE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS.] - -For many generations, it has been very conducive to the possession of -social prestige in this country that a man should have acquired the -reputation of an adventurous traveller. Even if the traveller shall have -seen no anthropophagi, no men ‘whose heads do grow beneath their -shoulders,’ he is likely to attain to some degree of social eminence, -merely as one who has explored those - - ‘Antres vast and desarts idle,’ - -of which home-keeping people have no knowledge, save from the tales of -voyagers. To prestige of this kind, Mr. BANKS added respectable -scientific attainments, a large fortune, and a liberal mind. He was also -the favoured possessor of graceful manners and of no mean powers of -conversation. It was, therefore, quite in the ordinary course of things -that his house in London should become one of the social centres of the -metropolis. It became much more than that. From the days of his youth -BANKS had seen much of foreigners; he had mixed with men of European -distinction. An extensive correspondence with the Continent became to -him both a pursuit and an enjoyment, and one of its results, in course -of time, was that at his house in Soho Square every eminent foreigner -who came to England was sure to be seen. To another class of persons -that house became scarcely less distinguished as the abode, not only of -the rich Collections in natural history which their owner had gone so -far to seek, and had gathered with so much toil and hardship, but of a -noble Library, for the increase of which the book-shops of every great -town in Europe had been explored. - -[Sidenote: THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND ITS HISTORY UNDER THE RULE OF SIR - JOSEPH BANKS.] - -The possessor of such manifold distinctions and of such habits of mind -seemed, to most men, marked out as the natural head of a great -scientific institution. Such a man would be sure to reflect honour on -the Society, as well as to derive honour from his headship. But at this -particular epoch the Royal Society (then the one conspicuous scientific -association in the kingdom) was much embroiled. Mr. BANKS was, in many -respects, just the man to assuage dissensions. But these particular -dissensions were of a kind which his special devotion to natural history -tended rather to aggravate than to soften. - -Mathematicians, as all men know, have been illustrious benefactors to -the world, but—be the cause what it may—they have never been famous for -a large-minded estimate of the pursuits and hobbies of other men, whom -Nature had not made mathematical. At the time when Joseph BANKS -leaped—as one may say—into eminence, both scientific and social, in -London, Sir John PRINGLE was President of the Royal Society, and his -position there somewhat resembled the position in which we have seen Sir -Hans SLOANE to have been placed. [Sidenote: See before, Book I, c. 6.] -Like Sir Hans, PRINGLE was an eminent physician, and a keen student of -physics. He did not give umbrage to his scientific team, exactly in the -way in which SLOANE had given it—by an overweening love of reading long -medical papers. But natural, not mathematical, philosophy, was his -forte; and the mathematicians were somewhat uneasy in the traces whilst -Sir John held the reins. If PRINGLE should be succeeded by BANKS, there -would be a change indeed on the box, but the style of coachmanship was -likely to be little altered. It is not surprising that there should have -been a good deal of jibbing, just as the change was at hand, and also -for some time after it had been made. - -[Sidenote: THE ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY.] - -Mr. BANKS was elected to the chair of the Royal Society on the 30th of -November, 1777. He found it to be a very difficult post. [Sidenote: -1777. 30 Nov.] But, in the end, the true geniality of the man, the -integrity of his nature, and the suavity of his manners, won over most, -if not quite all, of his opponents. The least that can be said of his -rule in that chair is that he made the Royal Society more famous -throughout Europe, than it had ever been since the day when it was -presided over by NEWTON. - -For it was not the least eminent quality of BANKS’ character that, to -him, a touch of _science_ ‘made the whole world kin.’ He was a good -subject, as well as a good man. He knew the blessings of an aristocratic -and time-honoured monarchy. He had that true insight which enables a man -to discriminate sharply between the populace and the People. But, when -the interests of science came into play, he could say—with literal and -exactest truth,— - - ‘Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur.’ - -He took a keen and genial delight both in watching and in promoting the -progress of science on the other side of the Channel, whether France -itself lay under the loose rule of the republican and dissolute -Directory, or under the curbing hand of the First Consul, who was -already rapidly aspiring towards empire. - -On ten several occasions, BANKS was the means of inducing our Government -to restore scientific collections, which had been captured by British -cruisers, to that magnificent Botanic Garden (the _Jardin des Plantes_, -at Paris) for which they had been originally destined. [Sidenote: -Cuvier, _Éloge de M. Banks_, passim.] Such conduct could not but win for -him the affectionate reverence of Frenchmen. On one eminent occasion his -good services went much further. - -[Sidenote: BANKS’ INTERVENTION WITH RESPECT TO SOME OF THE FRUITS OF THE - EXPEDITION OF LA PÉROUSE.] - -Men yet remember the European interest excited by the adventurous -expedition and the sad fate of the gallant seaman, John Francis DE LA -PÉROUSE. When the long search for LA PÉROUSE, which had been headed by -the French Admiral BRUNI D’EUTRECASTEAUX, came by discords to an -untimely end, the collection of specimens of natural history which had -been made, in the course of it, by DE LA BILLARDIÈRE, was brought into -an English port. The commander, it seems, felt much as SLOANE’S -captain[21] had felt at the time of our own Revolution of 1688. From -LEWIS THE SIXTEENTH he had received his commission. He was unprepared to -yield an account of its performance to anybody else. He brought his -cargo to England, and placed it at the absolute disposal of the French -emigrant Princes. - -By the eldest Prince, afterwards LEWIS THE EIGHTEENTH, directions were -given that an offer should be made to Queen CHARLOTTE to place at Her -Majesty’s disposal whatever she might be pleased to select from the -Collections of LA BILLARDIÈRE, and that all the remainder of them should -be given to the British Museum. - -To the interests of that Museum no man of sense will think that Sir -Joseph BANKS was, at any time, indifferent. At this particular time, he -had been, repeatedly, an eminent benefactor to it. By the French Prince -the Collections were put at his orders for the advantage of the Museum, -of which he was now a Trustee, as well as a benefactor. But his first -thought was for the national honour of Britain, not for the mere -aggrandizement of its Museum. ‘I have never heard,’ said BANKS, ‘of any -declaration of war between the philosophers of England and the -philosophers of France. These French Collections must go to the French -Museum, not to the British.’ And to France he sent them, without a -moment’s hesitation. Such an act, I take it, is worthy of the name of -‘cosmopolitanism.’ The bastard imitation, sometimes current under that -much abused term—that which knows of no love of country, except upon a -clear balance of mercantile profit—might be more fitly called by a -plainer word. - -[Sidenote: INSTANCES OF BANKS’ LIBERALITY TO HUMBOLDT.] - -Nor were Frenchmen the only persons to benefit by the largeness of view -which belonged to the new President of the Royal Society. At a later -period, he heard that Collections which had been made by William VON -HUMBOLDT, and subsequently seized by pirates, had been carried to the -Cape, and there detained. BANKS sent to the Cape a commission for their -release, and restoration to the Collector. He defrayed the expenses, and -refused to accept of any reimbursement. Such actions might well reflect -honour on the Royal Society, as well as on the man whom the wisest among -its fellows had placed at their head. - -The Royal Society had but a share of its President’s attention, though -the share was naturally a Benjamin’s portion. He worked assiduously on -the Board of Agriculture. He helped to found the Horticultural Society -and the Royal Institution of London. He became, also, in 1788, a -co-founder of that ‘African Institution’ which contributed so largely, -in the earlier years of this century, to promote geographical discovery -in Africa, and to spread—of dire necessity, at but a snail’s pace—some -of the blessings of Christian civilization to those dark places of the -earth which are full of cruelty. - -BANKS’ close intercourse with the Continent enabled him to do yeoman’s -service to the African Institution. Many ardent and aspiring young men -in all parts of Europe were fired, from time to time, with an ambition -to do some stroke or other of good work in an enterprise which was, at -once, scientific and, in its ultimate issues, evangelical. Some of the -aspirants were, of course, but very partially fitted or equipped for -such labours. But among those who entered on it with fairest promise the -protégés of BANKS were conspicuous. Some brief notice of the services he -was enabled to render in this direction belongs, however, more fitly, to -a somewhat later date than that at which we have, as yet, arrived. - - -[Sidenote: BANKS’ FAVOURABLE RECEPTION AT THE COURT OF GEORGE III.] - -Among the Fellows of the Royal Society there had been much division of -opinion as to the eligibility of Joseph BANKS for their Presidency. At -Court, there was none. GEORGE THE THIRD, with all his genuine good -nature, had been unable to restrain a lurking dislike of Sir John -PRINGLE’S friendly intercourse with Benjamin FRANKLIN. He was pleased to -see PRINGLE retire to his native Scotland, and to receive BANKS at -Court, in Sir John’s place. He did not then anticipate that the new -President would, one day, offend (for a moment) his irrepressible -prejudices in a somewhat like manner. - -Sometimes, Sir Joseph’s attendance at Court brought him into company -which had become to him, in some degree, unwonted. We have seen him -making a very favourable impression in the feminine circles at Otaheite. -But the ladies in attendance on Queen CHARLOTTE were less charmed with -him. In March, 1788, I find Fanny BURNEY diarizing (at Windsor Castle) -thus:—‘Sir Joseph BANKS was so exceedingly shy that we made no -acquaintance at all. If, instead of going round the world, he had only -fallen from the moon, he could not appear less versed in the usual modes -of a tea-drinking party. [Sidenote: D’Arblay, _Diary_, vol. iv, p. 128.] -But what, you will say, has a tea-party to do with a botanist, a man of -science, and a President of the Royal Society?’ - -In March, 1779, Mr. BANKS made a happy marriage with Dorothea HUGESSEN, -daughter and coheir of William Weston HUGESSEN, of Provender, in Kent. -Two years afterwards, the King made him a Knight Grand Cross of the -Order of the Bath, and cultivated his familiar and frequent acquaintance -both in town and at Windsor. Ere long, he was still further honoured -with the rank of a Privy Councillor. Both men were deeply interested in -agriculture and in the improvement of stock. Sir Joseph shared his -sovereign’s liking for the Merino breeds; took an active part in -managing those in Windsor Park, and for many years presided, very -successfully, over the annual sales. The King had been willing to give -away his surplus stock, for the mere sake of promoting improvement, but -he was made to see that more good was likely to accrue from sales than -from gifts. When in Lincolnshire Sir Joseph BANKS laboured hard for the -more complete drainage of the fens, and in many ways furthered the -introduction of sound agricultural methods. He was a good neighbour; -though not a very keen sportsman. And most of his time was now -necessarily passed either in London or in its neighbourhood. But, among -other acts of good fellowship, he rarely visited Reresby Abbey without -patronising a picnic ball at Horncastle, for the benefit of the public -dispensary of that town. And it was noted by Lincolnshire people that -when, in the after-years, Sir Joseph’s severe sufferings from gout kept -him much away from Reresby, the dispensary suffered also—from -depletion—until Mr. DYMOKE, of Scrivelsby, had revived, after BANKS’ -example, the good old annual custom of the town. - -[Sidenote: THE AFRICAN INSTITUTION.] - -It was in the year 1797, and again in 1806, that Sir Joseph was enabled -to render special service to that African enterprise which lay near his -heart, by enlisting in its toils a zealous German and a not less zealous -Swiss—Frederick HORNEMANN and John Lewis BURCKHARDT. It was the fate of -both of those enterprising men to pay the usual penalty of African -exploration. HORNEMANN succumbed, after six years’ service. BURCKHARDT -was spared to work for ten years. Some among the minor scientific -results of his well-known travels are preserved in the Public Library at -Cambridge (to which he bequeathed his manuscripts). Others of them are -in the British Museum. The latter would deserve record in these pages, -were it now practicable. BURCKHARDT died at Cairo on the seventeenth of -October, 1817, just eleven years after his arrival in London, from -Göttingen, with that letter to Sir Joseph BANKS in his pocket which, -under Divine Providence, determined his work in life. Another great -public service of a like kind, rendered by Sir Joseph BANKS to his -country and to mankind, was his zealous encouragement of explorations in -Australia. - - -Meanwhile, a new outburst of discord in the Royal Society arose out of a -well-merited honour conferred on its President by the Institute of -France, in 1802. It was inevitable that a body so eminent and -illustrious as the French Institute should not only feel gratitude to -Sir Joseph BANKS for that liberality of spirit which had dictated, in -the midst of war, his many gracious and generous acts of service to -Frenchmen, but should long since have reached the conviction that they -would be honouring themselves, not less than honouring him, by his -reception in their midst. [Sidenote: HIS ELECTION INTO THE INSTITUTE OF -FRANCE.] During the momentary lull afforded by the Peace of Amiens—when -the Institute was reorganized by the hand of the great man who was proud -of its badge of fellowship, even when clad in the dalmatica—they placed -BANKS at the head of their eight Foreign Members. BANKS’ estimate of the -honour of membership was much like NAPOLEON’S. ‘I consider this mark of -your esteem,’ said BANKS, in his reply, ‘the highest and most enviable -literary distinction which I could possibly attain. To be the first -elected as an Associate of the first Literary Society in the world -surpasses my most ambitious hopes.’ - -Several Fellows of the Royal Society resented these warm -acknowledgments. [Sidenote: _Letter of Misogallus_, 1802 (privately -printed).] They thought them both unpatriotic, and uncomplimentary to -themselves. The mathematical malcontents, with Bishop HORSLEY at their -head, eagerly profited by so favourable an opportunity of renewing the -expression of their old and still lurking dissatisfaction with the -choice of their President. HORSLEY addressed to Sir Joseph a letter of -indignant and angry remonstrance. Somewhat discreditably, the Bishop -chose a pseudonymous signature instead of manfully affixing his own. -‘_Misogallus_’[22] was the mask under which he made an appeal to those -anti-Gallican prejudices which so many of us imbibe almost with our -mother’s milk, and have in after-years to get rid of. He aimed a -poisoned dart at his old antagonist, when pointing one of his many -passionate sentences in a way which he knew would arrest the special -attention of the King. The shaft hit the mark. But the King was -presently appeased. He knew BANKS, and he knew the Bishop of St. Asaph. - - -[Sidenote: SIR JOSEPH BANKS AS AN AUTHOR.] - -From time to time Sir Joseph BANKS contributed many interesting articles -to the _Philosophical Transactions_, and to the _Annals of Agriculture_. -His able paper on the Blight in Wheat did service in its day, and was -separately published. But it is not as an author that this illustrious -man will be remembered. He knew how to fructify the thoughts and to -disseminate the wisdom of minds more largely gifted than his own. -Necessarily, space and prominence in the public eye is—more especially -after a man’s death—a good deal determined by authorship. Hence, in our -_Biographical Dictionaries_, a crowd of small writers occupy a -disproportionate place, and some true and illustrious public benefactors -remain almost unnoticed. Undeniably, the fame of one such benefactor as -a Joseph BANKS ought to outweigh, and must, intrinsically, outweigh, -that of many scores of minor penmen. His benefactions were world-wide. -And by them he, being dead, yet speaks, and will long continue to speak, -to very good and lofty purpose. He died in London on the ninth of May, -1820, at the venerable age of eighty-one years completed. - -He died without issue, and was succeeded in his chief Lincolnshire -estates by the Honourable James Hamilton STANHOPE (afterwards Mr. -STANHOPE BANKS), and by Sir Henry HAWLEY. [Sidenote: DEATH.] [Sidenote: -BEQUESTS.] His Kentish estates were bequeathed to Sir Edward KNATCHBULL. - -[Sidenote: _Will and Codicils_, Jan. 7 and 21; and March 7, 1820.] - -His Library, Herbarium, Manuscripts, Drawings, Engravings, and all his -other subsisting Collections, he bequeathed to the Trustees of the -British Museum, for public use for ever, subject to a life-use and a -life-interest in them which, together with an annuity, he specifically -bequeathed to the eminent botanist, Robert BROWN, who was, for many -years, both his friend and his librarian. He also gave an annuity of -three hundred pounds a year to Mr. BAUER, an eminent botanical -draughtsman; and he added, largely, to the innumerable benefactions he -had made in his lifetime to the Botanical Gardens at Kew. To Mr. BROWN -he also left the use, for life, of his town house in Soho Square, -subject to the life-interest, or the voluntary concession, of the -testator’s widow. - -In his first Codicil, Sir Joseph BANKS made a proviso that, if it should -be the desire of the Trustees of the British Museum—and if that desire -should also receive the approval of Mr. BROWN—the life-possessor should -be at full liberty to cause the Collections to be transferred to the -Museum during his lifetime. That, in fact, was the course which, by -mutual consent, was eventually taken, to the manifest advantage of the -British Public and the promotion of Science. - - -Part of Sir Joseph’s personal Manuscripts were bequeathed to the Royal -Society; another portion to the British Museum; and a third portion -(connected with the Coinage of the Realm) to the Royal Mint. A minor -part of his Collections in Natural History had been given to the British -Museum in his own lifetime, [Sidenote: OTHER BEQUESTS.] and he had -personally superintended their selection and arrangement. He had also -been a benefactor to the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, to the Museum of -the London College of Surgeons, and to that, also in London, formerly -known as ‘Bullock’s Museum.’ He was, throughout life, as eager to give, -as he was diligent to get. - -[Sidenote: THE TRANSFER OF THE BANKSIAN COLLECTIONS TO THE MUSEUM.] - -About the year 1825, negotiations were opened by the Trustees of the -British Museum with Mr. Robert BROWN, with the view of obtaining for the -Public the immediate use of the Banksian Library and the other -Collections, and, along with them, the public services of the eminent -botanist under whose charge they then were. The then President of the -Royal Society, Sir Humphrey DAVY, acted for the Public in that -negotiation; but some delays intervened, so that it was not brought to a -close until nearly the end of the year 1827. - -At that date, the transfer was effected. Mr. BROWN became the head of -the Botanical Department of the Museum, and his accession to the Staff -added honour to the institution—in the eyes of all scientific Europe—as -well as eminent advantage to the public service. Mr. BROWN acted as -Keeper until nearly the time of his decease. He died in the year 1858, -full of years and of botanical fame. - -The Library of Sir Joseph BANKS comprised the finest collection of books -on natural history which had ever been gathered into one whole in -England. It was also pre-eminently rich in the transactions, generally, -of learned societies in all parts of the world; and there is a masterly -Catalogue of the Collection, by Jonas DRYANDER, which was printed, at -Sir Joseph’s cost, in the years 1798–1800. [Sidenote: THE BANKSIAN -LIBRARY.] That Catalogue, I venture to hope, will, some day, become—with -due modification—the precedent for a printed Catalogue of the whole -Museum Library—vast as it already is, and vaster as it must needs become -before that day shall have arrived. - -[Sidenote: THE BANKSIAN HERBARIA.] - -The Banksian Herbaria comprise BANKS’ own botanical collections in his -travels, and those of CLIFFORT, HERMANN, CLAYTON, AUBLET, MILLER, -JACQUIER, and LOUREIRO, together with part of those made by TOURNEFORT, -the friend and fellow-botanizer of SLOANE, and the author of the -_Corollarium_. They also include many valuable plants gathered during -those many English Voyages of Discovery which, from time to time, BANKS’ -example and his liberal encouragement so largely fostered. From the -Collections now seen in the Botanical Room of the British Museum not a -few of the great works of LINNÆUS, GRONOVIUS, and other famous -botanists, derived some of their best materials. These Collections are -at present under the zealous and faithful care of Mr. John Joseph -BENNETT, long the assistant and the friend of BROWN. - - -[Sidenote: BRIEF NOTICE OF SOME OTHER NEARLY CONTEMPORANEOUS - ACCESSIONS.] - -Among nearly contemporaneous accessions which would well merit some -detailed notice, were the space for it available, are a valuable -assemblage of Marbles from Persepolis, which had been collected by Sir -Gore OUSELEY, and were given to the Museum by the Collector, and a small -but choice Collection of Minerals from the Hartz Mountains, given to the -Public by King GEORGE THE FOURTH. The Persepolitan sculptures were -received in the year 1825; the Minerals from the Hartzgebirge, in the -year 1829. - - - - - BOOK THE THIRD. - _LATER AUGMENTORS AND BENEFACTORS._ - 1829–1870. - - - - - _CONTENTS OF BOOK III_:— - - - CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION:—SUMMARY VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH - MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF JOSEPH - PLANTA. - - II. INTRODUCTION (CONTINUED):—SUMMARY VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF SIR - HENRY ELLIS. - - III. INTRODUCTION (CONTINUED):—SUMMARY VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF SIR - ANTONIO PANIZZI. - - IV. ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND CLASSICAL EXPLORERS. - - V. THE FOUNDER OF THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY. - - VI. BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS. - - VII. RECONSTRUCTORS AND PROJECTORS. - -‘The comprehensive character of the British Museum—the origin of which -may be traced to the heterogeneous nature of Sir Hans SLOANE’S -bequest—doubtless makes it difficult to provide for the expansion of its -various branches, according to their relative demands upon the space and -light which can be applied to their accommodation. Any attempt, however, -now to diminish that difficulty by segregating any portion, or by -scattering in various localities the components of the vast aggregate, -would involve a sacrifice of great scientific advantages which are not -the less inherent in their union because that union was, in its origin, -fortuitous.... - -‘Some passages of our evidence ... illustrate the difficulty of -drawing a line of separation, for purposes of management and -superintendence, between certain Collections.... Its occurrence [_i. -e._ the occurrence of such a difficulty] indicates strongly the value -to Science, of the accidents which have placed in near juxtaposition -the Collections of mineralogy [and] of forms of existing and extinct -animal and vegetable life. The immediate connexion of all alike with -the Library of the Museum is too important to allow us to contemplate -its dissolution.’—_Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire -into the Constitution and Management of the British Museum_ (1850), p. -36. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, UNDER THE - ADMINISTRATION, AS PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN, OF JOSEPH PLANTA. - - ... Perséverance keeps honour bright. - To have done, is to hang - Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail - In monumental mockery. - _Troilus and Cressida._ - - ‘Signor, mirate, come ’l tempo vola, - E siccome la vita - Fugge, e la Morte nè sovra le spalle, - Voi siete or qui: pensate alla partita - Che l’ alma ignuda e sola - Conven ch’ arrive a quel dubbioso calle.’. - PETRARCH (_Italia mia_, &c.). - - _Notices of the Life of Joseph_ PLANTA, _third - Principal-Librarian.—Improvements in the Internal Economy of the - Museum introduced or recommended by Mr._ PLANTA.—_His labours for - the enlargement of the Collections—and on the Museum Publications - and Catalogues.—The Museum Gardens and the Duke of_ BEDFORD. - - -Hitherto these pages have chiefly had to do with the history of the -integral parts of the British Museum, and with that of the men by whom -these integral parts, taken severally, were first founded or first -gathered. We have now to glance at the organic history of the whole, -after the primary Collections and the early additions to them came, by -aggregation, to be combined into the existing national establishment. It -may, at best, be only by glances that so wide a subject can (within the -limits of this one volume) be looked over, in retrospect. That necessity -of being brief suggests a connection of the successive epochs in the -story of the Museum, for seventy years, with the lives of the three -eminent men who have successively presided over the institution since -the beginning of the present century. Those three official lives, I -think, will be found to afford succinct divisions or breakings of the -subject, as well as to possess a distinctive personal interest of their -own. Our introductory chapters will therefore—in relation to the -chapters which follow them—be, in part, retrospective, and, in part, -prospective. - - -When Dr. Charles MORTON died (10 February, 1799), Joseph PLANTA was, by -the three principal Trustees, appointed to be his successor. The choice -soon commended itself to the Public by the introduction of some -important improvements into the internal economy of the institution. It -is the first librarianship which is distinctively marked as a reforming -one. In more than one of his personal qualities Mr. PLANTA was well -fitted for such a post as that of Principal Officer of the British -Museum. He had been for many years in the service of the Trustees. He -had won the respect of Englishmen by his literary attainments. He was -qualified, both by his knowledge of foreign languages and by his eminent -courtesy of manners, for that salient part of the duties of -librarianship which consists in the adequate reception and the genial -treatment of strangers. - -Joseph PLANTA was of Swiss parentage. He was of a race and family which -had given to Switzerland several worthies who have left a mark in its -national history. He was born, on the twenty-first of February, 1744, at -Castasegna, where his father was the pastor of a reformed church. The -boy left Switzerland before he had completed the second year of his age. -[Sidenote: LIFE OF JOSEPH PLANTA, THIRD PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN.] He began -his education at Utrecht, and continued it, first at the University of -Göttingen, and afterwards by foreign travel—whilst yet open to the -formative influences of youthful experience upon character—both in -France and in Italy. It was thus his fortune to combine what there is of -good in the characteristics of the cosmopolite with what is better in -those of a patriotic son of the soil. It was Joseph PLANTA’S fortune -never to live in Switzerland, as a resident, after the days of early -infancy, but, for all that, he remained a true Swiss. And one of the -acts of his closing years in England was to make a most creditable -contribution to Helvetic history. - -Andrew PLANTA, father of Joseph, came to London in 1752. He was a man of -good parts and of pleasing address. He established himself as pastor of -a German congregation, and was also made an Assistant-Librarian in the -British Museum. Afterwards, he was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal -Society and a ‘reader’ to Queen CHARLOTTE. That appointment brought with -it, in course of time, a measure of Court influence by which young -PLANTA profited. His youthful ‘_Wanderjahre_’ had inspired the growing -man with a keen desire to see more of foreign countries. When the -father’s favour at Court put him in a position to represent at -head-quarters the youth’s fancy to see life abroad, and to state (as he -truthfully could) that neither talent nor industry were lacking in his -character, the statement obtained for Joseph PLANTA the secretaryship of -legation at Brussels. There, he felt himself to be in an element which -suited him; but his filial affection brought him back to England in -1773, in order that he might solace the last days, on earth, of his -father. In that year the elder PLANTA died. - -It was also in 1773 that Joseph PLANTA became an Assistant-Librarian. In -the next year he was appointed to succeed Dr. MATY in both of his then -offices. At the Royal Society he succeeded him as Secretary; at the -Museum, he succeeded him as an Under-Librarian—when the Doctor was made -head of the establishment. His new post at the Museum brought to PLANTA -the special charge of the Department of MSS. - -Joseph PLANTA had already made—immediately after his first appointment -as Assistant-Librarian—his outset in authorship by the publication of -his _Account of the Romansch Language_. [Sidenote: _Phil. Trans._, vol. -lxvi, pp. 129–160.] It is a scholarly production, though (it need hardly -be said) not what would be expected, on such a subject, after the -immense stride made in linguistical studies during the ninety-five years -which have elapsed since it was given to literature, in pages in which -nowadays such a treatise would hardly be looked for. Its first -appearance was in the _Philosophical Transactions_. In 1776 it was -translated into German and printed at Chamouni. - -The subsequent years were devoted, almost exclusively, to the proper -duties of his Museum office—on the days of service—and to those of the -Paymastership of Exchequer Bills, a function to which Mr. PLANTA was -appointed in 1788, and the duties of which he discharged, with -efficiency and honour, for twenty-three years. Authorship had but little -of his time until a much later period of life. - -A little before his appointment in the administrative service of the -country, PLANTA had married Miss Elizabeth ATWOOD. For him, marriage did -just the opposite of what it has, now and then, been said to do for some -other men. It took off the edge of his liking for foreign travel. For it -gave him a very happy home. Their union endured for twenty-four years. -PLANTA was not a man of the gushing sort. [Sidenote: Falkenstein, -_Zeitgenossen_, &c., Dritte Reihe, Bd. ii, pp. 3, seqq.] But, to -intimates, he would say—in the lonely years; there were to be but few of -them—‘She was an angel in spirit and in heart.’ Mrs. PLANTA died in -1821. - -On the death of Charles MORTON, Mr. PLANTA, as we have seen already, was -made Principal-Librarian. He found the Museum still in its infancy, -although no less than forty-six years had passed since the bequest of -Sir Hans SLOANE was made to the British Public, and more than forty -years since that Public had entered upon its inheritance. The -collections had kept pace with the growth of science only in one or two -departments. In others the arrear was enormous. The accessibility was -hampered with restrictions. The building was in pressing need of -enlargement, gradual as had been the growth of some sections, and -glaring as was the deficiency of other sections. - -PLANTA put his shoulders to the wheel, and met with support and -encouragement from several of the Trustees. But the feeling still ran -strongly against any approach to indiscriminate publicity in any -department of the Museum. Men did not carry that restrictive view quite -so far in 1800, as it had been expressed by Dr. John WARD—an able and -good man—in 1760, and earlier; but they still looked with apprehension -upon the combined ideas of a crowd of visitors, and irreplaceable -treasures of learning and of art. A good many of the men of 1800 -possessed, it must in candour be remembered, living recollections of the -sights and the deeds of 1780. Residents in Bloomsbury were likely, on -that score, to have particularly good memories. They had seen with their -eyes precious manuscripts, which treasured up the life-long lore of a -MANSFIELD, given by the populace to the flames. - -Under the influence of such memories as these, Mr. PLANTA had to propose -abolition of restrictions, with a gentle and very gradual hand. He began -by improving the practice, without at first greatly altering the rules. -By and by he brought, from time to time, before the Trust, suggestions -for relaxations in the rules themselves. - -[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED, OR RECOMMENDED, BY JOSEPH PLANTA, IN - THE INTERNAL ECONOMY OF THE MUSEUM.] - -From the outset he administered the Reading-Room itself with much -liberality. When he became Principal-Librarian the yearly admissions -were much under two hundred. In 1816, they had increased to two hundred -and ninety-two. In 1820, to five hundred and fifteen. As respects the -Department of Antiquities, the students admitted to draw were in 1809 -less than twenty; in 1818 two hundred and twenty-three were admitted. In -1814 he recommended the Trustees to make provision for the exhibition -every Thursday, ‘to persons applying to see them,’ the Engravings and -Prints;—the persons admitted not exceeding six at any one time, and -others being admitted in due succession. He also recommended a somewhat -similar system of exhibition for adoption in the Department of Coins and -Medals. And the Trustees gave effect to both recommendations. Eventually -Mr. PLANTA proposed, for the _general_ show Collections of the Museum, a -system of entirely free admission at the instant of application, -abolishing all the hamper of preliminary forms. - -[Sidenote: HIS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE VARIOUS - COLLECTIONS.] - -It was also, I believe, at Mr. PLANTA’S instance, or partly so, that the -Trustees applied to Parliament, in 1812, for special grants to enable -them to improve the Collection of Printed Books, with reference more -particularly to the endeavour to perfect the National Library in the -National History—to that very limited extent to which the monuments and -memorials of our history are to be found in print. Virtually, the grants -on behalf of the Manuscript Department, not those on behalf of the -Printed Book Department, were, in 1812, as they still are in 1870, the -grants which mainly tend to make the British Museum what, most -obviously, it ought to become, the main storehouse of British History -and Archæology, both in literature and in art. - -The magnificent additions made by private donors to every section of the -British Museum during the administration of PLANTA, have been -sufficiently passed under review in the closing chapters of Book II. -Several of them, it has been seen, were the fruits of the public spirit -of individual Trustees. Such gifts amply vindicated the wisdom both of -Sir Hans SLOANE and of Parliament, when both Founder and Legislature -gave to men of exalted position a preference as peculiarly fit, in the -judgment of each, for the general guardianship of the Museum. - -[Sidenote: HIS CATHOLICITY OF TASTES AND SYMPATHIES.] - -But private gifts—munificent as they were—left large gaps in the -National Collections. It is one of Mr. PLANTA’S distinctive merits that -his tastes and sympathies embraced the Natural History Department, as -well as those literary departments with which, as a man of letters, he -had a more direct personal connection. He supported, with his influence, -the wise recommendation to Parliament—made in 1810—for the purchase of -the GREVILLE Collection of Minerals. He recommended, in 1822, the -purchase, from the representatives of the naturalist MONTICELLI, of a -like, though minor Collection, which had been formed at Naples. The -Cavaliero MONTICELLI’S Collection was, in the main, one that had been -undertaken in imitation of an earlier assemblage of volcanic products -which had been also gathered at Naples by Sir William HAMILTON, and by -the Collector given (as I have already recorded) to the Trustees. In a -similar spirit he promoted the acquisitions which were made from time to -time, by the instrumentality of Claudius RICH, of Henry SALT, and of -several other workers in the fruitful field of Classical, Assyrian, and -Egyptian archæological exploration. Both in the literary and scientific -departments of the Museum he also gave some special attention to the due -continuance and completion of the various collections bestowed on the -Public by the munificence of Sir Joseph BANKS. - -Another conspicuous merit belongs to Joseph PLANTA. He supported the -Trustees in that wise and large-minded policy which induced them to -regard _publication_, as well as accumulation, to be one of the chief -duties of their Trust for the Nation. He thought it not enough, for -example, to show to groups of Londoners, from time to time, and to -occasional foreign visitants, in almost solitary state, the wealth of -Nature and of Art in the Museum Collections. He saw it to be no less the -duty of the faithful trustees of such treasures to show them to the -world at large by the combined labours of the painter, the draughtsman, -the engraver, and the printer. [Sidenote: PLANTA’S LABOURS ON THE -MUSEUM’S PUBLICATIONS;] It will ever be an honourable distinction—in the -briefest record of his Museum labours—that he promoted the publication -of the beautiful volumes entitled _Description of the Ancient Marbles in -the British Museum_; of the _Catalogue of the Anglo-Gallic Coins_; of -the _Mausoleum and Cinerary Urns_; of the _Description of Terra Cottas_; -and other like works. The first-named work in particular is an especial -honour to the Trustees of the Museum, and to all who were concerned in -its production. Beautifully engraved, and ably edited, it made the -archæological treasures of the Nation widely known even to such -foreigners, interested in the study of antiquity, as circumstances -precluded from ever seeing the marbles themselves. When watching—in the -bygone years—the late Henry CORBOULD busy at the work into which he -threw so much of his love, as well as of his skill in drawing, I have -been tempted, now and then, to envy the craft which, in its results, -made our national possessions familiarly known, in the far parts of the -world, to students who could never hope to see the wonderful handicraft -of the old Greek sculptors, otherwise than as it is reflected and -transmitted by the handicraft of the skilled modern draughtsman. -CORBOULD had the eye to see artistic beauty and the soul to enjoy it. He -was not one of the artists who are artisans, in everything but the name. -In the ‘_Ancient Marbles in the British Museum_,’ published under the -active encouragement of the Trustees and of their Principal-Librarians, -during a long series of years, CORBOULD, as draughtsman, had just the -work for which Nature had pre-eminently fitted him. - -[Sidenote: AND, PARTICULARLY, ON THE CATALOGUES.] - -Joseph PLANTA also took his share in the compilation of the Catalogues -both of Printed Books and of Manuscripts. In this department, as in the -archæological one, he extended the benefits of his zealous labour to the -scholar abroad as well as to the scholar at home. What was carefully -prepared was liberally _printed_ and liberally circulated. PLANTA wrote -with his own hand part of the published _Catalogue of the Printed -Books_, and much of the _Catalogue of the Cottonian Manuscripts_. To the -latter he prefixed a brief life of the Founder, by which I have gladly -and thankfully profited in my own more extended labour at the beginning -of this volume. - -One incidental employment which Mr. PLANTA’S office entailed upon him—as -Principal-Librarian—was of a less grateful kind. It merits notice on -more than one account, very trivial as is the incident of Museum history -that occasioned it, when looked at intrinsically. - -In 1821, the then Duke of BEDFORD (John, ninth Duke) filed in Chancery -an injunction against the Trustees to restrain them from building on the -garden-ground of the Museum. [Sidenote: THE GARDENS OF THE BRITISH -MUSEUM AND THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.] To build was—at that time—an undoubted -injury to the Bloomsburians, and, consequently, a not less undoubted -depreciation of the Duke’s estate. It is hard, nowadays, to realise to -one’s fancy what the former Museum gardens were in the olden time. They -not only adorned every house that looked over them, but were—in -practice, and by the indulgence of the Trustees and officers—a sort of -small public park for the refreshment of the vicinity at large. Their -neighbourhood made houses more valuable in the market. - -Almost seventy years before the filing of the Chancery injunctions of -1820–21, a predecessor of the Duke (John, seventh Duke) had compelled -Parliament—and with great reason—to enact that the ‘New Road’ should -be made a broad road; not a narrow lane. He had carried a proviso for -the construction of gardens in front of all the houses along the road. -Were public property, and public enjoyments, protected by English law -with one tenth part of the efficiency with which private property and -private enjoyments are protected, that clause in the ‘New Road Act’ of -1750 would have proved, in our own present day, a measure advantageous -to public health. But public easements are unknown, or nearly unknown, -to English law. And the Duke’s clause has come, in course of time, to -teem with public nuisance, instead of public benefit. Englishmen build -at the national cost magnificent cathedrals, and then permit -railway-jobbers to defile them, at pleasure, with railway -‘architecture.’ They construct, by dint of large taxation, magnificent -river-embankments, and permit every sort of smoke-belching chimney and -eye-killing corrugated-iron-monstrosity to spoil the view. What the -old Duke of BEDFORD intended to make a metropolitan improvement, as -well as a defence to his own property, has come to be a cause of -public detriment,—simply because our legislation, in the year of Grace -1870, affords protection to no kind of public property that is -insusceptible, by its nature, of direct valuation in pounds and pence. - -The action of the ninth Duke of BEDFORD was in contrast with that of his -predecessor. It was not altogether selfish, since there was an actual -abatement of public enjoyment in that step which he was opposing. The -Trustees of the British Museum were really compelled to take something -from the Public with one hand;—but, with the other, they gave a tenfold -equivalent. Their contention, of course, prevailed against the Duke’s -opposition. - -It may not be intrusive here to mention that it is known that by the -present Duke of BEDFORD very generous and liberal furtherance would be -given to new schemes of extension for the Museum, were Parliament, on -full consideration, to think enlargement at Bloomsbury the right course -to be taken in pending matters. But this subject will demand a few words -hereafter. - - -PLANTA’S energies seem for several years to have been given, almost -exclusively, to his Museum duties, in combination (as was perfectly -practicable and befitting, under the then circumstances) with his -Exchequer Paymastership. But in the closing years of his -Under-Librarianship many months were (not less fitly) given to a worthy -literary undertaking. He wrote his _History of the Helvetic Confederacy_ -towards the end of the last century, and published it soon after his -appointment to the Principal-Librarianship. In the next year he -published a supplement to it, under the title of _A View of the -Restoration of the Helvetic Confederacy_. The _History_ reached its -second edition in 1807. - -Based primarily on the great work of Johannes VON MÜLLER, PLANTA’S -_History of the Helvetic Confederacy_ is both a very able production and -one that is animated by a spirit of patriotism which is wise as well as -strong. It was an enduring contribution to the literature of the -author’s fatherland. After its appearance, his official duties mainly -engrossed his attention. He died, full of years and honours, in the year -1827, leaving a son, who, like his father and his grandfather, -distinguished himself in the civil service of their adopted country. - -Joseph PLANTA, in his fifty-three years of service, had seen the British -Museum pass from its infancy into the early stages of its maturity. But -it still, at the time of his death, was too much regarded, both by the -general Public and by Parliament, as, in the main, a place of popular -amusement. His next successor saw the beginning of further improvements, -such as lifted the Museum upon a level with the best of its -fellow-institutions in all Europe. His second successor saw it lifted -far above them, in several points of view. And what he witnessed of -augmented improvement—when leaving office three or four years ago—was, -in a very large measure, the result of his own zealous labours and of -his eminent ability. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (_Continued_):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL - ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF - SIR HENRY ELLIS. - - ‘It is expedient that the Trustees should revise the salaries of the - Establishment, with the view of ascertaining what increase may be - required for the purpose of ... obtaining the whole time and services - of the ablest men, independently of any remuneration from other - sources; and that, when such scale of salary shall have been fixed, it - shall not be competent to any Officer of the Museum, paid thereunder, - to hold any other situation conferring emolument or entailing duties.’ - - REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON BRITISH - MUSEUM, 14 July, 1836. - - _Internal Economy of the Museum at the time of the death of Joseph_ - PLANTA.—_The Literary Life and Public Services of Sir Henry_ - ELLIS.—_The Candidature of Henry_ FYNES CLINTON.—_Progress of - Improvement in certain Departments.—Introduction of Sir Antonio_ - PANIZZI _into the Service of the Trustees.—The House of Commons’ - Committee of 1835–36._—PANIZZI _and Henry Francis_ CARY.—_Memoir - of_ CARY.—PANIZZI’S _Report on the proper Character of a National - Library for Britain, made in October, 1837.—His successful labours - for Internal Reform.—And his Helpers in the work.—The Literary - Life and Public Services of Thomas_ WATTS.—_Sir A._ PANIZZI’S - _Special Report to the Trustees of 1845, and what grew - thereout.—Progress, during Sir H._ ELLIS’S _term of office, of the - several Departments of Natural History and of Antiquities_. - - -[Sidenote: BOOK III, CHAP. II. HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR H. - ELLIS.] - -When Sir Henry ELLIS was appointed to be the successor of Mr. PLANTA -(20th December, 1827), the British Museum was still composed of but four -departments, in conformity with the organization of 1809. It was -publicly open on three days in each week, but only during forty weeks of -every year. This was a great improvement of the previous arrangements, -as we have seen, under MATY and MORTON. [Sidenote: CONDITIONS OF MUSEUM -ACCESSIBILITY AT COMMENCEMENT OF MR. ELLIS’S RULE.] But Mr. PLANTA’S -most conspicuous improvements lay in the (admittedly more important) -direction of access to the Medal, Print, and Reading-Rooms. To his -administration, students in all these departments were much indebted. -Sir Henry ELLIS was to witness and to carry out, very efficiently as -Principal-Librarian, some more extensive modifications of the old system -of things; but he, in his turn, was to be quite eclipsed (so to speak) -in the character of Museum improver, by his successor in office. And it -was, in fact, to the latter that such among the conspicuous improvements -of the last twenty years of Sir Henry’s official administration as -related to the Department of Printed Books—and in no department were the -improvements more striking—were pre-eminently due. - - -Sir Henry ELLIS (who has but so recently departed from amongst us) -entered the service of the Trustees, as a temporary assistant in the -Library, in the year 1800, having had already three years’ experience in -Bodley’s Library at Oxford. When coming occasionally to London during -his employment at Oxford he would see Dr. Charles MORTON, who had helped -to organize the Museum almost fifty years before. The _public_ life of -those two acquaintances spread, conjointly, over a period of a hundred -and twenty years.[23] - -Had it never fallen to the lot of Henry ELLIS to render to the Public -any service at all, in the way of administering and improving the -National Museum, he would still have earned an honourable niche in our -literary history. His contributions to literature are, indeed, very -unequal in their character. [Sidenote: THE LABOURS IN LITERATURE OF SIR -H. ELLIS.] Some of them are fragmentary; some might be thought trivial. -But very many of them have sterling value. And his archæological -labours, in particular, were zealous and unremitting. He began them in -1798. He had not entirely ceased to add to them in 1868. In the closing -year of the eighteenth century he was giving furtherance to the labours -on British history of Richard GOUGH. In the sixty-eighth year of the -nineteenth century he was still taking an intelligent and critical -interest in the large undertakings of Lord ROMILLY and of Mr. DUFFUS -HARDY, for affording to future historians the means of basing the -reconstruction of our national history upon the one firm foundation of -an exhaustive search of our national records. - -The fourth Principal-Librarian of the British Museum was born at -Shoreditch, in London, on the 29th of November, 1777. He was of a -Yorkshire family long settled (and still flourishing) at Dewsbury. Henry -ELLIS was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, and at St. John’s -College, Oxford, where he graduated B.C.L. in 1802. His first book (but -not, perhaps, his first publication) was the _History of the Parish of -St. Leonard, Shoreditch_, printed in 1798. He became F.S.A. in 1800; one -of its Secretaries in 1813; and its Director in 1854. To the -_Archæologia_ he was a contributor for more than fifty years. In 1800, -he sent to the first Record Commission a Report on the Historical -Manuscripts at St. John’s. For the same Commission he wrote, in the year -1813, and the three following years, an _Introduction to Domesday Book_. -Of this he would speak very modestly in after-days, saying: ‘I have -worked on _Domesday_ for years; but only in making an opening into the -mine. Other men will have yet to bring out the metal.’ For the second -Record Commission he re-edited his _Introduction_ and considerably -improved it. This was done in 1832; and, to say the least, it brought -some very good ore to the surface. When both these Commissions had given -way to the better organization recently framed by Lord ROMILLY, he -edited, for the series of _Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain_, -the Latin Chronicle of John of Oxenedes, from a MS. belonging to Sir -Robert COTTON’S Library. When _Oxenedes_ was published, just sixty years -had passed from the publication of Sir Henry’s first Record labour, -undertaken at the instance of Lord COLCHESTER. - -In the interval, he had had a great opportunity, the first glimpse of -which needs must have dilated the heart of so genuine a lover of -antiquity. The publication of an improved edition of the _Monasticon -Anglicanum_ of DODSWORTH and DUGDALE ought to have made a new epoch in -British archæology. But the opportunity was lost. In those days, there -was no encouragement for such labours at the Treasury; no enlightened -promoter of them at the Rolls House. The control of the new _Monasticon_ -passed into the hands of mere tradesmen. Neither of Mr. ELLIS’S -co-editors ever buckled to the work. ELLIS himself became simply the -servant of the associated publishers, who had no aim whatever beyond -turning a golden penny out of the traditional prestige of Sir William -DUGDALE’S name, and out of the standing advertisement that the -_Monasticon_ was indubitably one of those books ‘which no gentleman’s -library ought to be without.’ Heaps of crude, untranslated, and -unelucidated information were thrust into the book, against the editor’s -own clear conviction of his duty, and in spite of his remonstrance. ‘We -must retrench,’ was the one answer to all editorial recommendations of -real improvement. And meanwhile the publishers were actually netting -fair profits from a long list of confiding subscribers. What might well -have been a ‘broadstone of honour’ to English literature became its -glaring disgrace.[24] No one would more gladly have striven for a better -result—had the power lain with him—than would Sir Henry ELLIS. As to his -nominal co-editors, they did almost nothing, from first to last. - -To far better result did ELLIS labour upon his successive editions of -_Hall_, _Hardyng_, _Fabyan_, and _Polydore Vergil_, among our -chroniclers, and of BRAND’S _Observations on Popular Antiquities_, of -DUGDALE’S _History of Saint Paul’s Cathedral_, and of NORDEN’S _Essex_, -among the standard illustrations of our archæology and topography. But -his most enduring contribution to historical literature is, beyond -doubt, his _Original Letters, illustrative of English History_, the -publication of which began in 1824, and was completed in 1846. That work -alone would suffice to keep his name in honourable memory for a long -time to come. - -At the British Museum he had a considerable advantage over his -predecessor in the Principal-Librarianship. He enjoyed the assistance, -almost from the first, of an abler staff, in more than one of the -departments, than Mr. PLANTA had commanded during the earlier years of -his administration. [Sidenote: LABOURS OF SIR H. ELLIS AT THE BRITISH -MUSEUM.] And an improved order of service had been established before -Mr. ELLIS’S rule began. In this way appliances lay already under his -hand which facilitated the work of progress, when—more especially—a -strong demand for improvement came from without, as well as from the -action of the Trustees themselves within. - -[Sidenote: STATE OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM STAFF AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH OF - MR. PLANTA.] - -At that date the Department of Printed Books was under the charge of the -Rev. Henry Hervey BABER (the eminent editor of the ‘Alexandrian MS.’ of -the Septuagint). He was assisted by Mr. Henry Francis CARY, the -translator of DANTE, and also by Mr. WALTER, who had been one of the -Librarians of King GEORGE THE THIRD, and who, in 1831, was succeeded by -Mr. Antonio PANIZZI. In the Department of MSS. Mr. ELLIS’S -Assistant-Keeper, the Rev. Josiah FORSHALL, had succeeded to the charge, -and the new Keeper had the able assistance of Sir Frederick MADDEN, -whose labours for the improvement of his department are well known to -scholars. The Antiquities were confided to Mr. Edward HAWKINS; the -various Natural History Collections to Messrs. KÖNIG and CHILDREN. The -Botanical Department was, as I have shown at the close of the preceding -Book, just about to be reorganized (almost to be created) by the -transfer of the Collections of Sir Joseph BANKS, and with them of the -services of their distinguished Keeper. Taken altogether, such a staff -as this was of threefold efficiency to that with which Mr. PLANTA had -started at the beginning of the century. - -Mr. ELLIS enjoyed an additional advantage from the great familiarity -with the whole service of the Museum which he had acquired during his -labours as Secretary from the year 1814. The secretarial duty had been -combined with the functions of keepership during thirteen years. Great -punctuality, a conspicuous faculty for method and memory, and very -courteous manners, were qualifications which are not always, or -necessarily, found in union with conspicuous industry. In him they were -combined. Nevertheless, he narrowly escaped losing the merited reward of -long and assiduous labours. For he had a formidable competitor. - -[Sidenote: THE CANDIDATURE OF MR. H. FYNES CLINTON.] - -At this time, a most accomplished scholar, who deservedly possessed -large influence, both social and political, had obtained the virtual -promise of almost the highest personage in the realm that whenever Mr. -PLANTA died he should receive the offer of successorship. Mr. Henry -FYNES CLINTON, in those quiet ante-reform days, had been able, for -twenty years, to unite the functions of a Member of Parliament with the -assiduous pursuits of scholarship in one of its highest forms. Learning -had higher charms for him than Politics, and he had no turn for debate, -but he had steadily attended the House of Commons while giving to the -world his _Fasti Hellenici_ and _Fasti Romani_. Six months before Mr. -PLANTA’S decease, the Archbishop of CANTERBURY had, in effect, promised -Mr. FYNES CLINTON that he would nominate him to be Principal-Librarian, -and the Archbishop well knew that, as far as learning went, such an -appointment would be applauded throughout Europe. The Archbishop (Dr. -Charles MANNERS SUTTON), did not forget his promise, and his vote -carried that of the then Speaker of the House of Commons, who was the -Archbishop’s son. Their joint communication with the Lord Chancellor -procured his assent also. ‘We have made,’ the Archbishop told Mr. FYNES -CLINTON, ‘your recommendation to the King as strong as possible.’ The -practice, as the reader will perhaps remember, was that the then -Principal Trustees should in all such cases recommend to the Sovereign -_two_ names, with such observations upon them as to those Trustees might -seem appropriate. - -[Sidenote: _Letters and Journ. of_ H. Fynes Clinton, in the _Literary - Remains_ (1854), pass.] - -As Mr. ELLIS was now the senior officer; had had the care successively -of two several departments (MSS. and Printed Books); had also served as -Secretary, and, in all these employments, had acquitted himself with -diligence and credit, there could, of course, be no difficulty as to the -name which should be submitted to GEORGE THE FOURTH in company with that -of Mr. FYNES CLINTON. Other Trustees interested themselves in -supporting, indirectly but efficiently, the claims of one who had served -the Board so long. And the King was pleased to prefer the second name -which had been placed before him by the Principal Trustees rather than -the first. [Sidenote: Lord Lansdowne to Archbishop of Canterbury; 20 -December, 1827.] Lord LANSDOWNE received His Majesty’s commands to -signify to the Archbishop that it was upon the ground of ‘long service -in the Museum’ that the King had made his choice. - -[Sidenote: SERVICES AND CHARACTER OF SIR H. ELLIS.] - -Those who had (like the writer) opportunity to watch, during most of the -succeeding thirty years, the continuance of that service, know that the -King’s selection was justified. Sir Henry ELLIS was not gifted with any -of those salient abilities which dazzle the eyes of men; but he had -great power of labour, the strictest integrity of purpose, and a very -kind heart. He was ever, to the Trustees, a faithful servant, up to the -full measure of his ability. To those who worked under him he was always -courteous, considerate, and very often he was generous. He would -sometimes expose himself to misconstruction, in order to appease -discords. He would at times rather seem wanting in firmness of will -than, by pressing his authority, wound the feelings of well-intentioned -but irritable subordinates. No one could receive from him a merited -reproof—I speak from personal experience—without perceiving that the -duty of giving it was felt to be a painful duty. The Commissioners of -1850 had ample warrant for hinting, in their Report to the Crown—when -alluding to certain internal disputes—that the qualities least abounding -in Sir Henry ELLIS’S composition were those which equip a man [Sidenote: -_Report_ (1850) p. 32.] ‘for such harsher duties of his office, as -cannot be accomplished by the aid of conciliatory manners, the index of -a benevolent disposition.’ - -A man of that temper will now and then, in his own despite, get forced -into a somewhat bitter controversy. One sharp attack on Sir Henry’s -administration of his Principal-Librarianship had a close connection -with discords of an anterior date which had broken out in the Society of -Antiquaries. [Sidenote: THE STORY OF THE MSS. AT POMARD.] The late Sir -Harris NICOLAS would scarcely have criticised, with so much vehemence, -what he thought to have been a careless indifference on ELLIS’S part to -the acquisition for the British Museum of an important body of -historical manuscripts, preserved in a chateau in a distant corner of -France (and offered to the Trustees in 1829), but for the circumstance -that Sir Henry’s kindly unwillingness, evinced a little while before, to -desert a very weak colleague at Somerset House had stood in the way of -some much-needed reforms in that quarter. Without in the least intending -beforehand to represent things unfairly, Sir H. NICOLAS acted under the -influence of an unconscious bias or pre-judgment. The Joursanvault story -is still worth telling, although it has now become an old story, and one -portion of the historical treasures it relates to are now past wishing -for, as an English possession. - -In the course of the revolutionary convulsions in France, a great body -of historical documents had been abstracted from the famous old Castle -of Blois. Eventually, as years passed on, they found their way into the -country-seat, at Pomard, of the Baron de JOURSANVAULT, and with them -were amalgamated an extensive collection of old family papers, many -books on genealogy, and some choice illuminated missals. - -An English gentleman long resident in France had formed the acquaintance -of the Baron de JOURSANVAULT, and in the course of conversation came to -hear of the existence of these historical treasures. He also perceived -that their owner had little taste for them, or ability to profit by -their contents. Sir Thomas Elmsley CROFT probed his French friend on the -subject of parting with them. The Baron lent a willing ear, and, to whet -his interlocutor’s appetite, told him that a great many of the -manuscripts related to the history of the English rule in France. Sir -Thomas then apprised an English friend, famous for his love of old MSS., -of the existence of the hoards, and of the certainty that the Baron who -owned them would greatly prefer a few rouleaux of English gold to a -whole castle-full of the most precious parchments that ever charmed the -longing eyes of a Jonathan OLDBUCK—or a Harris NICOLAS. - -Sir Harris, directly he received this piece of news from Paris, passed -it on to his friend the late Lord CANTERBURY, then Speaker, who, in -turn, communicated the information to Sir H. ELLIS, for the use of the -Trustees. ELLIS was sent to France—whither indeed he had, just at that -moment, arranged to go, in order to spend part of his holidays in Paris, -according to his frequent custom. - -He reached Pomard (two hundred and fifty miles from Paris) in September, -1829, and found a vast body of charters which had formed the archives of -the mediæval Earls of Blois, together with many heraldic and -genealogical manuscripts chiefly relating to French families. But he -found hardly any manuscripts which bore, directly, upon English history -or affairs—the immediate object, it must be remembered, of the mission -given him by the Trustees. - -[Sidenote: SIR HENRY ELLIS’S REPORT ON THE HISTORICAL MSS. AT POMARD.] - -Immediately on his return to Paris, Sir Henry wrote thus to the -Archbishop of CANTERBURY:—‘The Collection is indeed a most extraordinary -one of its kind, and would be a treasure in the stores of the British -Museum, or of any other public Collection, though, perhaps, for a reason -which will presently appear, some of the Trustees may think a public -library of France would be its most appropriate repository. [Sidenote: -1829, September.] It is placed in two attics of the Chateau, of -considerable area—and I should say sixteen feet in height—in cartons (or -paste-board boxes), each two feet in length by one in depth and width. -Each carton contains some hundreds of charters, at least whenever I -examined them, and I made here and there my comparison with the -catalogue of from twenty to thirty cartons, all answering to the -catalogue and to the successive dates upon the outside of the boxes.... -In one room there were above a hundred boxes piled up to the ceiling, -the lower ones of which, where I could get at them, were full of -instruments arranged as I have described. I counted also, in the same -room, near a hundred and fifty bundles, all of single articles, partly -piled up for want of room, and placed upon the floors. In the second -room I counted a hundred and forty-nine cartons piled up like the -former, and no ladder in the house to get at them. I did what I could -upon a pair of steps made of two thin boards fastened to two other -upright boards, but I had not even a safe pair of steps. Many of the -cartons in the second room contained collections of a comparatively -recent date, apparently the manuscripts of the Baron’s father. Some of -these were terriers of lands, others were marked “_Pays Étrangers_,” -“_Monumens Généalogiques_;” “_Pièces Historiques_;” “_Parlement_;” -“_Histoire de l’Église_.”’ - -‘Of the great collection of charters (and it appeared to me to be larger -than all the collection of charters at present in the British Museum put -together), I am bound to say that I believe them to have formed almost -the entire muniments of the Earls of BLOIS, containing whatever related -to their concern in the wars of Europe in the middle ages, to their -prædial possessions, their granting out of property and privileges, -sales, feudal or public acts, quittances of money for military services, -letters patents, expenses of household, and every act, material or -immaterial, likely to be found in the archives of one of the greatest -houses of England. - -[Sidenote: PAUCITY OF ENGLISH DOCUMENTS IN THE ARCHIVES AT POMARD.] - -‘I looked in vain, however, for anything illustrative of English -history, except in a single bundle, tied in paper, which seemed -unconnected with the cartons, and was not, as far as I could find, in -any of the MS. catalogues. This bundle was entitled, in a modern hand, -“Documens relatifs à l’occupation de la France par les Anglais, 1400.” -It consists of about one hundred vellum instruments, one or two, or -perhaps more, so far in the form of letters that they were official -announcements; such as the Duke of ORLEANS in England in 1437, that he -had obtained safe conducts for his Chancellor and Premier Écuyer -d’écurie. Amongst these are various orders of payment and acquittances -for money, and several relate to Charles, Duke of ORLEANS, whilst -prisoner in England after the fight of Agincourt. There is a payment to -the Earl of SUFFOLK; another to persons fighting against the English; a -payment for the deliverance of the Duc d’ANGOULEME whilst a prisoner in -England in 1412; various orders of John, Duke of BEDFORD, the Bastard of -Salisbury, the Duke of EXETER, &c., to persons in the care of military -posts under them; the Duke of BEDFORD concerning musters; HENRY THE -FIFTH’S acquittance to the parishioners of certain villages for payments -on account of the war; various grants of the same King for services in -the wars; a grant to Sir William BOURCHIER of the estates of the Earl of -EU, dated at Mantes in his seventh year; and an order for a confirmation -to be made out of the different grants of the Kings of England and Dukes -of Normandy to the House of Lepers at Dieppe.’ - -When Sir Henry ELLIS had completed at Pomard that rough examination of -the Collection which he thus described on his return to Paris, his first -inquiry of the owner was, of course, about price. M. de JOURSANVAULT was -embarrassed. To Sir Thomas CROFT he had already said that he hoped to -get sixty thousand francs. ELLIS had noticed, as the Baron drove him -from Beaune into the court-yard of the old chateau, that its appearance -denoted wealth in past rather than in present days, but he could hardly -have been prepared for the effect of altered circumstances in turning a -gentleman into a chapman. In the evening the anticipated sixty thousand -francs had grown into a hundred and ten thousand. Nor was this the only -demand. The Duke of WELLINGTON must use his credit at Paris to transform -the Baron into a Count (without any stipulation for an entailed estate -by way of ‘majorat’); and if the task should be beyond the powers even -of the conqueror of NAPOLEON, then M. de JOURSANVAULT was to receive, -from the English Government, authority to import into England five -hundred pipes of Beaune wine, grown upon his own estate, free of all -customs duties, and for his own profit. - -Sir Henry (who with great good sense had already taken precaution that -his position at the British Museum should not be known to his host at -Pomard, in the hope of precluding any exaggeration of terms) -remonstrated against the burden of such a demand, but all entreaty was -vain. The Baron was bent on having—in addition to his £4400—either a -step in nobility, or, at the least, a handsome remission of customs -duty. The Trustees, in the end, declined to treat. - - -When it came to Sir Harris NICOLAS’S knowledge that ELLIS’S journey to -Pomard was apparently to have no result in the way of bringing -historical manuscripts into England, he felt angry as well as -disappointed. It was his earnest belief—whether right or wrong—that a -valuable occasion had been somewhat trifled with. He told the story,[25] -and treasured up the memory, and both the story and the narrator’s -personal reminiscences of the transaction had their share in bringing -about the parliamentary enquiry into the affairs of the British Museum. - -[Sidenote: THE PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO MUSEUM AFFAIRS OF 1835 AND - 1836.] - -Originally, and immediately, that inquiry was proposed to the House of -Commons by Mr. Benjamin HAWES, then M.P. for Lambeth, at the instance of -a Mr. John MILLARD, who had been employed, for some years, on an Index -of MSS., and whose employment (upon very good grounds) had been -discontinued. Sir Harris NICOLAS also brought his influence to bear. Mr. -HAWES, personally, had a very earnest intention to benefit the Public by -the inquiry. But his own pursuits in life were not such as to have given -him the literary qualifications necessary for conducting it. With not -less wisdom than modesty, when he had carried his motion for a Select -Committee, he waived his claim to its chairmanship. The Committee chose -for that office Mr. SOTHERON ESTCOURT. The burden of examination, on -behalf of the Trustees, was borne—it need not be said how ably—by men of -no less mark than Sir Robert Harry INGLIS and the late Earl of DERBY, -then Lord Stanley. - -One of the best results of the appointment of that Committee of 1835–36 -was the opportunity it gave to Mr. BABER and to Mr. PANIZZI of -advocating the claims of the National Library to largely increased -liberality on the part of Parliament. The latter, in particular, did it -with an earnestness, and with a vivacity and felicity of argument and of -illustration, which I believe won for him the respect of every person -who enjoyed (as I did) the pleasure of listening to his examination. I -do not think that anybody in that Committee Room of 1836 thought his -arguments a whit the weaker for being expressed by ‘a foreigner.’ But it -chances to be within my knowledge that pressure was put upon Mr. HAWES, -as a conspicuous member of the Committee, to induce him to put questions -to a certain witness with the view of enabling that witness to attack -the Trustees for appointing a foreigner to an important office in the -Museum. The ludicrous absurdity of an objection on that score—in -relation to a great establishment of Literature and Science—was not, it -seems, felt in those days as it would assuredly be felt in the present -day. The absurdity did not strike the mind of Mr. HAWES, but, to his -great credit, he steadfastly refused to admit of any impeachment in the -Committee of a choice which he believed had been most fitly made in all -other respects.[26] - -It is more than probable that the ability which Mr. PANIZZI had -displayed in the Committee Room of the House of Commons, as well as the -zeal for our national honour which he had shown himself to possess, had -something to do in preparing the way for the promotion which awaited him -within a few months after Mr. HAWES’ Committee made its final report to -the House. But his labours in the Museum itself had certainly given -substantial and ample warrant for that promotion—under all the -circumstances of the case—as will be seen presently. - -[Sidenote: MR. PANIZZI’S APPOINTMENT TO THE KEEPERSHIP OF PRINTED - BOOKS.] - -Amongst the duties entrusted to Mr. PANIZZI after his entrance (in 1831) -into the service of the Trustees as an extra Assistant-Librarian, was -the cataloguing of an extraordinary Collection of Tracts illustrative of -the History of the French Revolution. He had laboured on a difficult -task with great diligence and with uncommon ability. In 1835, a -Committee of Trustees reported, in the highest terms, on the performance -of his duties, and concluded their report with a recommendation which, -although the general body of Trustees did not act upon it, became the -occasion of a very eulogistic minute. Two years afterwards, the office -of Keeper of Printed Books became vacant by the resignation of the -Reverend Henry Hervey BABER, who had filled it, with great credit, from -the year 1802. - -The office of Senior Assistant-Librarian in that Department was then -filled by another man of eminent literary distinction, the Reverend -Henry Francis CARY, who, as one of the best among the many English -translators of DANTE, is not likely to be soon forgotten amongst us. Not -a few Englishmen of the generation that is now passing away learnt in -his version to love DANTE, before they were able to read him in his -proper garb, and learnt too to love Italy, as CARY loved it, for DANTE’S -sake. - -Mr. CARY was the grandson of Mordecai CARY, Bishop of Killaloe, and the -son of a Captain in the British Army, who at the time of Henry CARY’S -birth was quartered at Gibraltar, where the boy was born on the sixth of -December, 1772. [Sidenote: LIFE AND LITERARY LABOURS OF HENRY FRANCIS -CARY.] He was educated at Birmingham and at Christ Church, Oxford. It -was in his undergraduate days at Christ Church that he began to -translate the _Inferno_, although he did not publish his first volume -until he had entered his thirty-third year, and had established himself -in ‘the great wen’ as Reader at Berkeley Chapel (1805). CARY’S ‘_Dante_’ -soon won its way to fame. Among other blessings it brought about his -life-long friendship with COLERIDGE and with the Coleridgian circle. He -now became an extensive contributor to the literary periodicals. In -1816, he was made Preacher at the Savoy. In 1825, he offered himself to -the Trustees of the British Museum as a candidate for the Keepership of -the Department of Antiquities in succession to Taylor COMBE. That office -was given, with great propriety, to Mr. Edward HAWKINS, who had assisted -Mr. COMBE, and had, in fact, replaced him during his illness. But Mr. -CARY had met with encouragement—especially from the Archbishop of -CANTERBURY—and kept a bright look-out for new vacancies. In May or June, -1826, he wrote to his father that he had learnt that the office of -Assistant-Librarian in the Department of Printed Books was vacant. It -had been, he added, held by a most respectable old clergyman of the name -of BEAN, and Mr. BEAN was just dead. Within a week or two, Mr. CARY was -appointed to be his successor. By a large circle of friends the -appointment was hailed as a fitting tribute to a most deserving man of -letters. - -The homely rooms in the Court-yard of the Museum allotted to the -Assistant-Keeper of the Printed Book Department were soon the habitual -resort of a cluster of poets. The faces of COLERIDGE, ROGERS, Charles -LAMB,[27] and (during their occasional visits to London) those of -SOUTHEY and of WORDSWORTH, became, in those days, very familiar at the -gate of old Montagu House. COLERIDGE had always loved CARY, and when the -charms of long monologues, delivered at the Grove to devout listeners, -withheld him from visits, the correspondence between Highgate and -Bloomsbury became so frequent and so voluminous, that he is said to have -endeavoured to persuade Sir Francis FREELING that all correspondence to -or from the British Museum ought to be officially regarded as ‘On His -Majesty’s Service,’ and to be franked, to any weight, accordingly. But -those love-enlivened rooms were, in a very few years, to be darkly -clouded. CARY lost his wife on the twenty-second of November, 1832, and -almost immediately afterwards—so dreadful was the blow to him—‘a look of -mere childishness, approaching to a suspension of vitality, marked the -countenance which had but now beamed with intellect.’ [Sidenote: _Life -of H. F. Cary_, by his Son, vol. ii, p. 198.] Such are the words of his -fellow-mourner. - -Part of Mr. CARY’S duties at the Museum now necessarily fell, for a few -months, to be discharged by Mr. PANIZZI, who, in the preceding year, had -been appointed next in office to CARY. The circumstances of that -appointment have been thus stated by the eminent Prelate who made it:— - -[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANCES OF MR. PANIZZI’S FIRST APPOINTMENT IN 1831.] - -‘Mr. PANIZZI was entirely unknown to me, except by reputation. I -understood that he was a civilian who had come from Italy, and that he -was a man of great acquirements and talents, peculiarly well suited for -the British Museum. That was represented to me by several persons who -were not connected with the Museum, and it was strongly pressed by -several of the Trustees, who were of opinion that Mr. PANIZZI’S -appointment would be very advantageous for the institution. [Sidenote: -_Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the British -Museum_, 28 June, 1836, p. 433.]Considering the qualifications of that -gentleman, his knowledge of foreign languages, his eminent ability and -extensive attainments, I could not doubt the propriety of acceding to -their wishes.’ - -When that appointment was made, Mr. PANIZZI had already passed almost -ten years in England. [Sidenote: MR. PANIZZI’S EARLY CAREER AND HIS -LABOURS IN ENGLAND.] The greater part of them had been spent at -Liverpool, as a tutor in the language and literature of Italy. Born at -Brescello, in the Duchy of Modena, Mr. PANIZZI had been educated at -Reggio and at Parma; in the last-named University he had graduated as -LL.D. in 1818; and he had practised with distinction as an advocate. -Part of his leisure hours had been given to the study of bibliography, -and to the acquisition of a library. But he was an ardent aspirant for -the liberty of Italy, and, in 1820, narrowly escaped becoming one of its -many martyrs. After the unsuccessful rising of that year in Piedmont, he -was arrested at Cremona, but escaped from his prison. After his escape -he was sentenced to death. He sought a refuge first at Lugano, and -afterwards at Geneva. But his ability had made him a marked man. -Austrian spies dogged his steps, and appealed, by turns, to the -suspicions and to the fears of the local authorities. Presently it -seemed clear that England, alone, would afford, to the dreaded -‘conspirator’ for Italy, a secure abode. At Liverpool he acquired the -friendship successively of Ugo FOSCOLO, of ROSCOE, and of BROUGHAM. In -1828, he received and accepted the offer of the Professorship of Italian -Literature in the then London University, now ‘University College.’ In -1830, he began the publication of his admirable edition of the poems of -BOJARDO and ARIOSTO, which was completed in 1834. - -[Sidenote: _Minutes of Evidence on the Constitution and Management of - the British Museum_, 26 May, 1848, § 2764 (Report of 1850, p. - 114).] - -When Mr. BABER announced, in March, 1837, his intention to resign his -Keepership, Mr. PANIZZI made no application for the office, but he wrote -to the Principal Trustees an expression of his hope that if, in the -event, ‘any appointment was to take place on account of Mr. BABER’S -resignation,’ his services would be borne in mind. - -One of Mr. CARY’S earliest steps in the matter was to apply to his -friend and fellow-poet, Mr. Samuel ROGERS. ROGERS—to use his own -words—was one who had known CARY ‘in all weathers.’ His earnest -friendship induced him to write a letter of recommendation to the three -Principal Trustees. After he had sent in his recommendation, a genuine -conscientiousness—not the less truly characteristic of the man for all -that outward semblance of cynicism which frequently veiled it—prompted -him to think the matter over again. It occurred to him to doubt whether -he was really serving his old friend CARY by helping to put him in a -post for which failing vigour was but too obviously, though gradually, -unfitting him. His misgiving increased the more he turned the affair -over in his mind. He then wrote three letters (to the Archbishop, -Chancellor, and Speaker), recalling his recommendation, and stating his -reason. With the Speaker, ROGERS also conversed on the subject. Mr. -ABERCROMBY asked the poet: ‘What do you know about a Mr. PANIZZI, who -stands next to CARY?’ ‘PANIZZI,’ said ROGERS, ‘would serve you very -well.’ ‘To tell you the truth,’ rejoined the Speaker, ‘we think that, if -Mr. CARY is not appointed, PANIZZI will be the right man.’ At that time, -Mr. PANIZZI was not personally known either to the Speaker or to the -Chancellor. - -I give these details, first, because they became, in after-days, a very -vital and influential part of the History of the British Museum. No -appointment was ever made during the whole of the hundred and fifteen -years which have elapsed betwixt the first organization of the -establishment in 1755 and the year in which I write (1870) that has had -such large influence upon its growth and its improvement; and, secondly, -because in a published life of the excellent man whose temporary -disappointment led to a great public benefit a passage appears which -(doubtless very unintentionally, but not the less seriously) -misrepresents the matter, and hints, mysteriously, at underhanded -influence, as though something had been done in the way of treachery to -CARY. ‘The Lord Chancellor and the Speaker,’ writes CARY’S biographer, -‘acting under information, _the source of which was probably known only -to them and their informant_, [Sidenote: _Life of Henry Francis Cary_, -vol. ii, p. 200.] resolved on passing him over, and appointing his -subordinate, Mr. PANIZZI, to the vacant place.’ - -These letters and conversations passed in the interval between the -announcement that there would be a vacancy in the Museum staff and its -actual occurrence. The Keepership became vacant on the twenty-fourth of -June. On that day Mr. CARY made his personal application to the -Archbishop. The Archbishop told him that objections were made to his -appointment. CARY, immediately after his return, told his -brother-officers BABER and PANIZZI what the Archbishop had communicated -to him. ‘Then,’ said Mr. PANIZZI, ‘the thing concerns me.’ ‘Yes,’ -rejoined CARY, ‘certainly it does.’ They all knew that applications for -the vacant office from outsiders were talked of. Among these were the -late Reverend Ernest HAWKINS and the late Reverend Richard GARNETT (who -afterwards succeeded to the Assistant-Librarianship). And Mr. PANIZZI -then proceeded to say to Mr. CARY: ‘You will not, now, object to my -asking for the place myself, as there are these objections to you.’ CARY -replied, ‘Not at all.’ Instantly, and in CARY’S presence, Mr. PANIZZI -wrote thus to the Archbishop:—‘I hope your Grace will not deem it -presumptuous in me to beg respectfully of your Grace and the other -Principal Trustees to take my case into consideration, should they think -it necessary to depart from the usual system of regular promotion, on -appointing Mr. BABER’S successor. [Sidenote: Panizzi to the Archbishop -of Canterbury, 26 June, 1837 (_Minutes of Evidence of 1850_).] I venture -to say thus much, having been informed by Mr. CARY of the conversation -he has had the honour to have with your Grace.’ The writer gave his -letter into Mr. CARY’S hand, received his brother-officer’s immediate -approval, and had that approval, at a later hour of the day and after a -re-perusal of the letter, confirmed. - -Within the walls of the Museum, the general feeling was so strongly in -favour of Mr. CARY’S appointment, despite all objection (and nothing can -be more natural than that it should be so—‘A fellow-feeling makes us -wondrous kind’), that the _public_ interest, in having an officer who -would use the appointment rather as a working-tool than as a reclining -staff, was, for the moment, lost sight of. Sir Henry ELLIS himself, when -asked to give a formal testimonial of Mr. PANIZZI’S qualifications to be -head of the Printed Book Department, answered: ‘If you told me that the -Bodleian Librarianship was vacant—or any other outside Librarianship -worth your having—you should have my heartiest recommendation. At -present, you must excuse me;’ or in words to that effect. Edward -HAWKINS, then Keeper of the Department of Antiquities, expressed himself -(in the hearing of the present writer) to like purpose, when asked what -his opinion was on a point which, at the moment, attracted not a little -attention in literary circles.[28] - -CARY afterwards—and when it was too late to recall it—regretted his -assent to Mr. PANIZZI’S application. He applied again to the Archbishop, -and obtained something like a promise of support. He wrote several -letters to the Lord Chancellor. In one of these he (unconsciously, as it -seems) adduced a conclusive argument against his own appointment to the -office he sought. He wrote that, as he was informed, the objections of -his Lordship and of the Speaker were twofold: the one resting on his -age, and the other on the state of his health. He answered the -objections in these words:—‘My age, it is plain, might rather ask for me -that _alleviation of labour_ which, _in this as in other public offices, -is gained by promotion_ to a superior place, than call for a continuance -of the same laborious employment.’ [Sidenote: Cary to the Lord -Chancellor, 18 July, 1837 (_The Times_).] What must have been a Lord -Chancellor’s ruminations upon the ‘alleviation of labour’ which ‘a -superior place’ brings to a public servant, is a somewhat amusing -subject of conjecture. - -It was with perfect honesty and integrity of purpose that Mr. CARY -adduced medical testimony of his fitness for continued but diminished -labours. He would have exerted himself to the best of his ability. But -it was a blemish in an excellent man that (under momentary irritation) -he twice permitted himself to reproach his competitor and colleague with -being ‘a foreigner.’ - -One would fain have hoped that our famous countryman Daniel DEFOE had, a -hundred years before, put all reproach and contumely on the score of a -man’s _not_ being a ‘true-born Englishman’ quite out of Court, in all -contentions concerning capabilities of public service. But, of all -places in the world, a MUSEUM is the queerest place in which to raise -petty questions of nationality. If it be at all worthy of its name, its -contents must have come from the four quarters of the globe. Men of -every race under Heaven must have worked hard to furnish it. It brings -together the plants of Australia; the minerals of Peru; the shells of -the far Pacific; the manuscripts which had been painfully compiled or -transcribed by twenty generations of labourers in every corner of -Europe, as well as in the monasteries of Africa and of the Eastern -Desert; and the sculptures and the printed books of every civilised -country in the world. And then it is proposed—when arrangements are to -be made for turning dead collections into living fountains of -knowledge—that the question asked shall be: _not_ ‘What is your capacity -to administer?’ but ‘Where were you born?’ I hope, and I believe, that -in later years Mr. CARY regretted that he had permitted a name so -deservedly honoured to endorse so poor a sophism. - -Mr. Antonio PANIZZI received his appointment on the fifteenth of July, -1837. If he had worked hard to gain promotion, he worked double tides to -vindicate it. In the following month, Mr. CARY resigned his -Assistant-Librarianship. [Sidenote: PANIZZI’S APPOINTMENT AS KEEPER OF -THE PRINTED BOOKS, July, 1837.] He left the Museum with the hearty -respect and with the brotherly regrets of all his colleagues, without -any exception. Of him, it may very truly be said, he was a man much -beloved. - -Nor was it otherwise with Mr. BABER. His public services began in old -Bodley towards the end of the year 1796, and they were so efficient as -to open to him, at the beginning of the present century, a subordinate -post in the British Museum, his claims to which he waived the instant -that he knew they would stand in the way of ELLIS, his early friend of -undergraduate days. He became Assistant-Librarian in 1807; Keeper of -Printed Books in 1812. He, too, was a man with no enemies. In literature -he won (before he was fifty) an enduring place by his edition of the -_Vetus Testamentum Græcum e Codice MS. Alexandrino ... descriptum_. - -Of the amiability of character which distinguished Mr. BABER, not less -than did his scholarship, the present writer had more than common -experience. It was my fortune to make my first intimate acquaintance -(1835) with the affairs of the British Museum in the capacity of a -critic on that part of Mr. BABER’S discharge of his manifold functions -as Keeper which related to the increase of the Library, both by purchase -and by the operation of the Copyright Act. I criticised some of his -doings, and some of his omissions to do, with youthful presumption, and -with that self-confident half-knowledge which often leads a man more -astray, practically, than does sheer ignorance. So far from resenting -strictures, a few of which may have had some small validity and value, -while a good many were certainly plausible but shallow, he turned the -former to profit, and, so far from resenting the latter, repeatedly -evinced towards their author acts of courtesy and kindness. It was in -his company that I first explored—as we strode from beam to beam of the -unfinished flooring—the new Library rooms in which, long afterwards, I -was to perform my humble spell of work on the _Catalogue of the Printed -Books_; as he had performed his hard-by almost thirty years earlier. - -Mr. BABER survived his retirement from his Keepership (in 1837) no less -than thirty-two years. He died, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1869, at -his rectory-house at Stretham, in the Isle of Ely, and in his 94th year. -He had then been F.R.S. for fifty-three years, and had survived his old -friend Sir Henry ELLIS by a few weeks. He served his parishioners in -Cambridgeshire, as he had served his country in London, with unremitting -zeal and punctual assiduity. - - -One of Mr. PANIZZI’S earliest employments in his new office of 1837 was -to make arrangements for the formidable task of transferring the whole -mass of the old Library from Montagu House to the new Building, but he -also did something immediately towards preparing the way for that -systematic enlargement of the Collection of Printed Books which he had -formerly and so earnestly pressed on the attention, not merely of the -Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1835–36, but of every -Statesman and Parliament-man whose ear he could gain, whether (in his -interlocutor’s opinion) in season or out of season. To use the -expression of the man who, at a later date, mainly helped him in that -task, Mr. PANIZZI’S leading thought, in regard to Public Libraries, was -that Paris must be surpassed. In common with others of us who, like -himself, had been examined before Mr. HAWES’ Committee on that subject, -he had brought into salient relief some points of superiority which -foreign countries possessed over Britain, but the ruling motive of the -unsavoury comparison was British improvement, not, most assuredly, -British discredit. - -In the formidable business of the transfer of the bulk of the National -Library, Mr. PANIZZI received his best help from a man now just lost to -us, but whose memory will surely survive. Exactly six months after his -own appointment to the headship of his Department, he introduced into -the permanent service of the Trustees Mr. Thomas WATTS. [Sidenote: THE -LITERARY CAREER AND THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF THOMAS WATTS.] The readers of -such a volume as this will not, I imagine, think it to be a digression -if I here make some humble attempt to record what was achieved by my old -acquaintance—an acquaintance of almost one and thirty years’ -standing—both in his varied literary labours and in his long and -fruitful service at the Museum. - -Thomas WATTS was born in London in the year 1811. He was educated at a -private school in London, where he was very early noted for the -possession of three several qualities, one or other of which is found, -in a marked degree, in thousands of men and in tens of thousands of -precocious boys, but the union of all of which, whether in child or in -man, is rare indeed. Young WATTS evinced both an astonishing capacity -for acquiring languages—the most far remote from his native speech—and -an unusual readiness at English composition. He had also a knack for -turning off very neat little speeches and recitations. Before he was -fifteen, he could give good entertainment at a breaking up or a -‘speech-day.’ Before he was twenty, he had gained his footing as a -contributor to periodical literature.[29] - -In the autumn of the year 1835, Mr. WATTS’ attention was attracted to -the publication of the _Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select -Committee on the British Museum_, the first portion of which had been -ordered to be printed, by the House of Commons, in the preceding August. -[Sidenote: WATTS’ EARLY INTEREST IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE BRITISH -MUSEUM.] He read the evidence with great interest, and ere long he wrote -(in 1836 and 1837) some valuable comments upon it, which embodied -several suggestions for the improvement of the Museum service, and for -making it increasedly accessible to the Public. More than two or three -of the suggestions so offered, he lived to carry out—long afterwards, by -his own exertions, and with the cordial approval of his superior -officer, Mr. PANIZZI—into practice, after he had himself entered into -the service of the Trustees as an Assistant in the Printed Book -Department. - -But he chose a very unfortunate medium for his useful communications of -1836 and 1837. He printed them in the columns of the ‘_Mechanics’ -Magazine_,’ where, for practical purposes, they were almost buried. Of -this fact I am able to give a small illustrative and personal instance. -Possibly, it may be thought to have some little biographical value, as a -trait of his character. - -In both of the years above named Mr. WATTS did the present writer the -honour to make some remarks on his humble labours for the improvement of -the Museum in 1835 and 1836. Mr. WATTS’ remarks were very complimentary -and kind in their expression. But I never saw or heard of them, until -this year, 1870, after their writer had passed from the knowledge of the -many acquaintances and friends who, in common with myself, much esteemed -him, and who will ever honour his memory. - -One of the communications which my late friend published in that -‘_Mechanics’ Magazine_’ contained two suggestions—made contingently, and -by way of alternative plans—for the enlargement of the Museum buildings. -Nearly eleven years afterwards (August, 1847), I unconsciously repeated -those very suggestions, amongst many others, in a pamphlet, entitled -_Public Libraries in London and Paris_. I was in complete ignorance that -my suggestions of 1847 were otherwise than entirely original. I thought -them wholly my own. Of the print which accompanied my pamphlet I give -the reader an exact fac-simile, errors included, on the opposite plate. -The print embodied very nearly the same thoughts, on the enlargement of -the library, which had been expressed, so long before, in the pages of -the ‘_Mechanics’ Magazine_.’ The first presented copy of that pamphlet -and print was given to my friend WATTS. I was then absent, far from -London, and I had presently the pleasure of receiving from him a long -letter, containing some criticisms and remarks on my publication. But -such was his modest reticence about his own prior performance, that the -letter contained no word or hint concerning the anticipation of my -alternative suggestions for the enlargement of the Library in his prior -publication. And, in the long interval between 1837 and 1847, I suppose -we had conversed about the improvement of the Museum, and about its -buildings, actual and prospective, some thirty or forty times, but (as I -have said) those valuable and thoughtful articles of his, printed in -1836–7—and making complimentary mention of my own labours, and of my -evidence given before Mr. HAWES’ Committee—never came within my -knowledge. No part of their contents was even mentioned to me. I saw -them, for the first time, in January, 1870. Very few men—within my range -of acquaintance—had so much dislike to talk of their performances, as -was manifested by Thomas WATTS. To this day, very much of what he did -for the Public is scarcely known even by those who (at one time or -other) enjoyed the pleasure, and the honour, of his friendship. He was -one of the men who ‘did good by stealth,’ and would have almost blushed -to find it fame. - -[Illustration: - - _Plate Nº 2_ - - - SUGGESTIONS, MADE IN 1847. - FOR THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE LIBRARY OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM. - - BEING THE FAC-SIMILE OF A PLAN INSERTED IN A PAMPHLET (WRITTEN IN - 1846.) - - ENTITLED - - PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN LONDON AND PARIS. -] - - -[Sidenote: WATTS’ LABOURS FOR THE AUGMENTATION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM - LIBRARY.] - -When Thomas WATTS entered the Museum, the immediate task entrusted to -him, onerous as it was, did not (for any long time) engross his -attention. In common with Mr. PANIZZI, his desire to increase the -Library, and to make London surpass Paris—‘_Paris must be surpassed_,’ -are the words which close the best of those articles, printed in 1837, -to which I have just now referred—amounted to a positive passion. He did -not talk very much about it; but I fancy it occupied, not only his -waking thoughts, but his very dreams. - -Mr. PANIZZI had not been at the head of his Department many weeks before -he began a Special Report to the Trustees, recommending a systematic -increase of the Collection of Printed Books. - -In the autumn of 1837 he could hardly foresee that one of the attacks to -be made, in the after-years, upon those who had appointed him, or who -had promoted his appointment, for the crime of preferring ‘a foreigner’ -to a high post in our National Museum, would be based upon the -foreigner’s neglect of English Literature. ‘An Italian Librarian,’ said -those profound logicians, ‘must, naturally and necessarily, swamp the -Library with Italian books. He can’t help doing it.’ But, strange as it -may have seemed to objectors of that calibre, this particular Italian -happened to be, not only a scholar—a ripe and good one—but a man of wide -sympathies, and of catholic tastes in literature. He was able himself to -enjoy SHAKESPEARE, not less thoroughly than he was able, by his critical -acumen, to increase other men’s enjoyment of ARIOSTO and of DANTE. - -[Sidenote: SIR A. PANIZZI’S REPORT, IN OCTOBER, 1837, ON THE PROPER - CHARACTERISTICS OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR GREAT BRITAIN.] - -In October, 1837, he wrote thus:—‘With respect to the purchase of books, -Mr. PANIZZI begs to lay before the Trustees the general principles by -which he will be guided, if not otherwise directed, in endeavouring to -answer the expectations and wishes of the Trustees and of the Public in -this respect. First, the attention of the Keeper of this emphatically -British Library ought to be directed, most particularly, to British -works, and to works relating to the British Empire; its religious, -political, and literary, as well as scientific history; its laws, -institutions, description, commerce, arts, &c. The rarer and more -expensive a work of this description is, the more indefatigable[30] -efforts ought to be made to secure it for the Library. Secondly, the old -and rare, as well as the critical, editions of ancient Classics, ought -never to be sought for in vain in this Collection. Nor ought good -comments, as also the best translations into modern languages, to be -wanting. Thirdly, with respect to foreign literature, arts, and -sciences, the Library ought to possess the best editions of standard -works for critical purposes or for use. The Public have, moreover, a -right to find, in their National Library, heavy as well as expensive -foreign works, such as _Literary Journals_; _Transactions of Societies_; -large Collections, historical or otherwise; complete series of -Newspapers; Collections of Laws, and their best interpreters.’ We have, -in this brief passage, the germ of the admirable Report on the National -Library, written on a far more extended scale, which was afterwards laid -before the Government, and, ultimately, before Parliament. - -If this Report failed to lead, immediately (or, indeed, for a long time -to come), to the increased means of acquisition on which its writer’s -mind was so much bent, the fault did not lie in the Trustees. It lay -with the House of Commons, and with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. - -[Sidenote: THE IMPEDIMENTS IN THE WAY OF IMPROVEMENT.] - -It is hard to realise, in 1870, how entirely the effort for an adequate -improvement of the British Museum was an uphill task. Trustees like the -late Lord DERBY and the late Sir R. H. INGLIS were earnestly desirous to -carry out such recommendations as those of Mr. PANIZZI, but the -employment of urging them on the Ministry was an ungrateful one. In -those days of reforming-activity, although, in 1837, the average -radicals in ‘the House’ were not quite such devout believers in the -faith that a general overturn was the only road to a general millenium -as they had been in 1832, they were willing enough to listen to attacks -upon the managers of any public institution (no matter how crude were -the views of the assailants, or how lopsided their information), but -they were not half so ready to open the public purse-strings in order to -enable impugned managers or trustees to improve the institution -entrusted to them upon a worthy scale. - -Three months after writing his Report of 1837, Mr. PANIZZI was enabled -to procure the official assistance of Mr. WATTS. The appointment -strengthened his hands, by giving to a man of extraordinary powers for -organization and government, the services of a man not less -extraordinary for his powers of accumulating and assimilating detail. -What each man characteristically possessed, was just the right -supplement to the special faculties of the other. But even such a happy -union of personal qualities would have failed to carry into effect the -large aspirations for the improvement of the Museum which both men, -severally and independently, had cherished (during many years), but for -one other circumstance. This was a merely incidental—one might say a -fortuitous—circumstance; but it proved very influential upon the -fortunes of the British Museum in the course of the years to come. -[Sidenote: See hereafter, Chap. V.] When Mr. PANIZZI began to be known -in London society—at first, very much by the instrumentality of the late -Mr. Thomas GRENVILLE, who, at an early period, had become warmly -attached to him—his acquaintance was eagerly cultivated. In this way he -obtained opportunities to preach his doctrine of increased public -support for our great national and educational institutions (his -advocacy was not limited within the four walls of the Museum) in the -ears of very valuable and powerful listeners. It was thought, now and -then, that he preached on that topic out of season as well as in season. -But the issue amply vindicated the zeal which prompted him to make the -pleasures of social intercourse subserve the performance of a public -trust. Few men, I imagine—holding the unostentatious post of a -librarianship—ever possessed so many social opportunities of the kind -here referred to, as were possessed by Mr. PANIZZI. And even those -listeners who may have thought him over-pertinacious, sometimes, in -pressing his convictions, must needs have carried away with them the -assurance that one public servant, at all events, did not regard his -duties as ‘irksome.’ They must have seen that this man’s heart was in -his official work. - -So was it also in the instance of Mr. PANIZZI’S righthand man within the -Museum itself. Thomas WATTS was not gifted with powers of persuasive -argument. His address and manners did no sort of justice to the -intrinsic qualities, or to the true heart, of the man himself. To -strangers, they often gave a most inaccurate idea of his faculties and -character. Under the outward guise of a blunt-spoken farmer, there -dwelt, not only high scholarship, but a lofty sense—it would not be too -strong to say a passionate sense—of public duty. He had none of the -persuasive gifts of vivid talk. But he could preach forcibly, by -example. When he had made some way with the first task which was -assigned him, that of superintending the removal of the Library, and its -due ordering—in some of the details of which he was ably assisted, -almost from the outset, by Mr. George BULLEN (who, in January, 1838, was -first specially employed to retranscribe the press-marks or symbols of -the books, as they stood in old Montagu House, into the new equivalents -necessitated by their altered position in the new Library, in which -labour he was, in the April following, assisted by Mr. N. W. SIMONS)—and -had solved, by assiduous effort and self-denying labour, some of the -many difficulties which stood in the way of effecting that removal -without impeding, to any serious degree, the service of the Public -Reading-Room, he turned his attention, at Mr. PANIZZI’S instance, to -the—to him—far more grateful task of preparing lists of foreign books -for addition to the Library. For this task he evinced special qualities -and attainments which, I believe, were never surpassed, by any librarian -in the world; not even by an AUDIFFREDI, a VAN-PRAET, or a MAGLIABECHI. - -[Sidenote: LINGUISTIC ATTAINMENTS OF THOMAS WATTS.] - -Mr. WATTS’ earliest schoolfellows had marvelled at his faculty for -acquiring with great rapidity such a degree of familiarity with foreign -tongues, as gave him an amply sufficient master-key to their several -literatures. When yet very young, he showed a scholarly appreciation of -the right methods of setting to work. He studied languages in -groups—giving his whole mind to one group at a time, and then passing to -another. At an age when many men (far from being blockheads) are -painfully striving after a literary command of their mother-tongue, -young WATTS had showed himself to be master of two several clusters of -the great Indo-European family, and to have a very respectable -acquaintance with a third. When, as a youthful volunteer at the Museum, -he was fulfilling a request made to him by Mr. BABER, that he would -catalogue the Collection of Icelandic books given to the Public, half a -century before, by Sir Joseph BANKS, and also another parcel of Russian -books, which had been bought at his own recommendation, the reading of -Chinese literature was the labour of his hours of private study, and the -reading of Polish literature was the recreation of his hours of leisure. - -What the feelings of an ambitious student of that strain would be when -officially instructed by his superior to take under his sole (or almost -sole) charge the duty of examining the Museum Catalogues, and of -obtaining from all parts of Europe and Asia, and from many parts of -America, other catalogues of every kind, in order to ascertain the -deficiencies of the Library, and to supply them, the reader can fancy. -The new assistant luxuriated in his office. Many of his suggestions were -periodically and earnestly supported with the Trustees by Mr. PANIZZI. -His labours were appreciated and often (to my personal knowledge) warmly -applauded by his superior officer. - -[Sidenote: HIS LISTS OF MUSEUM DESIDERATA.] - -He began with making lists of Russian books that were _desiderata_ in -the Museum Library; then of Hungarian; then of Dutch; then of French, -Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese; then of Chinese; then of Welsh; then -of the rapidly growing, but theretofore (at the Museum) much neglected, -literature of the Americas and the Indies. - -I used, now and then, to watch him at his work, and to think that no man -could possibly be employed more entirely to his liking. Long after I -ceased to enjoy any opportunity of talking with him about his -employment, I used occasionally to hear that similar tasks occupied, not -infrequently, the hours of evening leisure as well as the hours of -official duty. Some who knew him more intimately than—of late years—it -was my privilege to know him, believe that his early death was in part -(humanly speaking) due to his passion for poring over catalogues and -other records of far-off literatures when worn-out nature needed to be -refreshed, and to be recreatively interested in quite other occupations. - -During the last twenty years alone (1850–1869 inclusive) he cannot have -marked and recommended for purchase less than a hundred and fifty -thousand foreign works, and in order to their selection he must needs -have examined almost a million of book-titles, in at least eighteen -different languages. - -When little more than half that last-named term of years had expired he -was able to write—in a Report which he addressed to Mr. PANIZZI in -February, 1861—that the common object of Keeper and Assistant-Keeper had -been, during almost a quarter of a century, to ‘bring together from all -quarters the useful, the elegant, and the curious literature of every -language; to unite with the best English Library in England, or the -world, the best Russian Library out of Russia, the best German out of -Germany, the best Spanish out of Spain, and so with every language from -Italian to Icelandic, from Polish to Portuguese. In five of the -languages in which it now claims this species of supremacy, in Russian, -Polish, Hungarian, Danish, and Swedish, I believe I may say that, with -the exception of perhaps fifty volumes, every book that has been -purchased by the Museum within the last three and twenty years has been -purchased at my suggestion. I have the pleasure of reflecting that every -future student of the less-known literatures of Europe will find riches -where I found poverty; though, of course, [Sidenote: Reports of 1861, -pp. 17, 18.] the collections in all these languages together form but a -small proportion of the vast accumulations that have been added to the -Library during your administration and that of your successor.’[31] - -When the reader comes to add to his estimate of the amount of mental -labour thus briefly and modestly indicated by the man who performed it, -a thought of the further toil involved in the re-arrangement and careful -_classification_ of more than four hundred thousand volumes of books, in -all the literary languages of the world (without any exception), he will -have attained some rough idea of the public service which was crowded -into one man’s life; and that, as we all have now to regret, not a -protracted life. He will have, too, some degree of conception of the -amount of acquired knowledge which was taken from us when Thomas WATTS -was taken. - -To his works of industry and of learning, the man we have lost added the -still better works of a kindly, benevolent heart. Many a struggling -student received at his hands both wise and loving counsel, and active -help. And his good deeds were not advertised. They would not now have -been spoken of, but for his loss—in the very thick of his labours for -the Public. - -In a precious volume, which was first added to the manuscript stores of -the British Museum a little before Mr. WATTS’ death, there occurs the -rough jotting of a thought which is very apposite to our human and -natural reflections upon such an early removal from the scene of labour -as that just referred to. When somebody spoke to BACON of the death, in -the midst of duty and of mental vigour, of some good worker or other in -the vineyard of this world, almost three centuries ago, he made the -following entry in his private note-book:—‘Princes, when in jousts, -triumphs, or games of victory, men deserve crowns for their performance, -do not crown them below, where the deeds are performed, but call them -up. [Sidenote: Lord Bacon’s _Note-Book_ (MS. ADDIT. B. M.).] So doth God -by death.’ - - -[Sidenote: OTHER LITERARY LABOURS OF THOMAS WATTS.] - -But these several branches of public duty, onerous as they were, were -far from exhausting Mr. WATTS’ mental activity, either within the Museum -walls or outside of them. He was a frequent contributor to periodical -literature. To his pen the _Quarterly Review_ was indebted for an -excellent article on the _History of Cyclopædias_; the ATHENÆUM, for a -long series of papers on various topics of literary history and of -current literature, extending over many years; the various Cyclopædias -and Biographical Dictionaries successively edited by Mr. Charles KNIGHT, -for a long series of valuable notices, embracing the Language and -Literature of Hungary; those of Wales; and more than a hundred and -thirty brief biographical memoirs, distinguished alike for careful -research and for clear and vigorous expression. These biographies -relate, for the most part, to foreign men of letters. To the pages of -the _Transactions of the Philological Society_ he was a frequent -contributor. His Memoir on Hungarian Literature, first read to that -Society, procured him the distinction of a corresponding-membership of -the Hungarian Academy, and the distinction was enhanced by his being -elected on the same day with Lord MACAULAY. - -Within the Museum itself two distinct and important departments of -official labour, both of which he filled with intelligence and zeal, -have yet to be indicated. [Sidenote: THE MUSEUM PRINTED BOOK CATALOGUE -OF 1839–1869, AND WATTS’ LABOURS IN RELATION TO IT.] In 1839, he took -part—with others—in framing an extensive code of ‘rules’ for the -re-compilation of the entire body of the Catalogues of Printed Books. In -May, 1857, he took charge of the Public Reading-Room, as Chief -Superintendent of the daily service. - -It need hardly be said that the first-named task—that on the -Catalogues—was a labour of planning and shaping, not one of actual -execution. It was very important, however, in its effects on the public -economy of the Library, and it was the one only labour, as I believe, -performed by Mr. WATTS, whether severally or in conjunction with others, -which failed to give unmixed satisfaction to the general body of -readers. The _Minutes of Evidence_, taken by the Commissioners of -1848–1850, whilst they abound in expressions of public gratitude both to -Mr. PANIZZI and, next after him, to Mr. WATTS, contain a not less -remarkable abundance of criticisms, and of complaints, upon the plan -(not the execution) of the _Catalogue of Printed Books_ begun in 1839. -The subject is a dry one, but will repay some brief attention on the -reader’s part. - -When Mr. PANIZZI became Keeper, he had (it will have been seen) to face -almost instantly, and abreast, three several tasks, each of which -entailed much labour upon himself, personally, as well as upon his -assistants. The third of them—this business of the Catalogue—proved to -be not the least onerous, and it was, assuredly, not the best rewarded -in the shape of its ultimate reception by those concerned more -immediately in its performance. I can speak with some sympathy on this -point, since it was as a temporary assistant in the preparation of this -formidable and keenly-criticised Catalogue, that the present writer -entered the service of the Trustees, in February, 1839. - -[Sidenote: OBJECTIONS TO THE PLAN OF THE MUSEUM PRINTED BOOK CATALOGUE - (1839–1869).] - -That some objections to the plan adopted in 1839 are well-grounded I -entirely believe. But the important point in this matter, for our -present purpose, is, not that the plan preferred was unobjectionable, -but that the utmost effort was used, at the time and under the -circumstances of the time, to prepare such a Catalogue as should meet -the fair requirements both of the Trustees and of the Readers. It is -within my recollection that, to effect this, Mr. PANIZZI laboured, -personally as well as in the way of super-intendance and direction, as -it has not often happened to me, in my time, to see men labour for the -Public. Assuredly to him promotion brought no lessening of toil in any -form. - -In shaping the plan of the General Catalogue of 1839–1870 (for it is, at -this moment of writing, still in active progress), the course taken was -this:—A sort of committee of five persons was formed, each of whom -severally was to prepare, in rough draft, rules for the compilation of -the projected work, illustrated by copious examples. It was to be -entirely new, and to embrace every book contained in the Library up to -the close of the year 1838. The draft rules were then freely discussed -in joint committee, and wherever differences of opinion failed to be -reconciled upon conference, the majority of votes determined the -question. Such was Mr. PANIZZI’S anxiety to prepare the best Catalogue -for the Readers that was practicable, that he never insisted, -authoritatively, on his own view of any point whatever, which might be -in contention amongst us, when he stood in a minority. On all such -points, he voted upon an exact equality with his assistants. The rules -that were most called into question (before the Commissioners of -1848–1850) had been severally discussed and determined in this fair and -simple way. Beyond all doubt, some of the rules might now be largely -amended in the light of subsequent experience. But, when adopted, they -seemed to _all_ of us the best that were practicable under all the then -circumstances. - -The committee thus formed consisted of Mr. PANIZZI himself, of Mr. -Thomas WATTS, of Mr. John Winter JONES (now Principal-Librarian), of Mr. -John Humffreys PARRY (now Mr. Serjeant PARRY), and of the writer of this -volume. The labour was much more arduous than the average run of readers -in a Public Library have any adequate conception of. It occupied several -months. It was pushed with such energy and industry, that many a time, -after we had all five worked together, till the light of the spring days -of 1839 failed us, we adjourned to work on—with the help of a sandwich -and a glass of Burgundy—in Mr. PANIZZI’S private apartment above the old -gate in the Court-yard. If the result of our joint labours had been -printed in the ordinary form of books, it would have made a substantial -octavo volume. The code has, no doubt, many faults and oversights, but, -be they what they may, it was a vast improvement upon former doings in -that direction; [Sidenote: See Mr. Panizzi’s evidence before the -Commissioners of 1848–9.] and not a little of it has been turned to -account, of late years, in the Public Libraries of France, of Germany, -and of America. - -In the labours of this little house-committee my late friend took a very -large share. To Mr. PANIZZI, and to him, all their colleagues in the -task of 1839 will readily admit that the chief merit of what is good, -and the smallest part of the demerit of what may have been injudicious, -in the _Rules for the Compilation of the Catalogue of Printed Books_ -(now before me) is incontestably due. My own experience in such matters, -in the spring of 1839, was small indeed. That of my friend PARRY was -even less. Mr. Winter JONES possessed, already, the advantage of a -thorough familiarity with the Library about to be catalogued, and also -an extensive and thorough general knowledge of books. Of Mr. PANIZZI’S -qualifications and attainments, for such a labour, it would be -supererogatory and idle to say a word more, except that he had -already—and single-handed—made so good a Catalogue of the fine Library -of the Royal Society that the meddling of half a dozen ‘revisers’ failed -to spoil it. But there is no impropriety in saying of Mr. WATTS, that he -so delighted in the labour in hand as to make it seem, to those who -worked with him, that he looked upon it in the light of a pleasant -recreation rather than in the light of a dry task. - - -But whatever the ultimate differences of opinion, amongst those -concerned in such a matter, about the merits of the Museum Catalogue, -begun in 1839, there was no difference at all, either in the House or -out of it, as to the conspicuous merits of his performance of every -subsequent duty. His stores of knowledge were put, with the utmost -readiness, at the service of all sorts of readers; and he was not less -admirable in the discharge of his office of Superintendent of the -Reading-Room than afterwards in the more prominent office of Keeper of -Printed Books—which he held little more than three years. - -When Sir Henry ELLIS retired, in 1856, from the office of -Principal-Librarian, the Collection of Printed Books—which he had found, -on his accession to that office, extending to less than one hundred and -fifty thousand volumes—exceeded five hundred and twenty thousand -volumes. The annual number of Readers admitted had increased from about -seven hundred and fifty to nearly four thousand. - -The one step which did more than aught else to promote this improvement -was the systematic survey of the then existing condition of the Printed -Library, in all the great departments of knowledge, which Mr. PANIZZI -set on foot in 1843, and embodied in a Memoir addressed to the Trustees, -on the first of January, 1845. - -[Sidenote: MR. PANIZZI’S MEMOIR ON THE COLLECTION OF PRINTED BOOKS, - 1845.] - -The principle on which this Memoir was compiled lay in the careful -comparison of the Museum Catalogues with the best special -bibliographies, and with the Catalogues of other Libraries. In -Jurisprudence, for example, the national collection was tested by the -_Bibliotheca Juridica_ of LIPENIUS, SENCKENBERG, and MADAHN; by the list -of law-books inserted in DUPIN’S edition of CAMUS’ _Lettres sur la -profession d’Avocat_, and by the _Bibliothèque diplomatique choisie_ of -MARTENS. In Political Economy, by BLANQUI’S list given in the _Histoire -de l’Economie politique en Europe_. The Mathematical section of the -Library was compared with ROGG’S _Handbuch der mathematischen -Literatur_. In British History, the _Bibliotheca Grenvilliana_, and the -_Catalogue of the Library of the Writers to the Signet_, were examined, -for those sections of the subject to which they were more particularly -applicable, and so on in the other departments. The facts thus elicited -were striking. It was shown that much had been done since 1836 to -augment almost every section of the Library; but that the deficiencies -were still of the most conspicuous sort. In a word, the statement -abundantly established the truth of the proposition that ‘the Collection -of Printed Books in the British Museum is not nearly so complete and -perfect as the National Library of Great Britain ought to be ...’ and it -then proceeded to discuss the further question: ‘By what means can the -collection be brought with all proper despatch to a state of as much -completeness and perfection as is attainable in such matters, and as the -public service may require?’ - -It was shown that no reliance could be placed upon donations, for the -filling up those gaps in the Library which were the special subject of -the Memoir. Rare and precious books might thus come, but not the widely -miscellaneous assemblage still needed. As to special grants for the -acquisition of entire collections, not one of ten such collections, it -was thought, would, under existing circumstances, be suitable for the -Museum. The Copyright-tax has no bearing, however rigidly enforced, save -on current British Literature. There remained, therefore, but one -adequate resource, that of annual Parliamentary grants, unfettered by -restrictions as to their application, and capable of being depended upon -for a considerable number of years to come. Purchases might thus be -organized in all parts of the world with foresight, system, and -continuity. In the letter addressed by the Trustees to the Treasury, it -was stated that, ‘for filling up the chasms which are so much to be -regretted, and some of which are distinctly set forth in the annexed -document, the Trustees think that a sum of not less than ten thousand a -year will be required for the next ten years,’ in addition to the usual -five thousand a year for the ordinary acquisitions of the Library. - -The Lords of the Treasury were not willing to recommend to Parliament a -larger annual grant than ten thousand pounds, ‘for the purchase of books -of all descriptions,’ but so far they were disposed to proceed, -[Sidenote: _Treasury Minutes_, 1845.] ‘for some years to come;’ and they -strongly inculcated upon the Trustees ‘the necessity, during the -continuance of such grants, of postponing additions to the other -collections under their charge, which, however desirable in themselves, -are of subordinate importance to that of completing the Library.’ - - -MANUSCRIPTS ADDED IN THE YEARS 1849, 1850. - -In 1843, an important series of modern Historical MSS., relating more -especially to the South of Europe, was purchased from the RANUZZI family -of Bologna. The papers of the Brothers Laurence HYDE, Earl of Rochester, -and Henry HYDE, Earl of Clarendon, were also secured. Additions, too, of -considerable interest, were made to the theological and classical -sections of the MS. Department, by the purchase of many vellum MSS., -ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. In 1849, the most -important acquisitions related to our British History. About three -hundred documents illustrative of the English Wars in France (1418 to -1450), nearly a hundred autograph letters of WILLIAM III, and an -extensive series of transcripts from the archives at the Hague, were -thus gathered for the future historian. In 1850, a curious series of -Stammbücker, three hundred and twenty in number, and in date extending -from 1554 to 1785, was obtained by purchase. These Albums, collectively, -contained more than twenty-seven thousand autographs of persons more or -less eminent in the various departments of human activity. Amongst them -is the signature of MILTON. The acquisitions of 1851 included some -Biblical MSS. of great curiosity; an extensive series of autograph -letters (chiefly from the Donnadieu Collection), and a large number of -papers relating to the affairs of the English Mint. - -In the year last-named Sir Frederick MADDEN thus summed up the -accessions to his Department since the year 1836: - - ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │Volumes of Manuscripts 9051│ - │Rolls of Maps, Pedigrees, &c. 668│ - │Manuscripts on Reed, Bark, or other material 136│ - │Charters and Rolls 6750│ - │Papyri 42│ - │Seals 442│ - └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ - -[Sidenote: TABULAR VIEW OF THE ACCESSIONS TO THE MSS. DEPARTMENT FROM - 1836–1851.] - -And he adds:—‘If money had been forthcoming, the number of manuscripts -acquired during the last fifteen years might have been more than -doubled. The collections that have passed into other hands, namely, Sir -Robert CHAMBERS’ Sanscrit MSS.; Sir William OUSELEY’S Persian; BRUCE’S -Ethiopic and Arabic; MICHAEL’S Hebrew; LIBRI’S Italian, French, Latin, -and Miscellaneous; BARROIS’ French and Latin; as well as the Stowe -Collection of Anglo-Saxon, Irish, and English manuscripts, might all -have been so united. The liberality of the Treasury becomes very small -when compared with the expenditure of individuals. Lord ASHBURNHAM, -during the last ten years, has paid nearly as large a sum for MSS. as -has been expended on the National Collection since the Museum was first -founded.’ - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE PRINTED DEPARTMENT UP TO 1851.] - -The causes which at this period again tended somewhat to slacken the -growth of the Printed Collection have been glanced at already. But -during the fifteen years from 1836 to 1851, it had increased at the rate -of sixteen thousand volumes a year, on the average. When the estimates -of 1852 were under discussion, Mr. PANIZZI stated, ‘that till room is -provided, the deficiency must in a great measure continue, and new -[foreign] books only to a limited extent be purchased.’ The grant for -such purchases was therefore, in that year, limited to four thousand -pounds. In a subsequent report, Mr. PANIZZI added, ‘that he could not -but deeply regret the ill-consequences which must accrue by allowing old -deficiencies to continue, and new ones to accumulate.’ From the same -report may be gathered a precise view of the actual additions, from all -sources, during the quinquennium of 1846–1850. The increase in the -printed books, therefore, although it had not quite kept pace with Mr. -PANIZZI’S hopeful anticipations in 1852, had actually reached a larger -yearly average, during that last quinquennium, than was attained in the -like period from 1846 to 1850. - -The report from which these figures are taken was made in furtherance of -the good and fruitful suggestion that a great Reading-Room should be -built within the inner quadrangle. Judging from the past, argued Mr. -PANIZZI, in June, 1852, ‘and supposing that for the next ten years from -seven thousand to seven thousand five hundred pounds will be spent in -the purchase of printed books, the increase ... would be at the average -of about twenty-seven thousand volumes a year, without taking into -consideration the chance of an extraordinary increase, owing to the -purchase or donation of any large collection. [Sidenote: See hereafter, -Chap. V.] It was owing to the splendid bequest of Mr. GRENVILLE that the -additions to the Collection in 1847 reached the enormous amount of more -than fifty-five thousand volumes. After the steady and regular addition -of about twenty-seven thousand volumes for ten years together, here -reckoned upon, the Collection of Printed Books in the British Museum -might defy comparison, and would approach, as near as seems practicable -in such matters, to a state of completeness. The increase for the ten -years next following might be fairly reduced to two thirds of the above -sum. [Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE PRINTED SECTION OF THE LIBRARY SINCE -1852.] At this rate, the collection of books, which has been more than -doubled during the last fifteen years, would be double of what it now is -in twenty years from the present time [1852].’ At the date of this -report the number of volumes was already upwards of four hundred and -seventy thousand. At the date at which I now write (January, 1870), the -number of volumes, as nearly as it can be calculated, has become one -million and six thousand. On the average, therefore, of the whole -period, the increase has been not less than thirty-one thousand five -hundred volumes in every year. The Collection was somewhat more than -doubled during the first fifteen years of Mr. PANIZZI’S Keepership. -During the next like term of years, when the department was partly under -the administration of Mr. PANIZZI, and partly under that of Mr. Winter -JONES, it was nearly doubled again. It follows that the anticipation -expressed in the _Report_ of 1852 has been much more than fulfilled. -Less than seventeen years of labour have achieved what was then expected -to be the work of twenty years. - - -If the other departments of the British Museum cannot show an equal -ratio of growth during the term now under review, it has not been from -lack of zeal, either in their heads or in the Trustees. Their progress, -too, was very great, although it is not capable of being so strikingly -and compendiously illustrated. It has also to be borne in mind that the -arrears, so to speak, of the Library, were relatively greater than those -of some other divisions of the Museum. - -[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS.] - -At the commencement of Sir Henry ELLIS’S term of -Principal-Librarianship, the Natural-History Collections were partly -under the charge of Dr. LEACH, partly under that of Mr. Charles KÖNIG. -Both were officers of considerable scientific attainments. In the -instance of Dr. LEACH, certain peculiar eccentricities and crotchets -were mixed up in close union with undoubted learning and skill. In not a -few eminent naturalists a tendency to undervalue the achievements of -past days, and to exaggerate those of the day that is passing, has often -been noted. LEACH evinced this tendency in more ways than one. But a -favourite way of manifesting it led him many times into difficulties -with his neighbours. He despised the taxidermy of Sir Hans SLOANE’S age, -and made periodical bonfires of Sloanian specimens. These he was wont to -call his ‘cremations.’ In his time, the Gardens of the Museum were still -a favourite resort of the Bloomsburians, but the attraction of the -terraces and the fragrance of the shrubberies were sadly lessened when a -pungent odour of burning snakes was their accompaniment. The stronger -the complaints, however, the more apparent became Dr. LEACH’S attachment -to his favourite cremations. - -[Sidenote: GEORGE MONTAGU; HIS LABOURS IN NATURAL HISTORY AND HIS - ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM.] - -LEACH was the friend and correspondent of that eminent cultivator of the -classificatory sciences, Colonel George MONTAGU, of Lackham. Both of -them rank among the early members of the Linnæan Society, and it was -under LEACH’S editorship that MONTAGU’S latest contributions to the -Society’s _Transactions_ were published. [Sidenote: 1802–13.] MONTAGU’S -_Synopsis of British Birds_ marks an epoch in the annals of our local -ornithology, as does his treatise entitled _Testacea Britannica_ in -those of conchology. [Sidenote: 1803–9.] His contributions to the -National Collections were very liberal. But he did not care much for any -books save those that treated of natural history. In addition to a good -estate and a fine mansion, he had inherited from his brother a choice -old Library at Lackham, and a large cabinet of coins. These, I believe, -he turned to account as means of barter for books and specimens in his -favourite department of study. His love of the beauties of nature led -him to prefer an unpretending abode in Devon to his fine Wiltshire -house, and it was at Knowle that he died in August, 1815. His -Collections in Zoology were purchased by the Trustees, and were removed -from Knowle soon after his death. Scarcely any other purchase of like -value in the Natural-History Department was made for more than twenty -years afterwards. After the purchase of the Montagu Collection, the -growth of that department depended, as it had mainly depended before it, -on the acquisitions made for the Public by the several naturalists who -took part in the Voyages of Discovery or whose chance collections, made -in the course of ordinary duty, came to be at the disposal of the -British Admiralty. - -Many of those naturalists were men of marked ability. Of necessity, -their explorations were attended with much curious adventure. To detail -their researches and vicissitudes would form—without much credit to the -writer—an interesting chapter, the materials of which are superabundant. -But, at present, it must needs be matter of hope, not of performance. - - -The distinctive progress of the Natural-History Collections, from -comparative and relative poverty, to a creditable place amongst rival -collections, connects itself pre-eminently with the labours of Dr. John -Edward GRAY, who will hereafter be remembered as the ablest keeper and -organizer those collections have hitherto had. Dr. GRAY is now (1870) in -the forty-sixth year of his public service at the British Museum, which -he entered as an Assistant, in 1824. He is widely known by his able -edition of GRIFFITHS’ _Animal Kingdom_, by his _Illustrations of Indian -Zoology_, by his account of the famous Derby Menagerie at Knowsley, and -by his _Manual of British Shells_; but his least ostensible publications -rank among the most conclusive proofs both of his ability and of his -zeal for the public service. Dr. GRAY has always advocated the -publication—to use Mr. CARLYLE’S words when under interrogatory by the -Museum Commissioners of 1848—of ‘all sorts of Catalogues.’ It is to him -that the Public owe the admirable helps to the study of natural history -which have been afforded by the long series of inventories, guides, and -nomenclators, the publication of which began, at his instance, in the -year 1844, and has been unceasingly pursued. A mere list of the various -printed synopses which have grown out of Dr. GRAY’S suggestion of 1844 -would fill many such pages as that which the reader has now before him. -The consequence is, that in no department of the Museum can the student, -as yet, economise his time as he can economise it in the Natural-History -Department. _Printed_, not Manuscript, Catalogues mean time saved; -disappointment avoided; study fructified. No literary labour brings so -little of credit as does the work of the Catalogue-maker. None better -deserves the gratitude of scholars, as well as of the general mass of -visitors. - - -[Sidenote: STATE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEUM IN - 1836.] - -Dr. GRAY became Keeper of Zoology in 1840. Four years earlier, he had -given to Sir Benjamin HAWES’ Committee a striking account of the -condition of that department, illustrating it by comparisons with the -corresponding Collections in Paris, which may thus (not without -unavoidable injustice) be abridged:—The species of mammalia then in the -Museum were four hundred and five; the species of birds were two -thousand four hundred, illustrated by four thousand six hundred and -fifty-nine individual specimens. At that date, the latest accessible -data assigned to the Paris Collection about five hundred species of -mammals, and about two thousand three hundred species of birds, -illustrated by nearly six thousand specimens. The Museum series of birds -was almost equally rich in the orders, taken generally; but in -gallinaceous birds it was more than proportionately rich, a large number -of splendid examples having been received from India. In the birds of -Africa, of Brazil, and of Northern Europe, also, the Museum was already -exceptionally well-stored. - -The special value of the Ornithological Collection undoubtedly showed -that it had been more elaborately cared for than had been some other -parts of natural history. But the extent and richness of the bird -gallery, even at this period, is not to be ascribed merely to a desire -to delight the eyes of a crowd of visitors. For scientific purposes, a -collection of birds must be more largely-planned and better filled than -a collection of mammals, or one of fish. In birds, the essential -characters of a considerable group of individual specimens may be -identical and their colours entirely different. [Sidenote: See _Minutes -of Evidence_, 1836, p. 238.] Besides the numerous diversities attendant -upon age and sex, the very date at which a bird is killed may produce -variations which have their interest for the scientific student. - -The number of species of reptiles was in 1836 about six hundred, -illustrated by about one thousand three hundred specimens. This number -was much inferior to that of the Museum at Paris, but it exceeded by one -third the number of species in the Vienna Museum, [Sidenote: _Ibid._, p. -242 (Q. 2996–9).] and almost by one half the then number at Berlin. - -The species of fish amounted to nearly a thousand, but this was hardly -the fourth of the great collection at Paris, although it probably -exceeded every other, or almost every other, Continental collection of -the same date. Of shells, the Museum number of species was four thousand -and twenty-five (exclusive of fossils), illustrated by about fifteen -thousand individuals. This number of species was at par with that of -Paris; much superior both to Berlin and to Leyden; but it was far from -representing positive—as distinguished from comparative—wealth. There -were already, in 1836, more than nine thousand known species of shells. - -It was further shown in the evidence that, even under the arrangements -of 1836, the facilities of public access equalled those given at the -most liberal of the Continental Museums, and considerably exceeded those -which obtained at fully four-fifths of their number. - -Among the many services rendered to the Museum by Dr. GRAY, one is of -too important a character to be passed over, even in a notice so brief -as this must needs be. [Sidenote: THE HARDWICKE BEQUEST OF ZOOLOGY.] The -large bequest in Zoology of Major-General HARDWICKE grew out of a -stipulation made by Dr. GRAY, when he undertook, at General HARDWICKE’S -request, the editorship of the _Illustrations of Indian Zoology_. A long -labour brought to the editor no pecuniary return, but it brought an -important collection to the British Public in the first instance, and -eventually a large augmentation of what had been originally given. - - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEUM. - 1836–49.] - -In March, 1849, the course of inquiries pursued by Lord ELLESMERE’S -Commission led to a new review of the growth of the Natural-History -Collections, and more especially of the Zoology. It applied in -particular to the twelve or thirteen years which had then elapsed since -the prior inquiries of 1835–1836. The statement possesses much interest, -but it is occasionally deficient in that systematic and necessary -distinction between species and specimens which characterised the -evidence of 1836. In brief, however, it may be said, that in the eight -years extending between June, 1840, and June, 1848, twenty-nine thousand -five hundred and ninety-five _specimens_ of vertebrated animals were -added to the Museum galleries and storehouses. Of these, five thousand -seven hundred and ninety-seven were mammals; thirteen thousand four -hundred and fourteen were birds; four thousand one hundred and twelve -reptiles; and six thousand two hundred and seventy-two were fish. The -number of specimens of annulose animals added during the same period was -seventy-three thousand five hundred and sixty-three: and that of -mollusca and radiata, fifty-seven thousand six hundred and ten. - -These large additions comprised extensive gatherings made by DYSON in -Venezuela, and in various parts of North America; by GARDINER and -CLAUSEN in Brazil; by GOSSE in Jamaica; by GOULD, GILBERT, and -STEPHENSON, in Australia and in New Zealand; by HARTWEG in Mexico; by -GOUDOT in Columbia; by VERREAUX and SMITH in South Africa; by FRAZER in -Tunis; and by BRIDGES in Chili and in some other parts of South America. - -Of the splendid collections made by Mr. HODGSON in India, some more -detailed mention must be made hereafter. - -[Sidenote: CHECK IN THE GROWTH OF NATURAL-HISTORY COLLECTIONS ON THE - CONTINENT, 1845–1855.] - -Meanwhile, on the Continent of Europe, political commotion had seriously -checked the due progress of scientific collections. Britain had been -making unwonted strides in the improvement of its Museum, at the very -time when most of the Continental States had allowed their fine Museums -to remain almost stationary. In mammals, birds, and shells, the British -Museum had placed itself in the first rank. Only in reptiles, fish, and -crustacea, could even Paris now claim superiority. Those classes had -there engaged for a long series of years the unremitting research and -labour of such naturalists as CUVIER, DUMERIL, VALENCIENNES, and -MILNE-EDWARDS; and their relative wealth of specimens it will be hard to -overtake. In insects, the Museum Collection vies with that of Paris in -point of extent, and excels it in point of arrangement. - -Not less conspicuous had been the growth of the several Departments of -Antiquities. And this part of the story of the Museum teems with varied -interest. Within a period of less than thirty years, vast and -widely-distant cities, rich in works of art, have been literally -disinterred. In succession to the superb marbles of Athens, of -Phigaleia, and of Rome, some of the choicest sculptures and most curious -minor antiquities of Nineveh, of Calah, of Erech, of Ur-of-the-Chaldees, -of Babylon, of Xanthus, of Halicarnassus, of Cnidus, and of Carthage, -have come to London. - -The growth of the subordinate Collections of Archæology has been -scarcely less remarkable. The series of ancient vases—to take but one -example—of which the research and liberality of Sir William HAMILTON -laid a good foundation almost a century ago, has come at length to -surpass its wealthiest compeers. Only a few years earlier, it ranked as -but the third, perhaps as but the fourth, among the great vase -collections of Europe. London, in that point of view, was below both -Naples and Paris, if not also below Munich. It now ranks above them all; -possessing two thousand six hundred vases, as against two thousand at -Paris, and two thousand one hundred at Naples.[32] - -Another department, lying in part nearer home—that of British, Mediæval, -and Ethnological Antiquities—has been almost created by the labours of -the last twenty years. The ‘British’ Museum can no longer be said to be -a misnomer, as designating an establishment in which British Archæology -met with no elucidation. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (_Continued_):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL -ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF SIR - ANTONIO PANIZZI. - - ‘Whatever be the judgment formed on [certain contested] points at - issue, the Minutes of Evidence must be admitted to contain pregnant - proofs of the acquirements and abilities, the manifestation of which - in subordinate office led to Mr. Panizzi’s promotion to that which he - now holds under circumstances which, in our opinion—formed on - documentary evidence—did credit to the Principal Trustees of the - day.’—REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE - MANAGEMENT OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (1850). - - ‘In consideration of the long and very valuable services of Mr. - Panizzi, including not only his indefatigable labours as - Principal-Librarian, but also the service which he rendered as - architect of the new Reading-Room, the Trustees recommended that he - should be allowed to retire on full salary after a discharge of his - duties for thirty-four years.’ - - HANSARD’S _Parliamentary Debates_ (27 July, 1866). - - _The Museum Buildings.—The New Reading-Room and its History.—The House - of Commons’ Committee of 1860:—Further Reorganization of the - Departments—Summary of the Growth of the Collections in the years - 1856–1866, and of their increased Use and Enjoyment by the - Public._ - - -No question connected with the improvement of the British Museum has, -from time to time, more largely engrossed the attention, either of -Parliament or of the Public at large, than has the question of the -Buildings. On none have the divergences of opinion been greater, or the -expressions of dissatisfaction with the plans—or with the want of -plan—louder or more general. - -Yet there is no doubt (amongst those, at least, who have had occasion to -examine the subject closely) that the architects of the new British -Museum—first Sir Robert SMIRKE, and then Mr. Sydney SMIRKE—have been -conspicuous for professional ability. Nor is there any doubt, anywhere, -that the Trustees of the Museum have bestowed diligent attention on the -plans submitted to them. They have been most anxious to discharge that -part of their duty to the Public with the same faithfulness which, on -the whole, has characterised their general fulfilment of the trust -committed to them. Why, it is natural to ask, has their success been so -unequal? - -[Sidenote: CAUSES OF THE UNSATISFACTORINESS OF MANY PARTS OF THE NEW - MUSEUM BUILDINGS.] - -Without presuming upon the possession of competence to answer the -question with fulness, there is no undue confidence in offering a -partial reply. Part of their failure to satisfy the public expectations -has arisen from a laches in Parliament itself. At the critical time when -the character of the new buildings had practically to be decided, -parsimoniousness led, not only to construction piecemeal, but to the -piecemeal preparation of the designs themselves. Temporary makeshifts -took the place of foreseeing plans. And what may have sounded like -economy in 1830 has, in its necessary results, proved to be very much -like waste, long before 1870. - -Had a comprehensive scheme of reconstruction been looked fully in the -face when, forty years ago, the new buildings began to be erected, three -fourths at most of the money which has been actually expended would have -sufficed for the erection of a Museum, far more satisfactory in its -architectural character, and affording at least one fourth more of -accommodation for the National Collections. The British Museum buildings -have afforded a salient instance of the truth of BURKE’S words: ‘Great -expense may be an essential part in true economy. Mere parsimony is -_not_ economy.’ But, in this instance, the fault is plainly in -Parliament, not in the Trustees of the establishment which has suffered. - -The one happy exception to the general unsatisfactoriness of the new -buildings—as regards, not merely architectural beauty, but fitness of -plan, sufficiency of light, and adaptedness to purpose—is seen in the -new Reading-Room. [Sidenote: THE NEW READING-ROOM.] And the new -Reading-Room is, virtually, the production of an amateur architect. The -chief merits of its design belong, indubitably, to Sir Antonio PANIZZI. -The story of that part of the new building is worth the telling. - -That some good result should be eventually derived from the large space -of ground within the inner quadrangle had been many times suggested. The -suggestion offered, in 1837, by Mr. Thomas WATTS was thus expressed in -his letter to the Editor of the _Mechanics Magazine_:— - -[Sidenote: THE SUGGESTIONS FOR BUILDING ADDITIONAL LIBRARIES OF 1837 AND - OF 1847.] - -Mr. WATTS began by criticising, somewhat incisively, the architectural -skill which had constructed a vast quadrangle without providing it even -with the means of a free circulation of air. He pinned Sir Robert SMIRKE -on the horns of a dilemma. If, he argued, the architect looked to a -sanitary result, he had, in fact, provided a well of malaria. If he -contemplated a display of art, he had, by consenting to the abolition of -his northern portico, spoiled and destroyed all architectural effect. -‘The space,’ he proceeded to say, which has thus been wasted, ‘would -have afforded accommodation _for the whole Library_, much superior to -what is now proposed to afford it. A Reading-Room of ample dimensions -might have stood in the centre, and been surrounded, on all four sides, -with galleries for the books.’ Afterwards, when adverting to the great -expense which had been incurred upon the façades of the quadrangle, he -went on to say: ‘It might now seem barbarous to propose the filling up -of the square—as ought originally to have been done. [Sidenote: -_Mechanics’ Magazine_ (1837); vol. xxvi, pp. 295, seqq.] Perhaps the -best plan would be to design another range of building entirely [new?], -enclosing the present building on the eastern and northern sides as the -Elgin and other galleries do on the western. To do this, it would be -necessary to purchase and pull down one side of two streets,—Montagu -Street and Montagu Place.’ [Sidenote: _Ibid._] - -[Sidenote: See Chap. ii of Book III, p. 566, and the accompanying - fac-simile.] - -As I have intimated already, this alternative project was unconsciously -reproduced, by the present writer, ten years later, without any idea -that it had been anticipated. But neither to the mind of the writer of -1837, nor to that of the writer of 1847, did the grand feature of -construction which, within another decade, has given to London a -splendid building as well as a most admirable Reading-Room, present -itself. The substantial merit, both of originally suggesting, and of (in -the main) eventually realising the actual building of 1857, belongs to -Antonio PANIZZI. - -As to the claims on that score advanced by Mr. HOSKING, formerly -Professor of Architecture at King’s College, they apply to a plan wholly -different from the plan which was carried into execution. - -Mr. HOSKING’S scheme was drawn up, for private circulation, in February, -1848 (thirteen months after the writing of my own pamphlet entitled -_Public Libraries in London and in Paris_, and more than six months -after its circulation in print), when it was first submitted to Lord -ELLESMERE’S Commission of Inquiry. It was first published (in _The -Builder_) in June, 1850. His object was to provide a grand central hall -for the Department of Antiquities. - -When Mr. HOSKING called public attention to his design of 1848—in a -pamphlet entitled _Some Remarks upon the recent Addition of a -Reading-Room to the British Museum_—Mr. Sydney SMIRKE wrote to him -thus:—‘I recollect seeing your plans at a meeting of the Trustees, ... -shortly after you sent them [to Lord ELLESMERE]. When, long -subsequently, Mr. PANIZZI showed me his sketch for a plan of a new -Reading-Room, I confess it did not remind me of yours, the purposes of -the two plans and the treatment and construction were so different.’[33] -[Sidenote: Sydney Smirke to William Hosking. (_Remarks_, &c.)] Whilst to -Mr. SMIRKE himself belongs the merit of practical execution, that of -design belongs no less unquestionably to PANIZZI. - -Mr. PANIZZI himself preferred, at first, the plan of extending the -building on the eastern and northern sides. His suggestions had the -approval of the Commissioners of 1850. [Sidenote: THE NEW OR PANIZZI -READING-ROOM.] But the Government was slow to give power to the Trustees -to carry out the plan of their officer and the recommendation of the -Commissioners of Inquiry, by proposing the needful vote in a Committee -of Supply. Plan and Report alike lay dormant from the year 1850 to 1854. -It was then that, as a last resort, and as a measure of economy, by -avoiding all present necessity to buy more ground of the Duke of -BEDFORD, Mr. PANIZZI recommended the Trustees to build within the -quadrangle, and drew a sketch-plan, on which their architect reported -favourably. Sixty-one thousand pounds, by way of a first instalment, was -voted on the third of July, 1854. The present noble structure was -completed within three years from that day, and its total cost—including -the extensive series of book-galleries and rooms of various kinds, -subserving almost innumerable purposes—amounted in round numbers to a -hundred and fifty thousand pounds. It was thus only a little more than -the cost of the King’s Library, which accommodates eighty thousand -volumes of books and a Collection of Birds. The new Reading-Room and its -appendages can be made to accommodate, in addition to its three hundred -and more of readers, some million, or near it, of volumes, without -impediment to their fullest accessibility. - -To describe by words a room which, in 1870, has become more or less -familiar, I suppose, to hundreds of thousands of Britons, and to a good -many thousands of foreigners, would now be superfluous. But it will not -be without advantage, perhaps, to show its character and appearance with -the simple brevity of woodcuts. - -The following illustrative block-plan shows the general arrangement of -the Museum building at large, at the date of the erection of the new -Reading-Room. - -[Sidenote: BLOCK-PLAN OF MUSEUM (1857), DISTINGUISHING THE LIBRARIES - FROM THE GALLERIES OF ANTIQUITIES, &C.] - -[Illustration: - - I. GENERAL BLOCK-PLAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AS IT WAS IN 1857. -] - -The shaded part of the building itself shows the portions allotted to -the _Library_. The unshaded part is assigned, on the ground floor, to -the Department of _Antiquities_, and (speaking generally) on the floor -above—in common with the upper floors of the Library part—to the -Departments of _Natural History_. The ‘_Print Room_’ is shown on the -ground-plan between the Elgin Gallery and the north-western extremity of -the Department of Printed Books. - -The next illustration shows, in detail, the ground-plan of the new -Reading-Room and of the adjacent book-galleries:— - -[Illustration: - - II. GROUND-PLAN OF THE NEW OR ‘PANIZZI’ READING-ROOM, AND OF THE - ADJACENT GALLERIES, 1857. -] - -The general appearance of the interior of the Reading-Room may be shown -thus:— - -[Illustration: - - III. INTERIOR VIEW OF THE NEW READING-ROOM, 1857. -] - -Of course, the improvements thus effected did but solve a portion of the -difficulty felt, long before 1857, in accommodating the National -Collections upon any adequate scale, which should provide alike for -present claims and for future extension. This more effectual provision -became one of the most pressing questions with which both the Trustees -and their officers had now to deal. During the whole term of Sir A. -PANIZZI’S Principal-Librarianship this building question increased in -gravity and urgency, from year to year. Both the Trustees and the -Principal-Librarian were intent upon its solution. But the latter was -enforced, by failing health, to quit office, leaving the matter still -unsolved. - -[Sidenote: PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO PROPOSED ENLARGEMENT OF BRITISH - MUSEUM IN 1860.] - -Most of the little information on this part of the subject which, within -my present limits, it will be practicable for me to offer to the reader, -belongs, properly, to a subsequent chapter. But some brief notice must -be given here of the important inquiries, ‘how far, and in what way, it -may be desirable to find increased space for the extension and -arrangement of the various Collections of the British Museum, and the -best means of rendering them available for the promotion of Science and -Art,’ which were made, between the months of May and August of 1860, by -a Select Committee of the House of Commons. - -The first question to be answered by the Committee of 1860 was this: Is -it expedient, or not, that the _Natural-History_ Collections should be -removed from Bloomsbury, to make room for the inevitable growth of the -Collections of _Antiquities_? - -After an elaborate inquiry, spreading over three months, the Committee -reported thus:—‘The witnesses examined have, almost unanimously, -testified to the preference over the other Collections, with which the -Natural-History Collections are viewed by the ordinary and most numerous -frequenters of the Museum. This preference is easily accounted for; the -objects exhibited, especially the birds, from the beauty of their -plumage, are calculated to attract and amuse the spectators. [Sidenote: -THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1860.] The eye has been -accustomed in many instances to the living specimens in the Zoological -Gardens, and cheap publications and prints have rendered their forms -more or less familiar. It is, indeed, easily intelligible that, while -for the full appreciation of works of archæological interest and -artistic excellence a special education must be necessary, the works of -Nature may be studied with interest and instruction by all persons of -ordinary intelligence. It appears, from evidence, that many of the -middle classes are in the habit of forming collections in various -branches of Natural History, and that many, even the working classes, -employ their holidays in the study of botany or geology, or in the -collection of insects obtained in the neighbourhood of London; that they -refer to the British Museum, in order to ascertain the proper -classification of the specimens thus obtained, and that want of leisure -alone restrains the further increase of this class of visitors. Your -Committee, in order to confirm their view of the peculiar popularity of -the Natural-History Collections, beg to refer to a return from the -Principal-Librarian, which shows the number of visitors in the several -public portions of the Museum, at the same hour of the day, during -fifteen open days, from the fifteenth of June to the eleventh of July, -1860. From this it appears that two thousand five hundred and -fifty-seven persons were in the Galleries of Antiquities at the given -hour, and one thousand and fifty-six in the King’s Library and MSS. -Rooms, while three thousand three hundred and seventy-eight were in the -Natural-History Galleries; showing an excess of two hundred and twenty -per cent. in the Natural-History Department over the King’s Library and -MSS. Rooms, and of thirty-three per cent. over the Galleries of -Antiquities, notwithstanding that the latter are of considerably greater -extent than the Galleries of Natural History. The evidence received by -your Committee induces the belief that the removal of these most popular -collections from their present central position to one less generally -accessible would excite much dissatisfaction, not merely among a large -portion of the inhabitants of the metropolis, but among the numerous -inhabitants of the country, who from time to time visit London by -railway, and to whom the proximity of the British Museum to most of the -railway termini, as compared with the distance of the localities to -which it has been proposed to transport such collections, is of great -practical importance. Similar evidence shows that the proposed removal -of those collections from the British Museum has excited grave and -general disapprobation in the scientific world. Your Committee cannot -here employ more forcible language than that made use of in a memorial -signed by one hundred and fourteen persons, including many eminent -promoters and cultivators of science in England, and presented to the -Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1848. The following are their words:—“We -beg to add the expression of our opinion that the removal of the -Natural-History Collections from the site where they have been -established for upwards of a century, in the centre of London, -particularly if to any situation distant from that centre, would be -viewed by the mass of the inhabitants with extreme disfavour, it being a -well-known fact that by far the greater number of visitors to the Museum -consists of those who frequent the halls containing the Natural-History -Collections, while it is obvious that many of those persons who come -from the densely peopled districts of the eastern, northern, and -southern parts of London, would feel it very inconvenient to resort to -any distant locality.”’ - -[Sidenote: RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMONS’ COMMITTEE OF 1860.] - -After an elaborate examination into the nature and extent of those -enlargements which the present growth and probable increase of the -several Collections of Antiquities and of Natural History render -necessary, the Committee proceed thus:— - -The ground immediately surrounding the Museum, says the reporter, -speaking of the adjacent streets to the east, west, and north, -‘comprises altogether about five and a half acres, valued by Mr. SMIRKE -at about two hundred and forty thousand pounds. As the proprietary -interest in all this ground belongs to a single owner, your Committee -are of opinion that it would be convenient, and possibly even a -profitable arrangement, for the State at once to purchase that interest, -and to receive the rents of the lessees in return for the capital -invested. The State would then have the power, whenever any further -extension of the Museum became necessary, to obtain possession of such -houses as might best suit the purpose in view. - -‘Independently, however, of this larger suggestion, your Committee are -fully convinced, both from the uniform purport of the papers printed at -different times by the House of Commons, and from the statements of the -various witnesses whom they have now examined, that it is indispensable, -not merely to the appropriate exhibition of our unequalled National -Collections, but even to the avoidance of greater ultimate expense, -through alterations and re-arrangements, that sufficient space should be -immediately acquired in connexion with the British Museum, to meet the -requirements of the several departments which have been enumerated under -the last head, and that such space should throughout be adapted, by its -position, extent, and facilities of application, to the arrangement of -the collections on a comprehensive, and, therefore, probably permanent -system. They will now proceed to point out several sites, either on or -adjoining the present ground of the Museum, which seem to them to -present the greatest advantages for the accommodation of the respective -departments.’ - -[Sidenote: NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS.] - -Although, the Committee proceed to say, the amount of space which, on -the foregoing estimate, would be requisite for the Natural-History -Collections is not so great as to involve the necessity of their removal -from the British Museum on that ground alone, your Committee, -nevertheless, attach so much weight to the arguments in favour of -preserving the various departments of the Museum from the risk of -collision with each other, that, should it be determined to provide new -space for Natural History in connexion with the Museum, they would make -it a primary object to isolate its collections, as far as possible, from -all others in the same locality. The chief part of the Natural-History -Collections is now on the upper floor, where they occupy, according to -the return of Mr. SMIRKE, in November, 1857, forty-eight thousand four -hundred and forty-two superficial feet. The remainder of that floor, -containing, exclusively of a small space not reckoned by Mr. SMIRKE, -twenty-one thousand five hundred and thirty-two feet, is occupied by -Antiquities. It appears to your Committee that if, by any adaptation of -ground to be acquired adjoining the Museum, adequate space should be -provided elsewhere for the Antiquities now on the upper floor, the most -expedient arrangement would be to appropriate the whole of that floor to -the Natural-History Collections. If this space proved insufficient for -all such collections, your Committee would then recommend that the newly -acquired portion should be applied exclusively to the Department of -Zoology; and that a sufficient portion of ground should be purchased on -the north side of the Museum as a site for galleries to provide for -Mineralogy, and thus also indirectly for Geology. - -[Sidenote: PRINTS AND DRAWINGS.] - -A convenient site for this department would, in the opinion of the -Committee, be provided by the suggested acquisition of additional ground -on the north side. A building might there be erected in continuation of -the present east wing of the Museum, to contain, on its upper floor, the -Mineralogical Collections, and on the lower the Prints and Drawings, -with adequate space both for their preservation and exhibition. - -[Sidenote: ANTIQUITIES.] - -In determining the site most suitable for the large additional -accommodation required for this department, the Committee thought it -most prudent that the Trustees of the Museum should be guided, partly by -the greater or less cost of purchasing the requisite amount of ground in -different directions, but chiefly by the greater or less fitness of the -different portions of ground for the best system of arrangement. - - -[Sidenote: INTERNAL ECONOMY:—REORGANIZATION AND SUBDIVISION OF - DEPARTMENTS. 1856–66.] - -In the same year in which Mr. PANIZZI became Principal-Librarian (1856), -one of the recommendations of Lord ELLESMERE’S Commission-Report of 1850 -was carried into effect by the creation of the new office of -‘Superintendent of the Natural-History Departments.’ And the former -partial subdivision and reorganization of those departments was, in the -following year, carried further by the formation of a separate -Department of Mineralogy. In subsequent years, the old Department of -Antiquities was, like the Natural History, divided into four -departments, namely, (1) Greek and Roman Antiquities; (2) Oriental -Antiquities; (3) British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography; (4) -Coins and Medals. - -At present (1870), it may here be added, the entire Museum is divided -into twelve departments, comprising three several groups of four -sections to each. The Natural-History group being comprised of (1) -Zoology; (2) Palæontology; (3) Botany; (4) Mineralogy. The Literary -group comprising (1) Printed Books; (2) Manuscripts; (3) Prints and -Drawings; (4) Maps, Charts, Plans, and Topographical Drawings. -Experience has amply vindicated the wisdom of the principle of -subdivision. But it is probable that the principle has now been carried -as far as it can usefully work in practice. - -Increased efficiency and rapidly growing collections brought with them -enlarged grants from Parliament. In the first year of Sir A. PANIZZI’S -Principal-Librarianship, the estimate put before the House of Commons -for the service of the year 1856–7 was sixty thousand pounds, as -compared with a grant for the service of the year immediately preceding -of fifty-six thousand one hundred and eighty pounds. In his last year of -office, the estimate for the service of the year 1866–67 amounted to one -hundred and two thousand seven hundred and forty-four pounds, against a -grant in the year preceding of ninety-eight thousand one hundred and -sixty-four pounds. - -[Sidenote: STATISTICS OF PUBLIC ACCESS.] - -There had also been, in that decade, a marked degree of increase—though -one of much fluctuation—in the number of visits, both to the General -Collections and, much more notably, to the Reading-Rooms and the -Galleries for Study. In 1856, the number of general visitors was three -hundred and sixty-one thousand seven hundred and fourteen; in 1866, it -was four hundred and eight thousand two hundred and seventy-nine. But in -the ‘Exhibition Year’ (1862), it had reached eight hundred and -ninety-five thousand and seventy-seven, which was itself little more -than one third of the exceptionally enormous number of visitors -recorded[34] in the year of the first of the great Industrial -Exhibitions (1851). - -It was during Sir A. PANIZZI’S decade that the largest number of -visitors ever recorded to have entered the Museum within one day was -registered. This exceptional number occurred on the ‘Boxing Day’ of the -Londoners, 26th December, 1858, when more than forty-two thousand -visitors were admitted. Under the old system there had been a dread of -holiday crowds, and the largest number ever admitted on any one day, -prior to 1837, was between five thousand eight hundred and five thousand -nine hundred. That number had been looked upon as a marvel. On the -Easter Monday of 1837, twenty-three thousand nine hundred and -eighty-five were admitted. Neither then nor on the 1858 ‘Boxing Day’ was -any injury or disorderly conduct complained of. - -The highest number of visits for study made to the Reading-Room, prior -to 1857, occurred in 1850, when the number was seventy-eight thousand -five hundred and thirty-three. The number in the year 1865 was one -hundred thousand two hundred and seventy-one, but in the interval it had -risen (1861) to one hundred and thirty thousand four hundred and ten. -For several years, between 1856 and 1866, the average number of visits -for study to the Galleries of Antiquities averaged about one thousand -nine hundred annually; those to the Print Room, about two thousand eight -hundred; those to the Coin and Medal Room, about one thousand nine -hundred. - -The rapid growth of the Collection of Printed Books, more especially -between the years 1845–1865, which had, as we have seen, resulted from -the unremitting labours of Mr. PANIZZI, was well kept up, both under his -immediate successor, Mr. John Winter JONES, and (after Mr. JONES’ -promotion to the Principal-Librarianship, towards the close of 1866) by -the next Keeper, Mr. WATTS. As is well known, the increase of the -Library is still more remarkable for the character of the additions -purchased than for their mere number. But recent years have afforded no -such instance of individual munificence in this department of the Museum -as that which will presently call for detailed notice when we record the -acquisition (in 1846) of the Grenville Library, nor could any such -instance, indeed, be reasonably looked for. - -Sir Frederick MADDEN’S energetic researches and labours for the -improvement of the Collection of MSS. would well merit a fuller account -than it is here practicable to give of them. They have been -perseveringly and worthily continued by his successor, Mr. Edward -Augustus BOND, to whom students also owe the great and distinctive debt -of the commencement of an admirable “INDEX OF MATTERS” to the Collection -generally. No greater boon, in the way of Catalogues, was ever given -within the walls of the Museum, though, as yet, it is necessarily a -beginning only. The special labours of Dr. GRAY in that sphere, for the -Natural-History Collections, comprised the extended advantage of -printing and sale. Not less, I hope, will eventually be done for the -service of manuscript students. There is the desire to do it, and the -means must, sooner or later, follow. - - -The wonderful growth and development of the Collections of Antiquities -in recent years is the special subject of the next chapter. That growth -derives no small part of its permanent scientific interest and value -from the impressive way in which it illustrates the teachings of Holy -Scripture. _Some_ of the collections amassed in the British Museum have, -more than once, by dint of human vanity, been made to subserve a -laudation of the wonderful achievements of Man, rather than of the -power, wisdom, and goodness of God; but for the ebullitions of human -vanity there is extremely little room when a visitor stands beside the -sculptured memorials of that vast empire which ‘the cedars in the garden -of GOD could not hide,’ [Sidenote: Ezek. xxxi, 8 to 13. Comp. Habak. ii, -14.] which was ‘lifted up in the pride of its height,’ only to become a -marvel for desolation, so that upon its ruin ‘the fowls of the heaven -remain.’ When before our own eyes and ears the very stones cry out in -the wall, and the beams out of the timber answer them, the man vainest -of his science or of his philosophy must needs be led to ask himself: -‘What hath GOD wrought?’ - -Some very advanced men of science have become, of late, fond of -‘Sunday-evening Lectures’ _for the instruction of the working classes_. -That would be a tolerably impressive Sunday-evening Lecture which a -competent scholar could give in the Assyrian Gallery of the British -Museum. - -Here, and now, the recent increase of the Department of Antiquities may -be wholly passed over. But to that part of the history of accessions -which bears upon the Natural-History Galleries some attention must needs -be given, by way of continuing our former brief epitome of the -improvements made between the years 1836 and 1850. - - -Of the state of the Department of Zoology, during the earlier part of -the decade now more immediately under review, a good and instructive -account was given in Professor OWEN’S Annual Report of 1861. Its most -material portions run thus:— - -‘The proportion of the stuffed specimens of the class Mammalia, -exhibited in the glazed cases of the Southern Zoological Gallery and -Mammalian Saloon, is in good condition. [Sidenote: THE GROWTH OF THE -NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS. 1850–1861.] The stuffed specimens, which, -from their bulk, or from want of space in the cases, stand on the floor, -have suffered in a certain degree from exposure to the corrosive -smoke-dust of the metropolis, the effects of which cannot be wholly -prevented.’ - -The proportion, continues Mr. OWEN, of the Collection of Mammalia -consisting of skins preserved in boxes, the Osteological specimens, -including the horns and antlers, and the specimens kept in spirit, are -all in a good state of preservation. The unstuffed, Osteological and -bottled specimens are unexhibited and restricted in use, as at present -located, to scientific investigation and comparison; but it is with -difficulty that the special visitor for such purposes can now avail -himself of these materials, owing to their crowded accumulation in the -Basement Rooms in which they are stored. - -‘The exhibited Collection of Birds is in a good state of preservation, -is conveniently arranged for public inspection, and is usefully and -instructively named and labelled. The interest manifested by visitors, -and the satisfaction generally expressed in regard to this gallery, -indicate the amount of public instruction and gratification which would -result from a corresponding serial arrangement and exposition of the -other classes of the animal kingdom. - -‘The stuffed and exhibited selections from the classes of Reptilia and -Fishes, are in a very good state of preservation; they suffer less from -the requisite processes of cleaning than the classes covered by hair, -fur, or feathers. - -‘Of these cold-blooded Vertebrates the proportion preserved in spirits -is much greater than in Mammals and Birds, and, consequently, through -the present allotment of space, the majority of the singular specific -forms of Reptiles and Fishes are excluded from public view. Upwards of -two thousand specimens in spirits of these classes have been added in -the past year to the previously crowded shelves of the basement -store-rooms, where access to any individual specimen is a matter of some -difficulty, if not hazard. Of the above additions, fourteen hundred and -fifty-six have accrued from the donation of the Secretary of State for -India in Council. The interest and novelty of the specimens have -constrained their acceptance, and the same reason has led to the -acquisition of many additions from other sources. - -‘Amongst them deserve to be specified two specimens of that singular -snake, the _Herpeton tentaculatum_, known for a century past only by a -single discoloured example in the Paris Museum; those now in the stores -of the British Museum were acquired from Siam, and have served to enrich -Zoology with a complete knowledge of the species, through the -descriptions and figures by Dr. GÜNTHER. - -‘The following may be also specified, namely, the burrowing Snake from -South Africa, _Uriechis microlepidotus_; a new genus of tree-snake, -_Herpetoreas_; a new genus, _Barycephalus_, of Saurian, from an altitude -in the Himalayas of fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea; -also two new species of freshwater Tortoise, the _Emys Livingstonii_, -dedicated to its discoverer in Africa, and the _Emys Siamensis_. Among -the additions to the class of Fishes has been acquired a new genus, -_Hypsiptera_, of the Scomberoid family; with several new species, -including one, _Centrolophus Britannicus_, belonging to this country. - -‘The specimens of the Molluscous classes showing the entire animal, -preserved in spirits, and stored in the basement room, are in good -condition. The entire class of _Tunicata_ is so preserved; also the -families or genera devoid of, or with rudimental, shells, in the other -Molluscous classes. A small proportion of such “naked” Mollusca, and the -soft parts of a few of the testaceous kinds, are represented by coloured -wax models in the exhibited series of shells arranged in the Bird -Gallery. - -‘The whole of the exhibited collection is in an excellent state of -preservation. The system or scale on which the genera, species, and -local varieties of shells are exhibited, with their names and -localities, gives to the ordinary visitor a power of comparing his own -specimens, and, in most instances, of determining them, without the -necessity of special application to the keeper or assistant in the -department. The extent to which students and others avail themselves of -this facility of comparison, and the value attached to it, show that the -above principle and scale of exhibition of specimens are proper to be -adopted in a National Museum for public use.’ - -In the year following the presentation of this Report, Professor OWEN -made a more elaborate review, both of the condition and of the needs of -the Zoological Department, from which I gather broadly, and by -abridgement, the following striking results:— - -The number of _species_ of Mammals possessed by the British Museum was a -little over two thousand, exemplified by about three thousand individual -specimens. In the year 1830, the number of _specimens_ had been about -one thousand three hundred and fifty; in 1850, it had risen to nearly -two thousand. It follows that, within thirty-two years, the number of -specimens in the Museum Collection had been somewhat more than doubled. -But still the number of _species_ adequately illustrated was only about -two thousand against three thousand five hundred species of Mammals -which are known, named, and have been more or less adequately described, -by zoologists. - -Of Birds, about two thousand five hundred species were, in 1862, -exhibited in the galleries of the British Museum, and in its store-rooms -there were the skins of about four thousand two hundred species. The -number of species already known and described, in 1862, was not less -than eight thousand three hundred. And, it is hardly necessary to add, -vast explorations have since been undertaken, in the years which have -elapsed, or are now about to be undertaken in Africa, in Madagascar, in -Borneo, in New Guinea, and in many parts of Australia. - -Of Fishes, the Museum contained, in 1862, about four thousand species. -These were then represented, by way of public exhibition, irrespectively -of the unexhibited stores, by about one thousand five hundred stuffed -specimens, illustrating about one thousand species. The total number of -recorded species, already at that date, amounted to more than eight -thousand. - -Of Reptiles, little more than two hundred and fifty species were -publicly shown in the Museum Galleries, but its collections, unexhibited -for want of space, were already much larger. The number of known species -of _Reptilia_, in 1862, exceeded two thousand. - -Coming to the Invertebrata, it appears that, in 1862, about ten thousand -species of molluscs, illustrated by about one hundred thousand specimen -shells, were publicly exhibited. [Sidenote: See, hereinafter, Chap. VI.] -This, it will be remembered, was anterior to the great accession of the -CUMING Collection, which already, in 1862, contained more than sixteen -thousand _species_—and is the finest and most complete series ever -brought together. - -About forty-five thousand specimens of molluscs were, in 1862, stored in -the drawers of the galleries and other rooms, or in the vaults beneath. -These, on a rough computation, may have illustrated about four thousand -five hundred species. - -Within the _two years only_, 1860–1862, the registered number of -specimens of Fossils was increased from one hundred and twenty thousand -to one hundred and fifty-three thousand, but of these it was found -possible to exhibit to the Public little more than fifty thousand -specimens. - - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE MINERALOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 1858–1862.] - -Coming to the Department of Mineralogy, we find that the registered -specimens had increased, within about four years, from fifteen thousand -to twenty-five thousand. This increase was mainly due to the acquisition -of the noble ALLAN-GREG Cabinet formed at Manchester. But large as this -increase is, the national importance of the Mineralogical Collections is -very far from being adequately represented by the existing state of the -Museum series, even after all the subsequent additions made between the -years 1862–1870. [Sidenote: Owen, _Report_, as above (1862).] A Museum -of Mineralogy worthy of England must eventually include five several and -independent collections. There must be (1) a Classificatory Collection, -for general purposes; (2) a Geometrical Collection, to show the -crystalline forms; (3) an Elementary Collection, to show the degrees of -lustre and the varieties of cleavage and of colour; (4) a Technological -Collection, to show the economic application of minerals—the importance -of which, to a commercial, manufacturing, and artistic country, can -hardly be exaggerated. Last of all, there is needed a special collection -of an ancillary kind; that, I mean, which has been called sometimes a -‘teratological’ collection, [Sidenote: (Ibid.)] sometimes a -‘pseudomorphic’ collection. Call it as you will, its object is -important. Such a series serves to show both the defective and the -excessive forms of minerals, and their transitional capacities. These -five several collections are, it will be seen, over and above that other -special Collection of Sky-stones or ‘Meteorites,’ which is already very -nobly represented in our National Museum. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. -ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.—THE SPOILS OF XANTHUS, OF - BABYLON, OF NINEVEH, OF HALICARNASSUS, AND OF CARTHAGE. - - ‘She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, ... when she saw men - pourtrayed upon the wall,—the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with - vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed - attire upon their heads; all of them princes to look to, after the - manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea.’ - - EZEKIEL xxiii, 12–15. - - ‘I do love these ancient ruins; - We cannot tread upon them, but we set - Our foot upon some reverend history. - - · · · · · - - But all things have their end, - Castles and cities (which have diseases like to men) - Must have like death which we have.’ - WEBSTER, _The Duchess of Malfi_. - - _The Libraries of the East.—The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, and - their Explorers.—William_ CURETON _and his Labours on the MSS. of - Nitria, and in other Departments of Oriental Literature.—The - Researches in the Levant of Sir Charles_ FELLOWS, _of Mr._ LAYARD, - _and of Mr. Charles_ NEWTON.—_Other conspicuous Augmentors of the - Collection of Antiquities._ - - -We have now to turn to that vast field of research and exploration, from -which the national Museum of Antiquities has derived an augmentation -that has sufficed to double, within twenty-five years, its previous -scientific and literary value to the Public. In this chapter we have to -tell of not a little romantic adventure; of remote and perilous -explorations and excavations; sometimes, of sharp conflicts between -English pertinacity and Oriental cunning; often, of great endurance of -hardship and privation in the endeavour at once to promote learning—the -world over—and to add some new and not unworthy entries on the long roll -of British achievement. - -Two distinct groups of explorers have now to be recorded. The labours of -both groups carry us to the Levant. [Sidenote: THE LIBRARIES OF THE -EAST.] What has been done of late years by the searchers after -manuscripts, in their effort to recover some of the lost treasures of -the old Libraries of the East, will be most fairly appreciated by the -reader, if, before telling of the researches and the studies of CURZON, -TATTAM, CURETON, and their fellow-workers in Eastern manuscript -archæology, some brief prefatory notice be given of the earlier labours, -in the same field, of HUNTINGTON, BROWNE, and other travellers in the -seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Mention must also be made of the -explorations of SONNINI and of ANDRÉOSSI. - - -[Sidenote: THE RESEARCHES OF ROBERT HUNTINGTON IN THE NITRIAN - MONASTERIES;] - -About the year 1680, Robert HUNTINGTON, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe, -visited the Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, and made special and -eager research for the Syriac version of the _Epistles of St. Ignatius_, -of the existence of which there had been wide-spread belief amongst the -learned, since the time of Archbishop USSHER. But his quest was -fruitless, although, as it is now well known, a Syriac version of some -of those epistles did really exist in one of the monasteries which -HUNTINGTON visited. The monks, then as afterwards, were chary of showing -their MSS., very small as was the care they took of them. The only -manuscripts mentioned by HUNTINGTON, in recording his visits to three of -the principal communities—St. Mary Deipara, St. Macarius, and El -Baramous—are an _Old Testament_ in the Estrangelo character; two volumes -of Chrysostom in Coptic and Arabic; a Coptic Lectionary in four volumes; -and a _New Testament_ in Coptic and Arabic. - -Towards the close of the following century, these monasteries received -the successive visits of SONNINI, of William George BROWNE, and of -General Count ANDRÉOSSI. [Sidenote: AND THOSE OF SONNINI, BROWNE, AND -OTHERS.] SONNINI says nothing of books. BROWNE saw but few—among them an -Arabo-Coptic _Lexicon_, the works of St. Gregory, and the _Old_ and _New -Testaments_ in Arabic—although he was told by the superior that they had -nearly eight hundred volumes, with none of which they would part. -[Sidenote: Browne, _Travels in Africa_, &c., p. 43.] General ANDRÉOSSI, -on the other hand, speaks slightingly of the books as merely ‘ascetic -works, ... some in Arabic, and some in Coptic, with an Arabic -translation in the margin;’ [Sidenote: Huntington, _Observations_ (repr. -in Ray’s Coll.).] but adds, ‘We brought away some of the latter class, -which appear to have a date of six centuries.’ This was in 1799. -[Sidenote: Andréossi, _Vallées des Lac de Nation_, pass.] BROWNE died in -1814; SONNINI DE MANONCOURT, in 1812; Count ANDRÉOSSI survived until -1828. - -In the year 1827, the late Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND (then Lord PRUDHOE) -made more elaborate researches. His immediate object was a philological -one, his Lordship desiring to further Mr. TATTAM’S labours on a Coptic -and Arabic Dictionary. [Sidenote: Lord Prudhoe’s _Narrative_, &c., as -abridged in _Quarterly Review_, vol. lxxvii, pp. 45, seq.] Hearing that -‘Libraries were said to be preserved, both at the Baramous and Syrian -convents,’ he proceeded to El Baramous, accompanied by Mr. LINART, and -encamped outside the walls. ‘The monks in this convent,’ says the Duke, -‘about twelve in number, appeared poor and ignorant. They looked on us -with great jealousy, and denied having any books, except those in the -church, which they showed us.’ But having been judiciously mollified by -some little seductive present, on the next day, ‘in a moment of good -humour, they agreed to show us their Library. From it I selected a -certain number of Manuscripts, which, with the _Lexicon_ (_Selim_) -already mentioned, were carried into the monk’s room. A long -deliberation ensued, ... as to my offer to purchase them. Only one could -write, and at last it was agreed that he should copy the _Selim_, which -copy and the MSS. I had collected were to be mine, in exchange for a -fixed sum of dollars, to which I added a present of rice, coffee, -tobacco, and such other articles as I had to offer.’ After narrating the -acquisition of a few other MSS. at the Syrian convent, or Convent of St. -Mary Deipara, his Lordship proceeds:—‘These manuscripts I presented to -Mr. TATTAM, and gave him some account of the small room with its -trap-door, through which I descended, candle in hand, to examine the -manuscripts, where books, and parts of books, and scattered leaves, in -Coptic, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic, were lying in a mass, on which I -stood.... In appearance, it seemed as if, on some sudden emergency, the -whole Library had been thrown down this trap-door, and they had remained -undisturbed, in their dust and neglect, for some centuries.’ - -[Sidenote: THE RESEARCHES IN THE LEVANTINE MONASTERIES OF MR. CURZON.] - -Ten years later, Mr. TATTAM himself continued these researches. But in -the interval they had been taken up by the energetic and accomplished -traveller Mr. Robert CURZON, to whose charming _Visits to the -Monasteries of the Levant_ it is mainly owing that a curious aspect of -monastic life, which theretofore had only interested a few scholars, has -become familiar to thousands of readers of all classes. - -Mr. CURZON’S researches were much more thorough than those of any of his -predecessors. He was felicitous in his endeavours to win the good graces -of the monks, and seems often to have made his visits as pleasant to his -hosts as afterwards to his readers. But, how attractive soever, only one -of them has to be noticed in connexion with our present topic—that, -namely, to the Convent of the Syrians mentioned already. ‘I found,’ says -Mr. CURZON, ‘several Coptic MSS. lying on the floor, but some were -placed in niches in the stone wall. They were all on paper, except three -or four; one of them was a superb MS. of the Gospels, with a commentary -by one of the early fathers. Two others were doing duty as coverings to -large open pots or jars, which had contained preserves, long since -evaporated. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and Arabic Dictionary, -with which they refused to part.’ After a most graphic account of a -conversation with the Father Abbot—the talk being enlivened with many -cups of rosoglio—he proceeds to recount his visit to a ‘small closet, -vaulted with stone, which was filled to the depth of two feet or more -with loose leaves of Syriac MSS., which now form one of the chief -treasures of the British Museum.’ The collection thus ‘preserved’ was -that of the Coptic monks; the same monastery contained another which was -that of the Abyssinian monks. ‘The disposition of the manuscripts in the -Library,’ continues Mr. CURZON, ‘was very original.... The room was -about twenty-six feet long, twenty feet wide, and twelve feet high; the -roof was formed of the trunks of palm-trees. A wooden shelf was carried, -in the Egyptian style, around the walls, at the height of the top of the -door, ... underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs projected from -the wall, ... on which hung the Abyssinian MSS., of which this curious -Library was entirely composed. The books of Abyssinia are bound in the -usual way—sometimes in red leather, and sometimes in wooden boards, ... -they are then enclosed in a case, ... to which is attached a strap, ... -and by these straps the books are hung on the wooden pegs, three or four -on a peg, or more, if the books were small; their usual size was that of -a small, very thick quarto.... Almost all Abyssinian books are written -upon skins.... They have no cursive writing; each letter is therefore -painted, as it were, with the reed-pen.... Some manuscripts are adorned -with the quaintest and grimmest illustrations conceivable, ... and some -are worthy of being compared with the best specimens of caligraphy in -any language.’ Then follows an amusing account of the ‘higgling of the -monks,’ after a truly Abyssinian fashion, ending in the acquisition of -books, of the whole of which the travellers could not, by any packing or -stuffing, make their bags containable. ‘In this dreadful dilemma, ... -seeing that the quarto was the most imperfect, I abandoned it; and I -have now reason to believe, on seeing the manuscripts of the British -Museum, that this was the famous book, with the date of _A.D._ 411, the -most precious acquisition to any Library that has been made in modern -times, with the exception, as I conceive, of some in my own -Collection.... [Sidenote: Curzon, _Visits_, &c., as above.] This book, -which contains some lost works of Eusebius, has ... fallen into better -hands than mine.’ - -In the following year (1838), the Rev. Henry TATTAM (afterwards -Archdeacon of Bedford), in furtherance of the purpose which had -previously enlisted Lord PRUDHOE’S co-operation, set out upon his -expedition into Egypt. He arrived at Cairo in October, and in November -proceeded up the Nile as far as Esneh, visiting many monasteries, and -inspecting their Libraries, in most of which he only met with liturgies -and service-books. Sanobon was an exception, for there he found -eighty-two Coptic MSS., some of them very fine. - -Continuing the narrative, we find that on the 12th of January they -started across the desert for the valley of the Natron Lakes, and -pitched their tent at a short distance from the Monastery of Macarius. -[Sidenote: Miss PLATT’S Journal (unpublished, but abridged in the -_Quarterly Review_, as above).] The monks told them that of these -convents there had once been, on the mountain and in the valley of -Nitria, no less than three hundred and sixty. Of fifty or thereabouts -the ruins, it is said, may still be seen. [Sidenote: RESEARCHES OF -ARCHDEACON TATTAM.] At the Convent of the Syrians, the Archdeacon was -received with much civility, not, however, unaccompanied by a sort of -cautious circumspection. After a look at the church, followed by the -indispensable pipes and coffee, the monks asked the cause to which they -were indebted for the honour of his visit. He told them discreetly that -it was his wish to see their books. ‘They replied that they had no more -than what he had seen in the church; upon which he told them plainly -that he knew they had.’ A conference ensued, and, on the next day, they -conducted him to the tower, and then into a dark vault, where he found a -great quantity of very old and valuable Syriac MSS. He selected six -quarto volumes, and took them to the superior’s room. He was next shown -a room in the tower, where he found a number of Coptic and Arabic MSS., -principally liturgies, with a beautiful copy of the _Gospels_. He then -asked to see the rest. The monks looked surprised to find he knew of -others, and seemed at first disposed to deny that they had any more, but -at length produced the key of the apartment where the other books were -kept, and admitted him. After looking them over, he went to the -superior’s room, where all the priests were assembled, fifteen or -sixteen in number; one of them brought a Coptic and Arabic _Selim_, or -_Lexicon_, which Mr. TATTAM wished to purchase; they informed him they -could not part with it, ... but consented to make him a copy. He paid -for two of the Syriac MSS. he had placed in the superior’s room, for the -priests could not be persuaded to part with more.... The superior would -have sold the Dictionary, but was afraid, because the Patriarch had -written in it a curse upon any one who should take it away.’ [It was the -same volume which had been vainly coveted by Mr. CURZON, as well as by -several preceding travellers, and of which he tells us he ‘put it in one -of the niches of the wall, where it remained about two years, when it -was purchased and brought away for me by a gentleman at Cairo.’] ‘In the -Convent of El Baramous,’ continues Miss PLATT, ‘Mr. TATTAM found about -one hundred and fifty Coptic and Arabic liturgies, and a very large -Dictionary in both languages. In the tower is an apartment, with a -trap-door in the floor, opening into a dark hole, full of loose leaves -of Arabic and Coptic manuscripts.’ At the Monastery of Amba-Bichoi, Mr. -TATTAM saw a lofty vaulted room, so strewn with loose manuscripts as -scarcely to afford a glimpse of the floor on which they lay, ‘in some -places a quarter of a yard deep.’ At Macarius Convent a similar sight -presented itself, but of these Mr. TATTAM was permitted to carry off -about a hundred. - -As the reader may well imagine, the charms of the Syriac MSS. had made -too deep an impression on Mr. TATTAM’S heart to admit of an easy -parting. Many were the longing, lingering looks, mentally directed -towards them. Almost at the moment of setting out on his return to -Cairo, he added four choice books to his previous spoils. In February, -he resolved to revisit the convents, and once more to ply his most -persuasive arguments. He was manfully seconded by his Egyptian servant, -MAHOMMED, whose favourite methods of negotiation much resembled those of -Mr. CURZON. ‘The Archdeacon soon returned,’ says Miss PLATT, ‘followed -by MAHOMMED and one of the Bedouins, bearing a large sack full of -splendid Syriac MSS. on vellum. They were safely deposited in the tent.’ -At Amba-Bischoi a successful bargain was struck for an old _Pentateuch_ -in Coptic and Arabic, and a beautiful Coptic _Evangeliary_. [Sidenote: -Platt’s Journal; abridged, as above.] On the next day, ‘Mahommed brought -from the priests a Soriana, a stupendous volume, beautifully written in -the Syriac characters, with a very old worm-eaten copy of the -_Pentateuch_ from Amba-Bischoi, exceedingly valuable, but not quite -perfect.’ The remainder of the story, or rather the greater part of what -remains, must here be more concisely told than in the words of the -reviewer. - -The manuscripts which Mr. TATTAM has thus obtained, in due time arrived -in England. Such of them as were in the Syriac language were disposed of -to the Trustees of the British Museum.... Forty-nine manuscripts of -extreme antiquity, containing some valuable works long since supposed to -have perished, and versions of others written several centuries earlier -than any copies of the original texts now known to exist, constituted -such an addition as has been rarely, if ever, made at one time to any -Library. The collection of Syriac MSS. procured by Mr. RICH had already -made the Library of the British Museum conspicuous for this class of -literature; but the treasure of manuscripts from Egypt rendered it -superior to any in Europe. - -From the accounts which Lord PRUDHOE, Mr. CURZON, and Mr. TATTAM had -given of their visits to the Monastery of the Syrians, it was evident -that but few of the manuscripts belonging to it had been removed since -the time of ASSEMANI; and probable that no less a number than nearly two -hundred volumes must be still remaining in the hands of the monks. -Moreover, from several notes in the manuscripts ... already brought to -England, it was certain that most of them must be of very considerable -antiquity.... In several of these notices, MOSES of Tecrit states that, -in the year 932, he brought into the convent from Mesopotamia about two -hundred and fifty volumes. As there was no evidence whatever to show -that even so many as one hundred of these MSS. had ever been taken away -(for those which were procured for the Papal Library by the two -ASSEMANI, added to those which Mr. CURZON and Mr. TATTAM had brought to -England, do not amount to that number), there was sufficient ground for -supposing that the Convent of the Syrians still possessed not fewer than -about one hundred and fifty volumes, which, at the latest, must have -been written before the tenth century. Application, accordingly, was -made by the Trustees to the Treasury; a sum was granted to enable them -to send again into Egypt, and Mr. TATTAM readily undertook the -commission. [Sidenote: TREASURY GRANT, IN 1841, FOR FURTHER RESEARCHES.] -The time was most opportune. Had much more delay been interposed, these -manuscripts, which, perhaps, constitute the greatest accession of -valuable literature which has been brought from the East into Europe -since the taking of Constantinople, [Sidenote: _Quart. Review_, as -before.] would, in all probability, have been now the pride of the -Imperial Library at Paris. - -[Sidenote: MR. TATTAM’S EXPEDITION TO NITRIA IN 1842.] - -Mr. TATTAM thought he could work most effectively through the influence -of a neighbouring Sheikh with the superior of the convent. By which -means he obtained, after some delays, a promise that all the Syriac MSS. -should be taken to the Sheikh’s house, and there bargained for. ‘My -servant,’ he says, ‘had taken ten men and eight donkeys from the -village; had conveyed them, and already bargained for them, which -bargain I confirmed. That night we carried our boxes, paper, and string, -and packed them all.... Before ten in the morning they were on their way -to Alexandria.’ But, as will be seen in the sequel, the monks were too -crafty for Mr. TATTAM to cope with. - -[Sidenote: TISCHENDORF’S VISIT IN 1844.] - -In 1844, TISCHENDORF visited the monasteries already explored by CURZON -and TATTAM. His account reproduces the old characteristics:—‘Manuscripts -heaped indiscriminately together, lying on the ground, or thrown into -large baskets, beneath masses of dust.... The excessive suspicion of -these monks renders it extremely difficult to induce them to produce -their MSS., in spite of the extreme penury which surrounds them.... But -much might yet be found to reward the labour of the searcher.’ - -In truth, the monks, poor and simple as they sometimes seemed to be, had -taken very sufficient care to keep enough of literary treasures in their -hands to reward ‘further researches.’ Nearly half of their collection -seems to have been withheld. - -[Sidenote: PACHO’S NEGOTIATION FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE MSS. WITHHELD BY - THE MONKS OF ST. MARY DEIPARA.] - -A certain clever Mr. PACHO now entered on the scene as a negotiator for -the obtainment or recovery of the missing ‘treasures of the tombs.’ They -had been virtually purchased before, but the Lords of the Treasury very -wisely re-opened the public purse, and at length secured for the Nation -an inestimable possession. The new accession completed, or went far -towards completing, many MSS. which before were tantalizingly imperfect. -[Sidenote: See page 622, in this Chapter.] It supplied a second ancient -copy of the famous Ignatian _Epistles_ (_to St. Polycarp_, _to the -Ephesians_, and _to the Romans_); many fragments of palimpsest -manuscripts of great antiquity, and among them the greater part of St. -Luke’s _Gospel_ in Greek; and about four thousand lines of the _Iliad_, -written in a fine square uncial letter, apparently not later than the -sixth century. The total number of volumes thus added to the previous -Nitrian Collections were calculated, roundly, to be from a hundred and -forty to a hundred and fifty. - - -That the rich accession to our sacred literature, thus made amidst many -obstacles, should be turned speedily to public advantage, two conditions -had to be fulfilled. [Sidenote: WILLIAM CURETON AND HIS LABOURS IN -ORIENTAL LITERATURE.] Skilful labour had first to be employed in the -arrangement of a mass of fragments. Scholars competently prepared, by -previous studies in Oriental literature and more especially in Syriac, -must then get to work on their transcription, their gloss, and their -publication. It could scarcely have been expected, beforehand, that any -one man would be able to undertake both tasks, and to keep them, for -some years to come, well abreast. The fact, however, proved to be so. -The right man was already in the right place for the work that was to be -done. - -The late William CURETON had entered the service of the Trustees of the -British Museum in 1837, at the age of twenty-nine, when he had been -already for about eight years in holy orders. He was a native of -Westbury, in Shropshire. His education, begun at Newport School, had -been matured at Christ Church, Oxford. He had been just about to enter -himself at Christ Church in the ordinary way, when his father died, -suddenly, leaving the family fortunes under considerable embarrassment. -CURETON, and a brother of his, showed the metal they were both made of, -by instantly changing their youthful plans. That the whole of the -diminished patrimony might be at their mother’s sole disposal, William -CURETON went to Oxford as a servitor. His brother, instead of waiting -for his expected commission in the Army, enlisted as a private dragoon. -And certainly, in the issue, neither of these young men lost any -‘dignity’—in any sense of that word—on account of the step so -unselfishly taken at their start in life. - -William CURETON began his literary labours as a -Coadjutor-Under-Librarian in old Bodley. Dr. GAISFORD introduced him to -Dr. BANDINEL, in 1834, with the words:—‘I bring you a good son. He will -make a good librarian.’ It was at Oxford that he laid the substantial -foundation of his Oriental studies. After three years, he followed the -fashion already set him by some of the best and ablest officers the -Bodleian has ever had—ELLIS, BABER, and H. O. COXE, for example—by -transferring, for a time, his services from the great Library of Oxford -to that of London. [Sidenote: CURETON’S ENTRANCE INTO THE BRITISH -MUSEUM.] His first (or nearly his first) Museum task was to set to work -on the cataloguing of the Arabic and Persian MSS. In 1842, he began his -earliest Oriental publication (undertaken for the ‘Oriental Text -Society,’ to be mentioned presently), namely, AL SHARASTANI’S ‘_Book of -Religious and of Philosophical Sects_.’ - -At the British Museum, he became quite as notable for the amiability of -his character, and the genial frankness of his manners, as for his -scholarly attainments and his power of authorship. I have a vivid -recollection of my own introduction to him, in the February of 1839, and -of the impression made on me by his kindly and cordial greeting. When I -noted that pleasant face, which beamed with good nature as well as with -intellect, I instantly appreciated the force of the words used by my -introducer: ‘Let me make you known,’ said he, ‘to my father-confessor.’ -I thought the choice to be obviously a felicitous one. Not less vivid is -my memory of the delight Mr. CURETON manifested on receiving, within the -Museum _vaults_, the first importation from the Nitrian Desert. The -sight of such a mass of torn, disorderly, and dirty fragments, would -have appalled many men not commonly afraid of labour, but to William -CURETON the scholarly ardour of discovery made the task, from the first, -a pleasure. When successive fresh arrivals gave new hope that many gaps -in the manuscripts of earliest importation would, in course of time, be -filled up, the laborious pleasure ripened into joy. - -The collection, obtained by the long succession of labours already -narrated, reached the British Museum on the first of May, 1843. When the -cases were opened, very few indeed of the MSS. were perfect. [Sidenote: -FRAGMENTARY CONDITION OF THE SYRIAC MSS. IMPORTED IN 1843.] Nearly two -hundred volumes had been torn into separate leaves, and then mixed up -together, by blind chance and human stupidity. It was a perplexing -sight. But the eyes that looked on it belonged to a seeing head. Even -into a little chaos like this, almost hopeless as at the first glance it -seemed, the learning, assiduity, and patience of Mr. CURETON gradually -brought order. Of necessity, the task took a long time. First came the -separation of the fragments of different works, and then the arrangement -of the leaves into volumes, with no aid to pagination or catchwords. -With translations of extant Greek works, the collection of their -originals gave, of course, great help. But in a multitude of cases every -leaf had to be read and closely studied. - -Within about eighteen months of the reception of the MSS., Mr. CURETON -had ascertained the number of volumes—reckoning books made up of -fragments, as well as complete works—to amount to three hundred and -seventeen, of which two hundred and forty-six were on vellum, and -seventy on paper; all in Syriac or Aramaic, except one volume of Coptic -fragments. With the forty-nine volumes previously acquired, an addition -was thus made to the MS. Department of the National Library of three -hundred and sixty-six volumes. Many of these volumes contain two, three, -or four distinct works, of different dates, bound together, so that -probably, in the whole, there were of manuscripts and parts of -manuscripts, upwards of one thousand, written in all parts of -Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, and at periods which range from the year -411 to the year 1292. Of the specific character and contents of some of -the choicest of these MSS., mention will be made hereafter. - -[Sidenote: DR. CURETON’S PUBLICATIONS IN SYRIAC, AND IN ARABIC - LITERATURE.] - -For several years, the labour on the Syriac fragments did but alternate -with that on the larger body of the Arabic MSS., a classed catalogue of -which Mr. CURETON published in 1846,—only a month or two after he had -contributed to the _Quarterly Review_ a deeply interesting and masterly -article on the Syriac discoveries. This paper was quickly followed by -his first edition of the _Three Epistles of St. Ignatius_ (I, to -Polycarp; II, to the Ephesians; III, to the Romans). In an able preface, -he contended that, of these genuine _Epistles_, all previous recensions -were, to a considerable extent, interpolated, garbled, and spurious; and -also that the other Ignatian _Epistles_, so-called, are entirely -supposititious. In the year 1870 it need hardly be said either that this -publication excited much controversy, or that competent opinion is still -divided on some parts of the subject. But on two points there has never -been any controversy whatever:—As an editor, William CURETON displayed -brilliant ability; as a student of theology, he was no less -distinguished by a single-minded search after truth. He was never one of -those noisy controversialists of whom Walter LANDOR once said, so -incisively,[35] that they were less angry with their opponents for -withstanding the truth, than for doubting their own claims to be the -channels and the champions of Truth. To his dying day, CURETON owned -himself to be a learner—even in Syriac. - -Within three years of the publication of his _Ignatius_, CURETON gave to -the world his precious edition of the fragmentary _Festal Letters_ of -ATHANASIUS, which Richard BURGESS soon translated into English, and -LASSOW into German. [Sidenote: THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORIENTAL TEXT -SOCIETY.] The Syriac version was one of its editor’s earliest -discoveries amongst the spoils of the Nitrian monasteries, and it was -published at the cost of a new society, of which CURETON himself was the -main founder. For the old Oriental publication society[36] limited -itself, as its name imports, to the publication of translations. The new -one—the claims of which to liberal support CURETON was never weary of -vindicating—was expressly founded to print Oriental texts. This new body -had his strongest sympathies, but he co-operated zealously with the -‘Translation Fund’ as well as with the ‘Text Society,’ - -Among his other and early labours, was the publication of a Rabbinical -Comment on the _Book of Lamentations_, and of the Arabic text of EN -NASAFI’S _Pillar of the Creed of the Sunnites_ (‘Umdat Akidat ahl al -Sunnat wa al Tamaat’), both of which books were printed in 1843. After -1845, CURETON’S literary labours were almost exclusively devoted to that -Syriac field in which he was to be so large and so original a -discoverer. The first distinctively public recognition of his services -was his appointment as a Chaplain to the Queen, in 1847. Two years -afterwards, he was made a Canon of Westminster and Rector of St. -Margaret’s. Thenceforward, his energies were divided. The charms of -Syriac discovery were not permitted to obstruct the due performance of -the appropriate work of a parish priest; though it is much to be feared -that they were but too often permitted to interfere, more than a little, -with needful recreation and rest. - -Among those of his parochial labours which demanded not a small amount -of self-sacrifice were the rebuilding and the improved organization of -the schools; [Sidenote: PAROCHIAL LABOURS.] the building of a district -church—St. Andrew’s—in Ashley Place; and the establishment of -Working-Class Lectures, upon a wise and far-seeing plan. - -[Sidenote: FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE.] - -In 1851, he gave to scholars the curious palimpsest fragments of HOMER -from a Nitrian manuscript (now ADDIT. MS., 17,210), and, two years -afterwards, the _Ecclesiastical History_ of JOHN, Bishop of Ephesus. -This was quickly translated into German by SCHÖNFEHLER, and into English -by Dr. R. Payne SMITH. [Sidenote: MS. ADDIT. 14,640. (B. M.)] Then came -the _Spicilegium Syriacum_, containing fragments of BARDESANES, of -MELITO of Sardes, and the inexpressibly precious fragments of an ancient -recension of the Syriac _Gospels_, believed by CURETON to be of the -fifth century, and offering considerable and most interesting -divergences from the Peshito version. - -In a preface to these evangelical fragments of the fifth century, their -editor contends that they constitute a far more faithful representation -of the true Hebrew text than does the Peshito recension, and that the -remark holds good, in a more especial degree, of the _Gospel of St. -Matthew_. This publication appeared in 1858. - -[Sidenote: LABOUR AND ITS REWARDS IN FRESH LABOURS.] - -Enough has been said of these untiring labours to make it quite -intelligible, even to readers the most unfamiliar with Oriental studies, -that their author had become already a celebrity throughout learned -Europe. As early as in 1855, the Institute of France welcomed Dr. -CURETON, as one of their corresponding members, in succession to his old -master, GAISFORD, of Christ Church. In 1859, the Queen conferred on him -a distinction, which was especially appropriate and dear to his -feelings. He became ‘Royal Trustee’ of that Museum which he had so -zealously served as an Assistant-Keeper of the MSS., up to the date of -his appointment to his Westminster parish and canonry. No fitter -nomination was ever made. Unhappily, he was not to be spared very long -to fill a function so congenial. - -Yet one other distinction, and also one other and most honourable -labour, were to be his, before another illustrious victim was to be -added to the long list of public losses inflicted on the country at -large by the gross mismanagement, and more particularly by what is -called—sardonically, I suppose—the ‘economy’ of our British railways. -CURETON’S life too, like some score of other lives dear to literature or -to science, was to be sacrificed under the car of our railway -Juggernaut. - -In 1861, he published, from another Nitrian manuscript, EUSEBIUS’ -_History of the Martyrs in Palestine_. [Sidenote: THE REMOVAL, AND ITS -CIRCUMSTANCES.] Early in 1863, he succeeded the late Beriah BOTFIELD in -the Chair of the Oriental Translation Fund. On the twenty-ninth of May, -of the same year, a railway ‘accident’ inflicted upon him such cruel -injuries as entailed a protracted and painful illness of twelve months, -and ended—to our loss, but to his great gain—in his lamented death, on -the seventeenth of June, 1864. - -He died where he was born, and was buried with his fathers. The writer -of these poor memorial lines upon an admirable man well remembers the -delight he used to express (thirty years ago) whenever it was in his -power to revisit his birthplace, and knows that the delight was shared -with the humblest of its inhabitants. Dr. CURETON was one of those -genuine men who (in the true and best sense of the words) are not -respecters of persons. He had a frank, not a condescending, salutation -for the lowliest acquaintances of youthful days. And those lowliest were -not among the least glad to see his face again at his holiday-visits; -nor were they among the least sorrowful to see it, when it bore the -fatal, but now to most of us quite familiar, traces of victimism to the -mammon-cult of our railway directors. - - -[Sidenote: THE ARCHÆOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE LEVANT.] - -Just as we have to go very far back indeed in the history of the -Manuscript Department of the British Museum, in order to find an -accession quite as notable as are—taking them as a whole—the manuscripts -of the Nitrian monasteries, so have we also to do in the history of the -several Departments of Antiquities, in order to find any parallel to the -acquisitions of monuments of art and archæology made during the thirty -years between 1840 and 1870. In point of _variety_ of interest, in -truth, there is no parallel at all to be found. - -In archæology, however—as in scientific discovery, or in mechanical -invention—every great burst of new light will be seen, if we look -closely enough, to have had its remote precursive gleams, howsoever -faint or howsoever little noticed they may have been. - -Austen Henry LAYARD, for example, is a most veritable ‘discoverer.’ -Nevertheless, the researches of LAYARD link themselves with those of -Claudius RICH, and with the still earlier glimpses, and the mere -note-book jottings, of Carsten NIEBUHR, as well as with the explorations -of LAYARD’S contemporary and most able French fellow-investigator, -Monsieur BOTTA. In like manner, Nathan DAVIS is the undoubted -disinterrer of old Carthage, but the previous labours of the Italian -canon and archæologist SPANO, of Cagliari, and those of the French -geographers DE DREUX and DUREAU DE LA MALLE, imperfect as they all were, -helped to put him upon the quest which was destined to receive so rich a -reward. - -It is obvious, therefore, that a tolerably satisfactory account of the -researches of the renowned archæologists mentioned at the head of this -chapter must be prefaced with some notices of much earlier and much less -successful labours than theirs; and a thorough account would need -greatly more than that. But, at present, I cannot hope to give either -the one or the other. Rapid glances at the recent investigations are all -that, for the moment, are permitted me, and for the perfunctory manner -of these I shall have to make not a little demand on the reader’s -indulgence. The subject-matter is rich enough to claim a volume to -itself; nor would the story be found to lack well-sustained and varied -interest, even if retold at large. - -The first inquiries and explorations in _Lycia_ of Sir Charles FELLOWS -began several years earlier than those in _Assyria_ of Mr. Austen -LAYARD, but an intelligible narrative of what LAYARD did, in 1845, must -needs start with a notice, be it ever so brief, of what BOTTA had been -doing in 1842. The Lycian excavations were also effectively begun in -1842. They were, in fact, contemporaneous with the first excavations at -Nineveh. I begin, therefore, with the closely-linked labours of BOTTA -and of LAYARD, prefacing them with a glance at the previous pursuits and -aims in life of our distinguished fellow-countryman. - -[Sidenote: AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD AND HIS EARLY CAREER.] - -Austen Henry LAYARD is an Englishman, notwithstanding his birth in Paris -(5th of March, 1817), and his descent from one of the many Huguenot -families who (in one sense) do honour to France for their sufferings for -conscience sake, and who (in many more senses than one) do honour to -England by the way in which zealous and persevering exertions in the -service of their adopted country have enabled them to pluck the flowers -of fame, or of distinction, from amidst the sharp thorns of adversity. -Austen LAYARD is the grandson of the honoured Dr. LAYARD, Dean of -Bristol, and he began active life, whilst yet very young, in a -solicitor’s office in the City of London. But he had scarcely reached -twenty-two years of age before family circumstances enabled him to -gratify a strong passion for Eastern travel. Archæology had no share, at -first, in the attractions which the Levant presented to his youthful -enterprise. But a fervid nature, a good education, and a wonderful power -of self-adaptation to new social circumstances, made the mind of the -young traveller a fitting seedplot for antiquarian knowledge, whenever -the opportunity of acquiring it should come. - -[Sidenote: THE JOURNEY THROUGH ASIA MINOR AND SYRIA IN 1839–1840.] - -To a man of that stamp it would be impossible that he should tread near -those ancient ruins, every stone of which must needs connect itself with -some ‘reverend history’ or other—when the discerning eye should at -length pore upon it and ponder it—without the ambition stirring within -him to make at least an earnest attempt to explore and to decipher. To -this particular man and his companion in travel, Fortune was propitious, -by dint of her very parsimony. As he says himself: ‘No experienced -dragoman measured our distances or appointed our stations. We were -honoured with no conversations by pashas, nor did we seek any civilities -from governors. We neither drew tears nor curses from the villagers by -seizing their horses, or searching their houses for provisions; -[Sidenote: _Nineveh and its Remains_ (1849), vol. i, p. 2.] their -welcome was sincere; their scanty fare was placed before us; we ate, and -came, and went in peace.’ - -It was almost thirty years ago—about the middle of April, 1840—that Mr. -LAYARD looked upon those vast ruins on the east bank of the Tigris, -opposite Mósul, which include the now famous mounds of Konyunjik and of -Nebbi Yunus. Having gazed on them with an incipient longing—even then—to -explore them thoroughly, he and his companion rode into the desert, and -looked with new wonder at the great mound of Kàlàh Sherghat, the site of -which is by some geographers identified with the Assur of the book -Genesis.[37] After that hasty and tantalising visit, in the spring of -1840, LAYARD did not again see Mósul until the summer of 1842, when he -was again travelling Tatar, and hurrying to Constantinople. In the -interval, he had often thought of his early purpose, and had talked of -it to many travellers. [Sidenote: BOTTA’S FIRST DISCOVERIES.] Now, in -1842, he heard that what he had hitherto been able only to contemplate, -as the wished-for task of the future, Monsieur BOTTA, the new French -Consul at Mósul, had, for some months, been actually working upon; -although, as yet, with very small success. Our countryman encouraged the -French Consul in his undertaking, and presently learned that by him the -first real monument of old Assyria had been uncovered. This primary -discovery was not made at Kouyunjik, but at Khorsabad, near the river -Khauser, many miles away from the place at which the first French -excavations had been made, early in 1842. - -The delighted emotions of Monsieur BOTTA, when he found himself, very -suddenly, standing in a chamber in which—to all probability—no man had -stood since the Fall of Nineveh, and saw that the chamber was lined with -sculptured slabs of ‘gypsum-marble’ or alabaster, full of historic -scenes from the wars and triumphs of Assyria, a reader can better -imagine than a writer can describe. BOTTA himself rather indicates than -depicts them, in the deeply interesting letters which he speedily -addressed to his friend MOHL at Paris (and which by MOHL were not less -promptly published in the _Journal Asiatique_, to be within a month or -two pondered and wondered over by almost every archæologist in Europe). -The delight, and also the surprise, were enhanced when the discoverer -saw that almost every slab had a line of wedge-shaped characters carved -above it, giving hope of history in legible inscriptions, as well as -history in ruins. For, unhappily, nearly all the sculptures _first_ -discovered at Khorsabad were fractured. The durability of the Assyrian -style of building had brought about the defacement of the sculptured -records. The walls were formed of blocks of gypsum, backed and lined, so -to speak, with enormous masses of clay. When the weight of such large -earth-banks pressed down upon the sculptured slabs, these were thrust -from their place. Many that were still in position, when first seen, -fell, or crumbled, as the explorer was looking at them. He had to -shore-up and underpin, as he went on; and to do this by unpractised -hands. Else, the more diligent his excavations, the more destructive -they would have been of the very end he had in view. - -LAYARD was at Constantinople when the news came of M. BOTTA’S increasing -successes. His detention there had been unexpected, as well as -unavoidable. But he wrote to England without delay. He had a foresight -that BOTTA would not lack encouragement in France. He felt no unworthy -jealousy on account of the fact that it was a Frenchman who was now -disinterring historic treasures of a hitherto unexampled kind, and who -was rapidly securing historic fame for himself.[38] Mr. LAYARD knew—few -men just then knew more fully—that in all matters of learning and of -discovery the gains of France are the gains of the world. [Sidenote: -LAYARD’S OVERTURES TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.] For the staunchest of -John Bulls amongst us must acknowledge that in the arts of scientific -dissemination and exposition a Frenchman (other things being equal) has -usually twice the expertness of an Englishman. But he was naturally -desirous that France should not have _all_ the glory of Assyrian -discovery. What, then, was the reception with which his first overtures -were met? ‘With a single exception,’ in the person of his London -correspondent, ‘no one,’ he tells us, ‘in England’ ... [Sidenote: -_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i, p. 10.] ‘seemed inclined to assist or -take any interest in such an undertaking.’ - -What, on the other hand, were the encouragements given to the French -explorer by the Government and the Nation of France? They were large; -they were ungrudgingly given; and they were instantaneously sent. In Mr. -LAYARD’S words: ‘The recommendation was attended to with that readiness -and munificence which [has] almost invariably distinguished the French -Government in undertakings of this nature. [Sidenote: LIBERAL AID -EXTENDED TO M. BOTTA BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.] Ample funds to meet the -cost of extensive excavations were at once assigned to M. BOTTA, and an -artist of acknowledged skill was placed under his orders, to draw such -parts of the monuments discovered as could not be preserved or removed.’ -Who will wonder that at first it seemed as though France would carry off -all the stakes, and England have no place at all in the archæological -race? - -[Sidenote: CONTRASTS:—ENGLAND AND FRANCE.] - -Mr. LAYARD, however, was otherwise minded. And he found, presently, a -powerful helper in the person of the British Ambassador at -Constantinople, Sir Stratford CANNING (now Lord Stratford de Redcliffe). -Had it not been for the union, in that ambassador, of a large intellect, -a liberal mind, and a strong will, and also for the _absence_, in him, -of that shrinking from extra-official responsibilities which in so many -able men has often emasculated their ability, Mr. LAYARD’S efforts, -earnest and unremitting as they were, would assuredly have been foiled. - -The reader will perceive that for what was achieved, in 1845 and in the -subsequent years, on the banks of the Tigris, the British public owe a -debt of gratitude to Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE, the encourager of the -enterprise, as well as to Mr. LAYARD, its originator. - -But neither does this fact, nor does the like of it, five years earlier, -in the help given by Lord PONSONBY to the Lycian researches of Sir -Charles FELLOWS, invalidate or weaken the remark I have ventured to make -(on pages 348; 381, of the present volume, and elsewhere) about the -discreditable and long-continued apathy of our Foreign Office in matters -of art and literature; especially if we compare on that head British -practice with French practice. Perhaps, at first blush, it might be -thought somewhat presumptuous, in a private person, to remark so freely -on what seem to him the shortcomings of statesmen. But it has to be -borne in mind that, in such cases as this, outspoken criticism is rather -the expression of known public opinion, than of mere individual -judgment. The one writer, how humble soever, is very often the -mouthpiece of the thoughts of many minds. Nor is other warrant for such -criticism lacking. - -_Three years_ after beginning his excavations at Nimroud, Mr. LAYARD -himself wrote thus (from Cheltenham):—‘It is to be regretted that proper -steps have not been taken for the transport to England of the sculptures -discovered at Nineveh. Those which have already reached this country, -and (it is to be feared) those which are now on their way, have -consequently suffered _unnecessary_ injury; ... yet, ... [Sidenote: -_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i, p. xiii.] they are almost the only -remains of a great city and of a great nation.’ - -Part of the injury now observable in the Assyrian sculptures of the -British Museum was, of course, inseparable from circumstances attending -the discovery. Besides the injury already spoken of—from the pressure of -the earth-banks—all the low-reliefs of one great palace had suffered -from intense heat. From this cause, Mr. LAYARD’S experiences recall, in -one particular, the impressive accounts we have all read of the opening -of ancient tombs in Egypt and in Italy. The fortunate excavator suddenly -beheld a kingly personage, in fashion as he lived. The royal forehead -was still encircled by a regal crown. The fingers were decked with -rings; the hand, mayhap, grasped a sceptre. But whilst the discoverer -was still gazing in the first flush of admiration, the countenance -changed; the ornaments crumbled; the sceptre and the hand that held it -alike became dust. So it was, at times, at Nimroud. Some of the calcined -slabs presented, for a moment, their story in its integrity. Presently, -they fell into fragments. - -[Sidenote: MIXED NATURE OF THE CAUSES OF THE MUTILATIONS OBSERVABLE IN - THE MUSEUM SCULPTURES FROM ASSYRIA.] - -None the less, when the reader goes into the Kouyunjik Gallery; looks at -the sculptures from SENNACHERIB’S palace; observes the innumerable -‘joinings,’ and then glances at his official ‘_Guide_’ (which tells him, -at page 85, ‘many single slabs reached this country in three hundred or -four hundred pieces’), he is bound for truth’s sake to remember that, -whilst some of the breakage is ascribable to the action of fire at the -time of the Fall of Nineveh, another portion of it is ascribable to the -want or absence of action, on the part of some worthy officials in the -public service of Britain, just twenty-five centuries afterwards. - - -With Sir Stratford CANNING’S help, and with the still better help of his -own courage and readiness of resource, Mr. LAYARD surmounted most of the -obstacles which lay in his path. There was a rich variety of them. To -quote but a tithe of his encounters with Candian pashas, Turcoman -navvies, Abou-Salman visitors, and Mósul cadis and muftis, would ensure -the reader’s amusement beyond all doubt; but the temptation must be -overcome. Happily, the original books are well known, though the -anecdotes are more than racy enough to bear quotation and requotation. - -[Sidenote: LAYARD’S FIRST DISCOVERY, 28th Nov., 1845.] - -Two incidents of the first explorations (1845–46) must needs be told. -The earliest discovery was made on the twenty-eighth of November. The -indications of having approached, at length, a chamber lined with -sculpture, rejoiced the Arab labourers not less than it rejoiced their -employer. They kept on digging long after the hour at which they were -accustomed to strike work. The slab first uncovered was a battle-scene. -War chariots drawn by splendidly equipped horses contained three -warriors apiece, in full career. The chief of them (beardless) was -clothed in complete mail, ‘and wore a pointed helmet on his head, from -the sides of which fell lappets covering the ears, the lower part of the -face, and the neck. The left hand (the arm being extended) grasped a bow -at full stretch; whilst the right, drawing the string to the ear, held -an arrow ready to be discharged. A second warrior urged, with reins and -whip, three horses to the utmost of their speed.... A third, without -helmet and with flowing hair and beard, held a shield for the defence of -the principal figure. Under the horses’ feet, and scattered about, were -the conquered, wounded by the arrows of the conquerors. I observed with -surprise the elegance and richness of the ornaments, the faithful and -delicate delineation of the limbs and muscles, both in the men and -horses, and the knowledge of art displayed in the grouping of the -figures and the general composition. [Sidenote: _Nineveh and its -Remains_ (1849), vol. i, p. 41.] In all these respects, as well as in -costume, this sculpture appeared to me, not only to differ from, but to -surpass, the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad.’ - -Thus cheered, the work of digging went on with fresh vigour, and in new -directions. Parts of a building which had suffered from decay, not from -fire, were at length uncovered. Slabs of still greater beauty were -disclosed. ‘I now thought,’ says the explorer, ‘I had discovered the -earliest palace of Nimroud.’ - -On the morning after the discovery of these new and more choice -sculptures—middle of February, 1846—Mr. LAYARD rode away from the mound -to a distant Arab encampment—wisely cultivating, as was his manner, a -good understanding with a ticklish sort of neighbours. Two early Arabs, -from this camp, had already paid a morning visit to the mound. They -hastened back at a racing pace. Before they could well pull up their -horses, or regain their own Oriental composure, the riders shouted at -sight of Layard: ‘Hasten, O Bey, to the diggers. They have found great -NIMROD himself. Wallah! it is wonderful, but it is true! We have seen -him with our eyes.’ - -The ‘Bey’ did not wait for lucid explanations; but urged his horse to -emulate the speed with which the grateful, though mysterious, tidings -had been brought to him. No sooner had he entered the new trench at the -mound, than he saw a splendidly sculptured head, the form of which -assured him at a glance that it must belong to a winged bull or lion -like to those of Persepolis and of Khorsabad. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, p. -65.] Its preservation was perfect, its features sharply cut. [Sidenote: -1846, February.] The Arab workmen stood looking at it with intent and -fear-expressing eyes—but with open palms. The first word that came from -their lips begged a ‘back-sheesh,’ in honour of the auspicious occasion. -The terror of one of them, only, had led him to scamper at full speed to -his tent, that he might hide himself from the frightful monster whose -aspect seemed to threaten vengeance on those rash men who had dared to -disturb his long repose, in the bowels of the earth. - -Scarcely had Mr. LAYARD glanced at ‘NIMROD’ before he found that more -than half the tribe whose encampment he had just left had followed hard -at his heels. They were headed by their Sheikh. It would be difficult to -depict, in few words, the conflict of their feelings. Admiration, -terror, anger, had each a part in the emotion which was evinced, no less -in their gestures than in their words. ‘There is no God but GOD, and -MAHOMED is his prophet! [Sidenote: _Ibid._, p. 66.] This is not the work -of men’s hands, but of those infidel giants whom the Prophet—peace be -with him!—has said, that “they were higher than the tallest date-tree.” -This is one of the idols which NOAH—peace be with him!—cursed before the -Flood.’ Such were the words of Sheikh ABD-UR-RAHMAN himself. He showed -great reluctance, at first, to enter the trench. But when once in, he -examined the image with great and continued earnestness. All his -followers echoed his verdict. - -But the townspeople of Mósul were more difficult to deal with. The Cadi -called a meeting of the Mufti and the Ulema, to discuss the most -effectual protest against such an atrocious violation of the Koran as -that committed by the unbelieving explorer and his mercenary labourers. -Their notions about NIMROD were very vague. Some thought him to have -been an ancient true-believer; others had a strong misgiving that he, -like his unearther, was but an infidel. They were all clear that the -digging must be stopped. [Sidenote: _Nineveh and its Remains_; passim.] -It tasked all Mr. LAYARD’S skill, experience, and force of character, to -surmount these new difficulties. When they had been at length -overcome—with the brilliant results known now to most Englishmen—he had -to face the enormous difficulties of transport. The great human-headed -lions he was obliged to leave in their original position. A multitude of -smaller sculptures (many of them reduced in bulk by sawing) were safely -brought to England. The first arrivals came in 1847.[39] In 1849 and in -1850, the excavations in the mounds first opened were vigorously -resumed, and new researches were made in several directions. Early in -1850, the explorers buckled to the task of removing the lions. That -chapter in Mr. LAYARD’S familiar narrative is not the least interesting -one. - -The explorations partially interrupted in 1847 were resumed in 1849. -[Sidenote: _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_ (1853), pp. -162, 163; 201–209; seqq. Dec., 1849.] From the October of that year -until April, 1851, they were carried on with even more than the old -energy, for the means and appliances were more ample, and the -encouragements drawn from success followed each other in far quicker -succession. - -The suspension had been but partial, for Mr. Hormuzd RASSAM, then -British Vice-Consul at Mósul, had been empowered to keep a few men still -digging at Kouyunjik. He had there unearthed several new sculpture-lined -chambers of no small interest. But at Nimroud nothing worthy of mention -had been done during LAYARD’S absence. That was now his first object. -[Sidenote: 1849, Oct. and Nov.] Kouyunjik, however, for a long time gave -the best yield. - -In December the south-east façade of the Kouyunjik Palace was uncovered. -It was found to be a hundred and eighty feet in length, and contained, -among other sculptures, ten colossal bulls and six human figures. The -accompanying inscriptions contained the early annals of SENNACHERIB, and -of his wars with MERODACH BALADAN.[40] - -Presently, the labours on the north-west palace at Nimroud were also -richly rewarded. The somewhat higher antiquity of that building, as -compared with the homogeneous structures of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, had -already impressed itself with the force of conviction on Mr. LAYARD’S -individual mind. The fact now became manifest to all eyes that had the -capacity to see. - -These Nimroud monuments belong,—according to the opinion of the best -archæologists,—most of them, to the eighth, some of them, however, to -the earlier part of the seventh centuries _B.C._ They now occupy the -most central of the Assyrian Galleries in the British Museum. The -monuments of Kouyunjik and of Khorsabad are probably but little anterior -to the supposed date (625 _B.C._) of the destruction of Nineveh. These -are exhibited in galleries adjacent to the ‘Nimroud Central Saloon.’ To -describe only a few of them in connection with the interesting -circumstances of their respective disclosures would demand another -chapter. A word or two, however, must be given to one among the earlier -discoveries (October, 1846), and to one among the latest of those made -(in the spring of 1851), whilst Mr. LAYARD himself remained in the -neighbourhood of Mósul. - -[Sidenote: DISCOVERY OF THE BLACK-MARBLE OBELISK, 1846, October (found - in centre of the great mound).] - -At Nimroud many trenches had, in those early days, been opened -unprofitably. Mr. LAYARD doubted whether he ought to carry them further. -Half inclined to cease, in this direction, he resolved, finally, that he -would not abandon a cutting on which so much money and toil had been -spent, until the result of yet another day’s work was shown. [Sidenote: -_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i, p. 345. (1849 edit.)] ‘I mounted my -horse,’ he says—to ride into Mósul—‘but had scarcely left the mound when -a corner of black marble was uncovered, lying on the very edge of the -trench.’ It was part of an obelisk seven feet high, lying about ten feet -below the surface. Its top was cut into three gradines, covered with -wedge-shaped inscriptions. Beneath the gradines were five tiers of -sculpture in low-relief, continued on all sides. Between every two tiers -of sculpture ran a line of inscription. Beneath the five tiers, the -unsculptured surface was covered with inscriptions. These, as subsequent -researches have shown, contain the Annals of SHALMANESER, King of -Assyria, during thirty-one years towards the close of the ninth century -before our Lord. The tributaries of the great monarch are seen in long -procession, bearing their offerings. In the appended cuneiform record of -these tributaries are mentioned JEHU, ‘of the House of OMRI,’ and his -contemporary HAZAEL, King of Syria. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, 346.] Well may -the proud discoverer call his trophy a ‘precious relic.’ - - -We now leap over more than four eventful years. Mr. LAYARD is about to -exchange the often anxious but always glorious toils of the successful -archæologist, for the not less anxious and very often exceedingly -inglorious toils of the politician. He will also henceforth have to -exchange many a pleasant morning ride and many a peaceful evening -‘tobacco-parliament’ with Arabs of the Desert, for turbulent discussions -with metropolitan electors, and humble obeisances in order to win their -sweet voices. Just before he leaves Mósul come some new unearthings of -Assyrian sculpture, to add to the welcome tidings he will carry into -England. - -[Sidenote: THE DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK OF THE SPRING OF 1851.] - -He found, he tells us—in one of the closing chapters of his latest -book—that to the north of the great centre-hall four new chambers, full -of sculpture, had been discovered. On the walls of a grand gallery, -ninety-six feet by twenty-three, was represented the return of an -Assyrian army from a campaign in which they had won loads of spoil and a -long array of prisoners. The captured fighting men wore a sort of -Phrygian bonnet reversed, short tunics, and broad belts. The women had -long tresses and fringed robes. [Sidenote: _Discoveries at Nineveh and -Babylon_ (edit. 1853), pp. 582–584.] Sometimes they rode on mules or -were drawn—by men as well as by mules—in chariots. The captives were the -men and women of Susiana. The victor was SENNACHERIB. - - -In several subsequent years—1853, 1854, 1855, when most Englishmen were -intently acting, or beholding with suspended breath, the great drama in -the Crimea—a famous compatriot was continuing the task so nobly -initiated by Austen LAYARD. Sir Henry RAWLINSON (made by this time -Consul-General at Baghdad) carried on new excavations, both at Nimroud -and at Kouyunjik. In these he was ably assisted by Mr. W. K. LOFTUS, as -well as by Mr. Hormuzd RASSAM, the helper and early friend of LAYARD, -and (in the later stages) by Mr. TAYLOR. Another obelisk, with portions -of a third and fourth; thirty-four slabs sculptured in low-relief; one -statue in the round; and a multitude of smaller objects, illustrating -with wonderful diversity and minuteness the manners and customs, the -modes of life and of thought, as well as the wars and conquests, the -luxury and the cruelty, of the old Assyrians, were among the treasures -which, by the collective labour of these distinguished explorers, were -sent into Britain. [Sidenote: EARLY LABOURERS ON THE DECIPHERING OF -CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS.] Another ‘recension,’ so to speak, of the early -Annals of SENNACHERIB, King of Assyria, inscribed upon a cylinder, was -not the least interesting of the monuments found under the direction of -Sir Henry RAWLINSON, whose name had already won its station—many years -before his consulship at Baghdad—beside those of GROTEFEND, of BURNOUF -and of LASSEN, in the roll of those scientific investigators by whose -closet labours the researches and long gropings of the RICHES, the -BOTTAS, and the LAYARDS, were destined to be interpreted, illustrated, -and fructified for the world of readers at large. - -For it is not the least interesting fact in this particular and most -richly-yielding field of Assyrian archæology—that several men in -Germany;—more than one man in France;—and one man, at least, in Persia, -had been working simultaneously, but entirely without concert, at those -hard and, for a time, almost barren studies which were eventually to -supply a master-key to vast libraries of inscriptions brought to light -after an entombment of twenty-five hundred years. - - -[Sidenote: THE TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES OF SIR CHARLES FELLOWS IN LYCIA.] - -Scarcely smaller than the debt of gratitude which Britain owes to Mr. -LAYARD and to Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE, for the Marbles and other -antiquities of Assyria, is the debt which she owes to the late Sir -Charles FELLOWS for those of Lycia. Nor ought it to be passed over -without remark that the admirably productive mission to the Levant of -Mr. Charles NEWTON seems to have grown, in germ, out of the applications -made at Constantinople on behalf of Sir Charles FELLOWS. In that merit -he has but a very small share. The merit of the Lycian discoveries is -all his own. He has now gone from amongst us,—like most of the -benefactors whose public services have been recorded in this volume. How -inadequate the record; how insufficient for the task the chronicler; no -one will be so painfully conscious, as is the man whose hand—in the -absence of a better hand—has here attempted the narrative. The Museum -story has been long. What remains to be said must needs be put more -briefly. But because Sir Charles FELLOWS has been so lately removed from -the land he served with so much zeal and ability, I shall still venture -to claim the indulgence of my readers for a somewhat detailed account of -the work done in Lycia, and of the man who did it. - -[Sidenote: THE ANALOGIES AND THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN FELLOWS AND LAYARD.] - -In one respect, it was with Charles FELLOWS as with Austen LAYARD. A -youthful passion for foreign travel, and what grew out of that, lifted -each of them from obscurity into prominence. But LAYARD achieved fame at -a much earlier age than did Sir Charles FELLOWS. Sir Charles was almost -forty before his name came at all before the Public. LAYARD was already -a personage at eight and twenty. This small circumstantial difference -between the fortune of two men whose pursuits in life were, for a time, -so much alike, deserves to be kept in mind, on this account: Sir Charles -lived scarcely long enough to see any fair appreciation of what he had -accomplished. Even those whose political sympathies incline them to a -belief that Mr. LAYARD’S _official_ services will never suffice to -console Englishmen for the interruption of his archæological services, -hope that he may live long enough to enjoy a rich reward for the latter -in their yearly-increasing estimation by his countrymen at large. They -will delight to see the fervid member for Southwark utterly eclipsed in -the fame of the great discoverer of long-entombed Assyria. - - -[Sidenote: THE TRAVELS IN ASIA MINOR, AND WHAT GREW THEREOUT.] - -Sir Charles FELLOWS was the son of Mr. John FELLOWS, of Nottingham. He -was born in 1799. In the year 1837, he set out upon a long tour in Asia -Minor. Archæological discovery no more formed any part of a preconcerted -plan in Mr. FELLOWS’ case than it did, two or three years afterwards, in -Mr. LAYARD’S. Both were led to undertake their respective explorations -in a way that (for want of a more appropriate word) we are all -accustomed to call ‘accidental.’ - -In February, 1838, he found himself at Smyrna. After a good deal of -observation of men and manners, he betook himself to an inspection of -the buildings. [Sidenote: _Journal written during an Excursion in Asia -Minor_, pp. 8, seqq. (edit. 1852).] He soon found that not a little of -the modern Smyrna was built out of the ruins of the Smyrna of the old -world. Busts, columns, entablatures, of white marble and of ancient -workmanship, were everywhere visible, in close admixture with the -recently-quarried building-stone of the country and the period. But not -only had the old marbles been built into the new edifices; they had been -turned into tombstones. Certain Jews, of an enterprising and practical -turn of mind, had bought, in block, a whole hill-full of venerable -marbles, in order to have an inexhaustible supply of new tombstones -close at hand. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, p. 9.] In another part of the suburbs -of the town, the walls of a large corn-field turned out, on close -examination, to be built of thin and flat stones, of which the inner -surface was formed of richly-patterned mosaic, black, white, and red. -From that day, the traveller, wheresoever he journeyed, was a -scrutinising archæologist. And the traveller, thus equipped for his -work, was busied, two months afterwards, in exploring that most -interesting part of Asia Minor (a part now called ‘Anadhouly’), which -includes Lydia, Mysia, Bithynia, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycia, Pamphylia, and -Caria; and much of which was never before trodden—so far as is known, -and the knowledge referred to is that of the best geographers in -England, discussing this matter expressly, at a meeting of the -Geographical Society—by the feet of any European.[41] - -[Sidenote: THE EXPLORATIONS IN ANTIPHELLUS AND ITS VICINITY. 1838, - April.] - -On the eighteenth of April, Mr. FELLOWS found himself in the -romantically beautiful, but rugged and barren, neighbourhood of -Antiphellus. The ancient town of that name possessed a theatre, and a -multitude of temples, grandly placed on a far-outjutting promontory. For -miles around, the rocks and the ravines were strewn with marble -fragments. The face of the cliff, which, on one side, overhangs the -town, was seen to be deeply indented with rock-tombs, richly adorned. -They contained sarcophagi of a special form. The lid of each of them -bore a rude resemblance to a pointed arch. It sounds at first almost -grotesquely, in the ear of a reader of Mr. FELLOWS’ _Journal_ of 1839, -to hear him speak of Lycian tombs as ‘Elizabethan’ in their -architecture. But, in the sense intended, the term is strictly apposite. -[Sidenote: _Journal of an Excursion_, &c., as above, p. 164.] If the -reader will but glance at one of Mr. FELLOWS’ many beautiful plates of -those rock-tombs, he will see at once that they look not unlike the -stone-mullioned windows of our own Tudor age. - - -But the discovery which eclipsed all Mr. FELLOWS’ previous researches -was that of the ancient capital of Lycia—Xanthus. Next in importance to -that was his disinterment of Tlos. He saw the ruins of other and, in -their day, famous towns. It was plain that he had now before him a fine -opening to add to the stores of human knowledge in some of its grandest -departments—artistic, historical, biblical. But, in 1838, he had not the -most ordinary appliances of minute research. He went back to England; -found (as LAYARD was also destined to find, very shortly afterwards) -only a very little encouragement, at official hands; much more than a -little, however, in his own reflections and foresight. [Sidenote: -FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN THE VALLEY OF THE XANTHUS, AND IN OTHER PARTS OF -LYCIA; 1840–42.] In 1839, he went back to Lycia, taking with him George -SCHARF, then carefully described as ‘a young English artist,’ now widely -known as an eminent archæologist. FELLOWS explored. SCHARF drew. Early -in 1840, ten Lycian cities were added to the previous discoveries. Each -of them contained many precious works of ancient art. - -In order to effectual excavation, and in order also to the safety of -what was found from destruction by Turkish barbarities, the Sultan’s -firman was essential. The difficulties were much like those which, as I -have had occasion to show in ‘Book Second,’ lay in the path of Lord -ELGIN, under similar circumstances, more than forty years earlier. By -Lord PONSONBY’S zealous efforts, they were at length surmounted. -[Sidenote: See Book II, chap. 2; pp. 382, seqq.] At the earnest instance -of the Museum Trustees, the Government at home seconded the exertions of -their ambassador at Constantinople; and this combination of endeavour -made that feasible which the best energies of Sir Charles FELLOWS, -single handed, must have utterly failed to secure. - -The reader will not, I incline to think, regard as an instance of -overmuch detail, if I here add—for instructive comparison with the terms -of the official letter procured by Lord ELGIN—the words in which RIFAAT -Pasha, in June, 1841, describes the antiquities, the removal whereof was -to be graciously permitted. In 1800, Lord ELGIN (after enormous labour) -was empowered to ‘take away any pieces of stone, from the Temples of the -Idols, with old inscriptions or figures thereon.’ Now—in 1841—the -‘pieces of stone’ are described as ‘antique remains and rare objects.’ -The schoolmaster, it will be seen, had been at work at Constantinople. - -[Sidenote: THE RESEARCHES AT CADYANDA, PINARA, &C.] - -The explorations at Cadyanda, at Pinara, and at Sidyma, richly merit the -reader’s attention, as an essential part of our present subject. But -happily Sir Charles FELLOWS’ books are both accessible and popular. Here -we must hasten on to Xanthus, and Sir Charles’ story must now be told in -his own expressive and graphic words: - -[Sidenote: THE EXCAVATIONS AT XANTHUS.] - -‘Xanthus certainly possesses some of the earliest Archaic sculpture in -Asia Minor, and this connected with the most beautiful of its monuments, -and illustrated by the language of Lycia. These sculptures to which I -refer must be the work of the sixth or seventh centuries before the -Christian era, but I have not seen an instance of these remains having -been despoiled for the rebuilding of walls; and yet the decidedly more -modern works of a later people are used as materials in repairing the -walls around the back of the city and upon the Acropolis; many of these -have Greek inscriptions, with names common among the Romans. The whole -of the sculpture is Greek, fine, bold, and simple, bespeaking an early -age of that people. No sign whatever is seen of the works of the -Byzantines or Christians. - -‘To lay down a plan of the town is impossible, the whole being concealed -by trees; but walls of the finest kind, Cyclopean blended with the -Greek, as well as the beautifully squared stones of a lighter kind, are -seen in every direction; several gateways also, with their paved roads, -still exist. I observed on my first visit that the temples have been -very numerous, and, from their position along the brow of the cliff, -must have combined with nature to form one of the most beautiful of -cities. The extent I now find is much greater than I had imagined, and -its tombs extend over miles of country I had not before seen. The -beautiful gothic-formed sarcophagus-tomb, with chariots and horses upon -its roof, of which I have before spoken and have given a sketch of a -battle-scene upon the side, accompanied with a Lycian inscription, is -again a chief object of my admiration amidst the ruins of this city. Of -the ends of this monument I did not before show drawings, but gave a -full description. Beneath the rocks, at the back of the city, is a -sarcophagus of the same kind, and almost as beautifully sculptured; but -this has been thrown down, and the lid now lies half-buried in the -earth. Its hog’s-mane is sculptured with a spirited battle-scene. Many -Greek inscriptions upon pedestals are built into the walls, which may -throw some light upon the history of the city; they are mostly funereal, -and belong to an age and people quite distinct from those of the many -fine Lycian remains. - -‘Two of my days have been spent in the tedious, but, I trust, useful -occupation, of copying the Lycian inscription from the obelisk I -mentioned in my former volume that I had seen: this will be of service -to the philologist. Having, with the assistance of a ladder, ascended to -a level with the top of the monument, I discovered a curious fact: the -characters cut upon the upper portion are larger and wider apart than -those on the lower, thus counteracting the effect of diminution by -distance, as seen from the ground. As the letters are beautifully cut, I -have taken several impressions from them, to obtain fac-similes. By this -inscription I hope to fix the type of an alphabet, which will be much -simplified, as I find upon the various tombs about the town great -varieties, though of a trifling nature, in the forms of each letter; -these varieties have hitherto been considered as different characters. -This long public inscription will establish the form of all the letters -of an alphabet, one form only being used throughout for each letter: if -this should be deciphered, it may be the means of adding information to -history. The inscription exceeds two hundred and fifty lines. - -‘It is to be regretted that the obelisk is not perfect; time or an -earthquake has split off the upper part, which lies at its foot. Two -sides of this portion only remain, with inscriptions which I could copy; -the upper surface being without any, and the lower facing the ground: -its weight of many tons rendered it immoveable. I had the earth -excavated from the obelisk itself, and came to the base, or probably the -upper part of a flight of steps, as in the other obelisk-monuments of a -similar construction. The characters upon the north-west side are cut in -a finer and bolder style than on the others, and appear to be the most -ancient. Should any difference of date occur on this monument, I should -decide that this is the commencement or original inscription upon it. - -‘This, which I must consider as a very important monument, appears to -have on the north-east side a portion of its inscription in the early -Greek language; the letters are comparatively ill cut, and extremely -difficult at such an elevation to decipher; seizing favourable -opportunities for the light, I have done my best to copy it faithfully, -and glean from it that the subject is funereal, and that it relates to a -king of Lycia; the mode of inscription makes the monument itself speak, -being written in the first person. Very near to this stands the -monument, similar in form, which I described in my last Journal as being -near the theatre, and upon which remained the singular bas-reliefs of -which I gave sketches. [Sidenote: _Journal of an Excursion in Asia -Minor_, &c. (2nd Edit.), Appendix.] On closer examination I find these -to be far more interesting and ancient than I had before deemed them. -They are in very low-relief, resembling in that respect the Persepolitan -or Egyptian bas-reliefs. - -‘I have received,’ continues Sir Charles FELLOWS, ‘from Mr. Benjamin -GIBSON of Rome a letter in reference to these bas-reliefs: his -interpretation of this mysterious subject appears far the best that I -have yet heard; and from finding the district to have been in all -probability the burial-place of the kings, it becomes the more -interesting. Mr. GIBSON writes—“The winged figures on the corners of the -tomb you have discovered in Lycia, represented flying away with -children, may with every probability be well supposed to have a -reference to the story of the Harpies flying away with the daughters of -King PANDARUS. This fable we find related by HOMER in the _Odyssey_, -lib. xx, where they are stated to be left orphans, and the gods as -endowing them with various gifts. Juno gives them prudence, Minerva -instructs them in the art of the loom, Diana confers on them tallness of -person, and lastly Venus flies up to Jupiter to provide becoming -husbands for them; in the mean time, the orphans being thus left -unprotected, the Harpies come and ‘snatch the unguarded charge away.’ -STRABO tells us that PANDARUS was King of Lycia, and was worshipped -particularly at Pinara. This tomb becomes thus very interesting; which, -if it be not the tomb of PANDARUS, shows that the story was prevalent in -Lycia, and that the great author of the _Iliad_ derived it from that -source. With this clue, we have no difficulty in recognising Juno on the -peculiar chair assigned to that goddess, and on the same side is Venus -and her attendants; upon another is probably represented Diana, -recognised by the hound. The seated gods are less easily distinguished. -[Sidenote: _Travels and Researches in Asia Minor_, pp. 336–340.] In the -Harpies, at the four corners of the tomb, we have the illustration of -those beings as described by the classic writers.”’ - -[Sidenote: MANY SUBSEQUENT DISCOVERIES; (THE DETAILS HERE NECESSARILY - PASSED OVER).] - -Every lateral excursion made by Sir C. FELLOWS, and by his companions in -travel, added to his collection rich works of sculpture, and not a few -of them added many varied and most interesting minor antiquities. But I -must needs resist all temptation to enlarge on that head, though the -temptation is great. The twentieth and subsequent chapters of the book -itself (I refer to the _collective_ but abridged ‘_Travels and -Researches in Asia Minor_’ of 1852) will abundantly repay the reader who -is disposed to turn to them—whether it be for a renewed or for a new -reading. - -[Sidenote: THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT. Jan., 1842.] - -When the task of removal had to be undertaken, difficulties of transport -were found, under certain then existing circumstances, to be graver -obstacles than had been Turkish prejudice or Turkish apathy at an -earlier stage of the business. The maritime part of the duty had been -entrusted to Captain GRAVES, of H.M. Ship _Beacon_. The captain left his -ship at Smyrna; sailed with FELLOWS for the Xanthus, in a steam-packet; -but omitted to provide himself with the needful flat-bottomed boats. -[Sidenote: 1841, February.] When they reached the site of the marbles -which were to be carried away, Captain GRAVES said he would not have any -of the stores taken down the river; that stores must be obtained from -Malta; and that he would take all hands away from the diggings at the -beginning of March. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, pp. 440, seqq.] The reader may -imagine the reflections of the eager discoverer at this sudden -check,—coming, as it did, at the very beginning of the burst. - -He took a solitary walk of many hours, he tells us, before he could -resolve upon his course of action. He saw before him, to use his own -words, ‘a mine of treasure.’ He had willing hands to work it; ample -firmans to stave off opposition; nothing deficient save boats and -tackle. A year might possibly pass in awaiting them from Malta; and, -meanwhile, the ignorance of the peasantry, the indiscreet curiosity of -travellers, or the sudden growth of political complications, might -destroy the enterprise irrecoverably. - -He resolved, in his perplexity, to construct by his own exertions tackle -that would suffice for the removal to the coast; got native help in -addition to the willing efforts—however unscientific—of the honest -sailors of the _Beacon_; succeeded in getting a portion of the precious -objects of his quest to the waterside, before the arrival of the ship; -and got them also strongly cased up. Then he sailed with GRAVES for -Malta. The worthy captain resigned the honourable task—to him so -unwelcome—into the hands of Admiral Sir Edward OWEN. A new expedition -started from Malta at the end of April, and brought away seventy-eight -cases of sculpture in June; leaving the splendid but too heavy -‘winged-chariot-tomb’—so called by its discoverer in one place, and -elsewhere called ‘horse-tomb,’ but since ascertained to be the tomb of a -Lycian satrap named PAIAFA; [Sidenote: ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND OF THE FIRST -SERIES OF XANTHIAN MARBLES. DEC., 1841.] it is adorned with figures of -Glaucus, or perhaps of Sarpedon, in a four-horse chariot—until next -year. The seventy-eight cases were brought to England by the Queen’s -ship _Cambridge_ in the following December. - -On the fourteenth of May, 1842, the Trustees of the British Museum thus -recorded their sense of Mr. FELLOWS’ public services:—‘The Trustees -desire to express their sense of Mr. FELLOWS’ public spirit, in -voluntarily undertaking to lend to so distant an expedition the -assistance of his local knowledge and personal co-operation. They have -viewed with great satisfaction the decision and energy evinced by Mr. -FELLOWS in proceeding from Smyrna to Constantinople, and obtaining the -necessary authority for the removal of the marbles; as well as his -judicious directions at Xanthus, by which the most desirable of the -valuable monuments of antiquity formerly brought to light by him, -together with several others, of scarcely less interest, [Sidenote: -_Minutes of the Trustees of the British Museum_; 14 May, 1842. (Appendix -to Fellows).] now for the first time discovered and excavated, have been -placed in safety, and—as the Trustees have every reason to hope—secured -for the National Museum.’ - -This hope was more than realised. It shows the energy of FELLOWS, that -the expedition to Lycia of 1841 was his _third_ expedition. In 1846 he -made a fourth. It was rich in discovery; but I fear somewhat exhausting -to the strength of the explorer. He lived a good many years, it is true, -after his return to England; but how easily he yielded when a sudden -attack of illness came, I shall have the pain of showing presently. - -In the interval between his third and fourth journeys to Lycia, FELLOWS -married a fellow-townswoman, Mary, the only daughter of Francis HART, of -Nottingham, but she survived the marriage only two years. A year after -her death he married the widow of William KNIGHT, of Oatlands, in Herts. -On his final return from Lycia he was knighted, as a token (and it was -but a slender one) of the public gratitude for his services. At the -close of October, 1860, a sudden attack of pleurisy invaded a toilworn -frame. On the eighth of the following month he died, at his house in -Montagu Place, London, in the sixty-first year of his age. - - -[Sidenote: DATE AND CHARACTER OF THE MONUMENTS IN THE ‘LYCIAN GALLERY.’] - -Taken broadly, the sculptures of Lycia may be described as works which -range, in date, from the sixth century before our Lord to almost as many -centuries—if we take the minor antiquities into account—after the -commencement of the Christian era. Some of them rank, therefore, amongst -the earliest _original_ monuments of Greek art which the British Museum -possesses; and date immediately after the _casts_ of the sculptures of -Selinus and of Ægina. - -On some of the myths and on the habits of Lycian life there has been a -sharp controversy, of the merits of which I am very incompetent to -speak. Narrower and narrower as my limits are becoming, I yet feel it -due to a public benefactor, who can no longer speak for himself -otherwise than by his works, that in these waning pages he should be -permitted to supply at least a part of his own explanatory comments upon -the story of his discoveries. It is one of enchaining interest to the -students of classical antiquity. - -The famous ‘Harpy Tomb,’ thinks Sir Charles FELLOWS, is to be enumerated -as among the most ancient of the remaining works of the ‘Tramilæ,’ or -‘Termilæ,’ mentioned both by HERODOTUS and by STEPHEN of Byzantium, as -well as on the Xanthian obelisk or _stele_, now called the ‘Inscribed -Monument,’ and numbered ‘141’ in the Lycian Gallery of the Museum. - -[Sidenote: FELLOWS’ ACCOUNT OF THE LYCIAN MARBLES.] - -Sir Charles FELLOWS proceeds to say that ‘the shaft, frieze, and cap of -this monument, weighing more than a hundred tons, has been by an -earthquake moved upon its pedestal eighteen inches towards the -north-east, throwing to the ground two stones of the frieze towards the -south-west: in this state I found it in 1838. In 1841 the eight stones -of this frieze were placed in the Museum. The only similar art which I -know in Europe is in the Albani Villa near Rome. This slab is described -by WINCKELMANN as being of earlier workmanship than that of Etruria. I -shall not dwell upon these works, as they were found _in sitû_, and will -therefore be as well understood in England as if seen at Xanthus. I may -draw attention to the blue, red, and other colours still remaining upon -them. The subject also being that of the family of King PANDARUS, it -should ever be borne in mind that this monument stood in the metropolis -of Lycia, and within twelve miles of the city of Pinara, where we are -told that PANDARUS was deified. This and the neighbouring tombs stood -there prior to the building of the theatre, which is probably of Greek -workmanship. The usual form of this structure must have been partially -sacrificed on account of these monuments, as the seats rising in the -circles above the diazoma have abruptly ceased on the western side, and -have not been continued towards the proscenium. Near to one of the -vomitories in the south-eastern bend of the diazoma is a similar -monument to the Harpy Tomb, which has had the capstone and bas-reliefs -removed, and the shaft built over by the theatre. Upon one of its sides -is a short Lycian inscription, and a few words referring to its repair -remain upon another side in the Greek character. - -‘Not far from these stands the inscribed stele, which is of the highest -interest; of this, which is too heavy and too much mutilated to allow, -without great labour, of its removal to the Museum, I have had casts -taken in plaster. From my publications you would learn that a portion of -the top of this [monument], weighing several tons, had been split off by -the shocks of earthquakes: of this I have also had casts taken. In -excavating around the monument on the south-west, and in the opposite -direction to which the top had split off, I found the capstone had been -thrown which had surmounted bas-reliefs; also two fragments of a -bas-relief, but I think too high to have been placed upon this stele: -they are the work of the same age, and are now placed in the Museum. The -most important discovery here was of the upper angles broken from the -monument, and having upon them the inscription on each side, thus -perfecting, as far as they extend, the beginnings and ends of the upper -lines of the inscription; these original stones I have brought home, -being useless and insecure, if left in fragments with the monument. The -exact form of the letters of the Greek portion of this inscription, -compared with many others of which I shall speak, will do much to fix a -date to these works. - -‘Upon the point of rock on the north-west side of the Acropolis is a -fine Cyclopean basement, which has probably been surmounted by a similar -monument to those of which I have spoken. No trace is found of any of -its fragments; and from its position, shocks in the same direction as -those which have destroyed the others would have thrown this down the -perpendicular cliff into the river which flows about three hundred feet -beneath. - -‘The masses of Cyclopean foundations traced around and upon the -Acropolis, have been too much worked in, and converted to the use of an -after people to ascertain their original form: they certainly have not -been continuous, forming a wall or defence for the Acropolis; indeed, -its natural position would render this superfluous, the cliffs on the -south and west are inaccessible. I observe that most of the forms are -referable to vast pedestals or stoas for large monuments; and from their -individual positions at various elevations, and upon angles and points, -I believe that the Acropolis has been covered with the ornamented -monuments of this early people. The walls and basements of these -separate buildings have since been united by strong lines formed of the -old materials, the most ready for the purpose, and all put together with -a very excellent cement, of which I have brought away specimens. A wall -of this formation, facing the south-west, attracted my attention in -1838, by displaying some sculptured animals and chariots built as -material into its front. This wall we have, with great labour, owing to -the hardness of the cement, entirely removed; behind a portion of it we -found a fine Cyclopean wall, which had slightly inclined over from the -weight of earth behind; the casing which we have removed strengthened -it, and, connecting the old buildings with others, formed a line of -fortification, probably in Roman times. From the great size of the -blocks used in constructing this wall, from the similarity of the stone, -as well as from the sculpture traceable upon almost the whole of them, I -conclude that they must have been the ruins of monuments in the -immediate neighbourhood; basements for such are on either side. The -works found here are entirely those of the early people; and I may -extend this remark to all found upon the Acropolis. The architectural -fragments, many specimens of which I bring away, are all Lycian, and -would form monuments imitative of wooden constructions—beam-ends, ties, -mortices, and cornices, similar to the tombs shown in the drawings, but -double the size in point of scale to any now existing; bearing this in -mind, I do not think it improbable that the sculptures representing a -chariot procession have filled the panels on either side; should this be -the case we have nearly the whole complete. The cornice and borders of -these strongly corroborate this idea. We have four somewhat triangular -stones, with sitting sphinxes upon each; these would complete the two -gable ends in similar form and spirit of device to the generality of the -tombs of this people. There is also an angle-stone, interesting from its -sculpture, and from its style and subject blending these works with the -age of the “Harpy Tomb.” - -‘To continue with the works of the early inhabitants: We must next -notice the tombs at the foot of the rocky heights at the south-eastern -parts of the city: of these the most beautiful are the kind having -Gothic-formed tops; these can be seen in the various drawings. The -structure generally consists of a base or pedestal which has contained -bodies, the _Platas_, surmounted by a plinth or solid mass of stone, -which is often sculptured; above this is a sarcophagus, generally -imitative of a wood-formed cabinet, the principal receptacle for the -bodies, the _Soros_; upon this is placed a Gothic lid, sometimes highly -ornamented with sculpture, which also served as a place of sepulture, -probably the _Isostæ_. From one of these, in which the lower parts were -cut out of the solid rock, and the top had fallen and been destroyed, I -have had casts taken, as the subject is intimately connected with the -frieze of the wild animals on the Acropolis. On this tomb, the -inscription is cut in the language of the early people. Not far distant -from this is a tomb which, from the sculpture upon it, I distinguish as -the “Chimæra-Tomb.” The lid of this, which I found in 1840, is perfect, -but had been thrown to the ground by the effect of earthquakes; the -chamber from off which it had slidden was inclining towards the lid; -beneath the chamber a few stones forming the foundation and step (in the -same block) are alone to be found. There is here no trace of the first -two stories, and from the rock approaching the surface of the ground I -found no depth of earth for research. Upon the chamber of this tomb is a -Lycian inscription, of which I have casts, in order that they may be -used in reconstructing the monument in the Museum. The other tomb of -this character, and by far the most highly ornamented, was the tomb of -PAIAFA, and I call it, from its sculpture, the “Winged-Chariot-Tomb.” In -finding this monument, in 1838, I observed that each part had been much -shaken and split by earthquake, but no portion was wanting except a -fragment from the north corner. This monument combines matters of great -interest, showing in itself specimens of the architecture, sculpture, -and language. I have stated that this style of monument is peculiar to -Lycia; and I now add, from the knowledge derived from my research in -that country, that Lycia contains none but these two of this ornamental -description. These differ in minor points, making the possession of each -highly desirable, and I am glad that these will be placed in our -National Museum. The tombs of Telmessus, Antiphellus, and Limyra, are -similar in construction, but have not the sculptured tops and other -ornamental finishings seen in these. - -‘Upon the Acropolis, and fallen into a bath, we found a pedestal having -sculptured upon the side a god and goddess within a temple, in excellent -preservation. On the opposite side of the pedestal is a very singular -subject, which, had not certain points both of execution, material, and -position occurred, I should have attributed to the Byzantine age. -Amongst many other animals, the object of chase to a hunter is seen much -mutilated: this may have been the representation of a novel idea of the -Chimæra: the hind quarters of a goat remain, with a snake for its tail. -It is greatly to be regretted that the other fragments could not be -found. On observing in the ground some very ancient forms of the Greek -letters, differing from all others found so commonly here, cut upon a -slab of marble, I had it taken up, and was delighted to find that it was -a pedestal, with a Lycian inscription upon the other side; this will be -valuable, as showing the form of the Greek characters in use at the age -of the language of Lycia. This same type is seen in all the bilingual -inscriptions, of which we have only casts. - -‘Of another pedestal at Tlos I have taken casts, which will be valued -from the subjects of the bas-reliefs. The pedestal of one stone was -formed of two cubes, a small one upon a larger. The fourth side of the -upper one was not sculptured. One slab of the larger cube represents in -bas-relief a view of the Acropolis of Tlos, the Troas of these early -people: probably the hero whose deeds were by this monument -commemorated, and whose name occurs twice upon it, was engaged in the -defence or capture of the city. At Tlos I also found cut in the rock of -the Acropolis a tomb with an Ionic portico. [Sidenote: _Note._—The plans -referred to are appended to the first edition of Sir C. Fellows’ book.] -Within this are represented a panelled and ornamented door, and several -sculptured devices and animals, as shown in the drawings and plans. On -the side, and within the portico, is a very early bas-relief of -Bellerophon upon Pegasus, and probably a chimæra beneath the horse; but -this portion of the sculpture is unfinished, and the rock beneath is -left rough; the columns of the portico are only blocked out from the -rock. Of the bas-relief of Bellerophon I have casts, and the full detail -of the colouring which now remains upon the figures. This is probably -the earliest sculpture which we have obtained. From Cadyanda I have -casts of parts of a beautiful tomb, which is so much in ruins, and -shaken into fragments, that I could not even take casts of the whole of -the sculptures that remain. The roof or lid is wanting. The tomb now -consists of a chamber in imitation of a wooden structure, and in the -panels is sculpture; surmounting this is a smaller solid block, or -plinth, also sculptured, but the upper part is wanting. These -bas-reliefs, of which I show many drawings in my ‘Lycia,’ derive great -additional interest from several of the figures having near them names -inscribed in two languages—the Greek and the Lycian. The casts of these, -I doubt not, will be valued as important illustrations. From Myra I have -casts of the whole of the figures ornamenting one of the rock-tombs. -Three of these subjects from within the Portico retain so much of their -original painting that I have had the casts coloured on the spot as -fac-similes, and a portion of the paint is preserved for chemical -examination. There are from this tomb eleven figures the size of life. -Of the inscriptions of this people I have made many copies; I have had -casts of one long one from the large Gothic-formed tomb at Antiphellus, -also of the bilingual inscription from the same place, and of another -from Levisse, near the ancient Telmessus. - -‘Of the age of the next works of which I must speak, and which are a -large portion of the collection from Xanthus, I have great difficulty in -forming an opinion. The whole were found around a basement which stands -on the edge of a cliff to the south-east of the ancient Acropolis. The -monument which stood upon this stoa has been thrown down by earthquake, -almost the whole of its ruins falling towards the north-west. These -works are of a people quite distinct from the preceding, both in their -architecture, sculpture, and language: these are purely Greek. On -carefully examining the whole of the architectural members of which I -have specimens selected (some retaining coloured patterns upon them), as -well as the position in which each of the various parts were thrown, I -have, in my own mind, reconstructed the building, the whole of which was -of Parian marble, and highly finished. The monument which I suppose to -have crowned this basement has been either a magnificent tomb, or a -monument erected as a memorial of a great victory. In reforming this, I -require the whole of the parts that we have found, and none are wanting -except two stones of the larger frieze, and the fragments of the -statues. The art of this sculpture is Greek, but the subjects show many -peculiarities and links to the earlier works found in Lycia. The frieze, -representing the taking refuge within a city, and the sally out of its -walls upon the besiegers, has many points of this character. The city -represented is an ancient Lycian city, and has within its walls the -stele, or monument known alone in Xanthus. The city is upon a rock; -women are seen upon the walls. The costume of the men is a longer and -thinner garment than is seen in the Attic Greeks. The shields of the -chiefs are curtained. The saddle-cloth of the jaded horse entering the -city is precisely like the one upon the Pegasus of Bellerophon, and the -conqueror and judge is an Eastern chief, with the umbrella, the emblem -of Oriental royalty, held over him. The body-guard and conquering party -of the chief are Greek soldiers. Many of these peculiarities are also -seen in the larger frieze, and also in the style of the lions and -statues. The form of the building, which alone I can reconcile with the -remains, is a Carian monument of the Ionic order. Bearing in mind all -these points, I am strongly inclined to attribute this work to the -mercenaries from Æolia and Ionia, brought down by HARPAGUS to conquer -the inhabitants of Xanthus, whom they are said to have utterly -destroyed. This monument may have been the tomb of a chief, or erected -as a memorial of the conquest of the city by HARPAGUS. No inscription -has been found, or it might probably have thrown some light upon the -date of this work. In the immediate neighbourhood were found the other -friezes, representing hunting-scenes, a battle, offerings of various -kinds and by different nations, funeral feasts, and several statues -which are of the same date.’ Sir Charles then concludes thus:— - -‘The whole of the remaining works now to be traced amidst the ruins of -Xanthus are decidedly of a late date; scarcely any are to be attributed -to a period preceding the Christian era, and to that age I cannot -conceive the works just noticed to have belonged. A triumphal arch or -gateway of the city at the foot of the cliff of which I have spoken has -upon it a Greek inscription, showing it to have been erected in the -reign of VESPASIAN, _A.D._ 80: from this arch are the metopes and -triglyphs now in the Museum. [Sidenote: _Travels and Researches in Asia -Minor_, pp. 429, 430 (1852).] Through this is a pavement of flagstones -leading towards the theatre. To this age I should attribute the theatre, -agora, and most of the buildings which I have called Greek, and which -are marked red upon the plan. To this people belong the immense quantity -of mosaic pavements which have existed in all parts of the city. Almost -all the small pebbles in the fields are the débris of these works. In -many places we have found patterns remaining which are of coarse -execution, but Greek in design.’ - - -[Sidenote: THE MARBLES OF HALICARNASSUS, OF CNIDUS, AND OF BRANCHIDÆ.] - -The not a whit less interesting discoveries at Halicarnassus and -elsewhere, made chiefly in the years 1856, 1857, and 1858, by Mr. -Charles NEWTON, now claim attention, but my present notice of them can -be but very inadequate to the worth of the subject. They as richly -deserve a full record as do the explorations of LAYARD or those of -FELLOWS. - -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.] - -This monument, writes Mr. NEWTON, in 1869, was erected ‘to contain the -remains of MAUSOLUS, Prince of Caria, about _B.C._ 352. It consisted of -a lofty basement, on which stood an oblong Ionic edifice, surrounded by -thirty-six Ionic columns, and surmounted by a pyramid of twenty-four -steps. [Sidenote: _Guide to the Department of Antiquities_, &c., pp. 74, -75.] The whole structure, a hundred and forty feet in height, was -crowned by a chariot-group in white marble, in which probably stood -MAUSOLUS himself, represented after his translation to the world of -demigods and heroes. The peristyle edifice which supported the pyramids -was encircled by a frieze, richly sculptured in high-relief,’ and so on. -The frieze thus mentioned is that of which the twelve slabs were, as -already mentioned, given by Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE in 1846, four -exhumed by NEWTON himself in 1857, and one more purchased from the -Marchese SERRA, of Genoa, in 1865. This piecemeal acquisition of the -principal frieze, by dint of researches spread over twenty years, is not -the least curious of the facts pertaining to the story. But the annals -of the Museum comprise ten or twelve similar instances of ultimate -reunion, after long scattering, of the parts of one whole. They tell of -manuscripts (made perfect after the lapse of a century, it may be) as -well as of sculptures, thus toilsomely recovered. - -But the Greco-Amazonian battle-frieze was not the only frieze of the -famous mausoleum. The external walls of the ‘cella’ had two other -friezes, of which Mr. NEWTON succeeded in recovering several fragments, -some of them of much interest. And the mausoleum was profusely adorned -with sculptures in the round as well as with the richly carved figures -in relief, both high and low, which encircled (in all probability) the -very basement, as well as the peristyle and the cella portions of this -marvellous structure. Lions in watchful attitudes (‘lions guardant,’ in -heraldic phrase) stood here and there, and the fragments of these which -have been recovered testify to their variety of scale, as well as to -their number. The names of five famous sculptors of the later Athenian -school—SCOPAS, LEOCHARES, BRYAXIS, TIMOTHEUS, PYTHIOS—who were employed -upon the decoration of the tomb itself, or upon the chariot-group, have -been recorded, and it would seem that each of four of these had one side -of the tomb specially assigned to him. ‘The material of the sculpture -was Parian marble, and the whole structure was richly ornamented with -colour. [Sidenote: Newton, in _Guide_, as above, p. 74; and _Travels and -Discoveries in the Levant_, vol. ii, pp. 108–137; and passim.] The tomb -of MAUSOLUS was of the class called by the Greeks _heröon_, and so -greatly excelled all other sepulchral monuments in size, beauty of -design, and richness of decoration, that it was reckoned one of the -“Seven Wonders of the World.”’ - -While LAYARD was unearthing Nineveh; FELLOWS bringing into the light of -day the long-lost cities of Lycia; and Charles NEWTON restoring, before -men’s eyes, this funereal marvel of the ancient world, which had long -been known (in effect) only by dim memories and traditions; [Sidenote: -THE EXPLORATIONS OF NATHAN DAVIS AT CARTHAGE AND UTICA.] Dr. Nathan -DAVIS, in his turn, was exhuming Carthage and Utica. All these -distinguished men were labouring, in common, for the enrichment of our -National Museum, within a period of some twenty years. Three of them may -be said to have been busied (in one way or other) with their -self-denying tasks contemporaneously.[42] If we take into the account -the variety, as well as the intrinsic worth, of the additions thus made -to human knowledge; above all, if we duly estimate the value of those -links of connection between things human and things divine, which are -the most essential characteristic of some of the best of these -acquisitions, it may well be said that the annals of no museum in the -world can boast of such an enrichment as this, by the efforts of the -travellers and the archæologists of one generation. And all of these -explorers are—in one sense or other—Britons. - -On one incidental point, I have to express a hope that the reader will -pardon what he may be momentarily inclined to think an over-iteration of -remark. If I have really adverted somewhat too frequently to the -connection which many of these rich archæological acquisitions, of -1842–1861, present between the annals of man and the Book of GOD, I have -this to plead, in extenuation: Certain writers pass over that connection -so hurriedly as almost to lose sight of it. And we live in an age in -which some of our own countrymen—some of those among us to whom the -Creator has been most bounteous in the bestowal of the glorious gifts of -mind and genius—have even spoken of our best of all literary possessions -as ‘Jew-Records,’ and ‘Hebrew old-clothes.’ Those particular -expressions, indeed, were employed long before the arrival of the -Assyrian Marbles. But I think I have seen them quoted since. - - -[Sidenote: THE SPOILS OF CARTHAGE AND UTICA.] - -Among the spoils of Carthage and of Utica which we owe to Dr. Nathan -DAVIS, are many rich mosaic pavements, of the second and third centuries -of our era, and a multitude of Phœnician and Carthaginian inscriptions, -extending in date over several centuries. And it must be added that many -of the antiquities, and more especially of the mosaics, excavated under -Dr. DAVIS’S instructions at Utica, were found to possess greater beauty, -and a more varied interest, than most of those which were disinterred by -him from amidst the ruins of Carthage. Many of these, like some of the -choice treasures of Nineveh, are, in a sense, still buried—for want of -room at the British Museum adequately to display them. The reader may -yet, but too fitly, conceive of some of them as piteously crying out (in -1870, as in 1860)— - - ‘Here have ye piled us together, and left us in cruel confusion, - Each one pressing his fellow, and each one shading his brother; - None in a fitting abode, in the life-giving play of the sunshine; - Here in disorder we lie, like desolate bones in a charnel.’ - - -[Sidenote: OTHER CONSPICUOUS AUGMENTORS OF THE GALLERIES OF - ANTIQUITIES.] - -Many other liberal benefactors to the several Archæological Departments -of the Museum deserve record in this chapter. But the record must needs -be a mere catalogue, not a narrative; and even the catalogue will be an -abridged one. - -Foremost among the discoverers of valuable remains of Greek antiquity, -subsequent to most of those which have now been detailed, are to be -mentioned Mr. George DENNIS, who explored Sicily in 1862 and subsequent -years; and Captain T. A. B. SPRATT, who travelled over Lycia and the -adjacent countries, following in the footsteps of Sir Charles FELLOWS, -[Sidenote: Spratt and Forbes’ _Travels in Lycia, Mityas, and the -Cibyrates_ (2 vols; 1847), passim.] and who enjoyed the advantage of the -company and co-operation of two able and estimable fellow-travellers, -Edward FORBES and Edward Thomas DANIELL, both of whom, like their -honoured precursor in Lycian exploration, have been many years lost to -us. - -The antiquities collected in Sicily by DENNIS, at the national cost, -were chiefly from the tombs. They included very many beautiful Greek -vases, a collection of archaic terracottas, and other minor -antiquities.[43] Some of the marbles discovered by SPRATT are of the -Macedonian period, and probably productions of the school of Pergamus. - -At Camerus and elsewhere, in the island of Rhodes, important excavations -were carried on by Messrs. BILIOTTI and SALZMANN. These also were -effected at the public charge. [Sidenote: _Reports of British Museum_; -1864, and subsequent years.] In the course of them nearly three hundred -tombs were opened, and many choicely painted fictile vases of the best -period of Greek ceramography were found. Those researches at Rhodes were -the work of the years 1862, 1863, and 1864. In 1865, the excavations at -Halicarnassus were resumed by order of the Trustees, and under the -direction of the same explorers, and with valuable results. In 1864, an -important purchase of Greek and Roman statues, and of the sculptures -from the Farnese Collection at Rome, was made. In the following year -came an extensive series of antiquities from the famous Collection of -the late Count POURTALÈS. Of the precious objects obtained by the -researches of Mr. Consul WOOD, at Ephesus, in the same and subsequent -years, a brief notice will be found in Chapter VI. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - THE FOUNDER OF THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY. - - ‘He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one, - Exceeding wise, fairspoken, and persuading; - Crabbed, mayhap, to them that loved him not; - But to those men that sought him, sweet as Summer.’— - _Henry VIII._ - - ‘If a man be not permitted to change his political opinions—when he - has arrived at years of discretion—he must be born a SOLOMON.’— - - W. F. HOOK, _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_, (vol. viii, p. - 237). - - _The_ GRENVILLES _and their Influence on the Political Aspect of the - Georgian Reigns.—The Public and Literary Life of the Right - Honourable Thomas_ GRENVILLE.—_History of the_ GRENVILLE - _Library_. - - -It was the singular fortune of Thomas GRENVILLE to belong to a family -which has given almost half a score of ministers to England; to possess -in himself large diplomatic ability; and to have been gifted—his -political opponents themselves being judges—with considerable talents -for administration; and yet, in the course of a life protracted to more -than ninety years, to have been an _active_ diplomatist during less than -one year, and to have been a Minister of State less than half a year. It -is true that he was of that happy temperament which both enables and -tempts a man to carve out delightful occupation for himself. He had, -too, those rarely combined gifts of taste, fortune, and public spirit, -which inspire their possessor with the will, and confer upon him the -power, to make his personal enjoyments largely contribute (both in his -own time and after it) to the enjoyments of his fellow-countrymen. It -might be true, therefore, to say that Thomas GRENVILLE was the happier -and the better for his exclusion, during almost forty-nine-fiftieths of -his long life, from the public service. [Sidenote: WHAT WAS IT THAT KEPT -THOMAS GRENVILLE ALOOF FROM POLITICAL OFFICE?] But it can hardly be rash -to say that England must needs have been somewhat the worse for that -exclusion. - -Nor was it altogether a self-imposed exclusion. There was among its -causes a curious conjunction of outward accidents and of philosophic -self-resignation to their results. Untoward chances abroad twice broke -off the foreign embassies of this eminent man. Unforeseen political -complications amongst Whigs and semi-Whigs twice deprived him of cabinet -office at home. But, no doubt, neither shipwreck at sea nor party -intrigue on land would have been potent enough to keep Thomas GRENVILLE -out of high State employment, but for the personal fastidiousness which -withheld him from stretching out his hand, with any eagerness, to grasp -it. - -[Sidenote: THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE GRENVILLE FAMILY; ITS DURATION - AND ITS PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS.] - -It would, perhaps, be hard to lay the finger on any one family recorded -in the ‘_British Peerage_’ which so long and so largely influenced our -political history, in the Georgian era of it, as did that of GRENVILLE. -During the century (speaking roundly) which began with the suppression -of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, and ended with the Repeal of the Corn -Laws, GRENVILLES are continually prominent in every important political -struggle. The personal influence and (for lack of a plainer word) the -characteristic ‘idiosyncrasy’ of individual GRENVILLES notoriously -shaped, or materially helped to shape, several measures that have had -world-wide results. But perhaps the most curious feature in their -political history as a family is this: At almost every great crisis in -affairs one GRENVILLE, of ability and prominence, is seen in tolerably -active opposition to the rest of the GRENVILLES. In the political -history of the man who forms the subject of this brief memoir the family -peculiarity, it will be seen, came out saliently. - - -The political GRENVILLES were offshoots of an old stock which, in the -days of eld, were richer in gallant soldiers than in peace-loving -publicists. The old GRENVILLES dealt many a shrewd swordthrust for -England by land and by sea, in the Tudor times, and earlier. The younger -branch has been rich in statesmen and rich in scholars. Not a few of -them have shone equally and at once in either path of labour. - -[Sidenote: PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS GRENVILLE.] - -Thomas GRENVILLE was the second son of the Minister of GEORGE THE THIRD, -George GRENVILLE,—himself the second son of Richard GRENVILLE, of -Wotton, and of Hester TEMPLE (co-heiress of Richard TEMPLE, Lord Cobham, -and herself created Countess TEMPLE in 1749). He was born on the -thirty-first of December, 1755, and entered Parliament soon after -attaining his majority. In the House of Commons he voted and acted as a -follower of Lord ROCKINGHAM and a comrade of Charles FOX, in opposition -to the other GRENVILLES and the ‘Grenvillite’ party. Had the famous -India Bill of FOX’S ministry been carried into a law, Thomas GRENVILLE, -it was understood, would have been the first Governor-General of India -under its rule. - -[Sidenote: HIS SHORT DIPLOMATIC CAREER.] - -His first entrance into the diplomatic service was made in 1782. His -mission was to Paris. Its purpose, to negotiate with Benjamin FRANKLIN a -treaty of peace with America. [Sidenote: See above, Book II, Chap. III, -page 431.] The circumstances beneath the influence of which it was -undertaken I have had occasion to advert to, already, in the notice of -Lord SHELBURNE. It is needless to return to them now. - -Thomas GRENVILLE’S union in the double negotiation with Mr. OSWALD -(instructed by SHELBURNE, it will be remembered, as GRENVILLE was by -FOX) proved to be very distasteful to him. From the beginning it boded -ill to the success of the mission. As early as the 4th of June, 1782, we -find Mr. GRENVILLE writing to FOX [Sidenote: THE MISSION TO PARIS, -1782–3.] thus:—‘I entreat you earnestly to see the impossibility of my -assisting you under this contrariety.... I cannot fight a daily battle -with Mr. OSWALD and his Secretary.[44] [Sidenote: T. Grenville to Fox; -4th June, 1782.] It would be neither for the advantage of the business, -for your interest, or for your credit or mine; and, even if it was, _I_ -could not do it.’ - -The then existing arrangements of the Secretaryship of State gave the -control of a negotiation with _France_ to one Secretary, and of a -negotiation with _America_ to the other. The reader has but to call to -mind the well-known political relationship between FOX and SHELBURNE in -1782, to gain a fully sufficient key to the consequent diplomatic -relationship between OSWALD and Thomas GRENVILLE, when thus engaged in -carrying on, abreast, a double mission at the Court of Paris. [Sidenote: -Comp. also same to same, June 16. (_Court and Cabinets_ of Geo. III, pp. -36–51.)] To add to the obvious embroilment, OSWALD had shortly before -received from Benjamin FRANKLIN a suggestion that Britain should -‘spontaneously’ cede Canada, in order to enable his astute countrymen at -home the better to compensate both the plundered Royalists and those -among the victorious opponents of those Royalists who had, from time to -time, sustained any damage at the hands of the British armies. - -The most earnest entreaties, from many quarters, were used to induce -GRENVILLE to remain at Paris. His political friends, and his family -connections, were, on that point, alike urgent. But all entreaties were -in vain. When the news reached him of Lord ROCKINGHAM’S death, and of -the break-up in the Cabinet which followed, his decision was, if -possible, more decided. He still clave to FOX, while his brother, Lord -TEMPLE, accepted from SHELBURNE the Lieutenancy of Ireland. A Lordship -of the Treasury or the Irish Secretaryship was by turns pressed upon Mr. -GRENVILLE by Lord TEMPLE with an earnestness which may be called -passionate. [Sidenote: Lord Temple to T. Grenville, 12th July.] ‘Let me -hope,’ said he, ‘that you will feel that satisfaction that every [other] -member of my family most earnestly feels at my acceptance of the -Lieutenancy of Ireland.... I conjure you, by everything that you prize -nearest and dearest to your heart; by the joy I have ever felt in your -welfare; by the interest I have ever taken in your uneasiness; weigh -well your determination; it decides the complexion of my future -hours.... I have staked my happiness upon this cast.’ The resolve of -Thomas GRENVILLE to adhere to the position he had taken was the cause of -a family estrangement which endured for many years. But the more a -reader, familiar with the annals of the time (and especially if he be -also familiar with the personal history of Lord TEMPLE before and -after), may study Lord TEMPLE’S letters of 1782, the less he is likely -to wonder that the peculiar line of argument they develope failed to -attain the aim they had in view. The vein that runs through them is -plainly that of personal ambition; not of an adherence—at any cost—to a -sincere conviction, whether right or wrong, of public duty. Such a line -of argument was, at no time, the line likely to commend itself to Thomas -GRENVILLE. Both his virtues, and what by many politicians will be -regarded as his weaknesses, alike armed him against obvious appeals to -mere self-interest or self-aggrandisement. - -One result—and the not unanticipated result—of the family estrangement -of 1782 was that, two years later, Mr. GRENVILLE found himself to have -no longer the command of a seat in Parliament. [Sidenote: THE WITHDRAWAL -FROM PARLIAMENT, 1784–90.] For four years to come he gave most of his -leisure to a pursuit which he loved much better—as far as personal taste -was concerned—namely, to the resumption of his systematic studies in -classical literature. But in 1790 he was elected a burgess for the town -of Aldborough. Thenceforward, and for a good many years, politics again -shared his time with literature, and with those social claims and duties -to which no man of his day was more keenly alive. - -In 1795 a second diplomatic mission was offered to him, and it was -accepted. In the interval, another and more lasting change had come -across his career in Parliament. He was one of the many ‘Foxites’ who -utterly disapproved the course which their old leader adopted in regard -to the French Revolution and to the rising passion to glorify and to -imitate it at home. To the ‘Man of the People’ (as he was very -fancifully called), the English countershock to the French overturn was, -in one sense, specially fatal. It ripened peculiar, though hitherto in -some degree latent, weaknesses. And with these, when they became -salient, Thomas GRENVILLE had really as little fellow-feeling as had -Edmund BURKE. Alike both men now supported PITT, with whom, as -experience increased and judgment matured, they both had always had -intrinsically far more in common. And among the results of the new -political relationships came a restoration of family harmony. George -GRENVILLE became PITT’S Foreign Secretary; Thomas GRENVILLE became -PITT’S Minister to the Court of Berlin. One year later, he again sat in -Parliament for Buckingham. - -The mission to Berlin was first impeded by a threatened shipwreck among -icebergs at sea, and, when that impediment had been with difficulty -overcome, the journey was again and more seriously obstructed by an -actual shipwreck upon the coast of Flanders. [Sidenote: THE MISSION TO -BERLIN, 1795.] Mr. GRENVILLE’S life was exposed to imminent danger. -After a desperate effort, he succeeded in saving his despatches and in -scrambling to land. But he saved nothing else; and the inevitable delay -enabled the French Directory to send SIÈYES to Berlin, in advance of the -ambassador of Britain. The able and versatile Frenchman made the best of -his priority. Mr. GRENVILLE was not found wanting in exertion, any more -than in ability. But in the then posture of affairs the advantage in -point of time, proved to be an advantage which no skill of fence could -afterwards recover. Hence it was that the mission of 1795 became -practically an abortive mission. With it ended the ambassador’s -diplomatic career. - -[Sidenote: THE CABINET OF 1806.] - -Almost equally brief was his subsequent actively official career in -England. On the formation of Lord GRENVILLE’S Cabinet (February, 1806), -no office was taken by the Premier’s next brother. But on the death of -FOX, six months later, he became First Lord of the Admiralty. That -office he held until the formation of the Tory Government, in the month -of April, 1807. It was too brief a term to give him any adequate -opportunity of really evincing his administrative powers. And during -almost forty remaining years of life he never took office again, -contenting himself with that now nominal function (conferred on him in -the year 1800), [Sidenote: THE ‘CHIEF-JUSTICESHIP IN EYRE,’ SOUTH OF -TRENT. 1800–1845.] the ‘Chief-Justiceship in Eyre, to the south of the -river Trent,’ of the profits of which, as will be seen presently, he -made a noble use. That office in Eyre had once been a function of real -gravity and potency. It was still a surviving link between the feudal -England of the Henrys and the Edwards, on the one hand, and the -industrial England of the Georges on the other. Under a king who could -govern, as well as reign, the ‘Chief-Justiceship in Eyre’ might have -shown itself, in one particular, to possess a real and precious vitality -still. By possibility, the sports of twelfth century and chase-loving -monarchs might have been made to alleviate the toils, to brighten the -leisure, and to lengthen the lives, of nineteenth-century and -hard-toiling artisans. [Sidenote: THE CHIEF-JUSTICESHIP IN EYRE, AND -WHAT MIGHT HAVE COME OF ITS PERPETUATION.] For in exerting the still -_legal_ powers (long dormant, but not abolished) of the forest -justiceship, a potent check might have been provided against the -profligate, although now common, abuse of the powers entrusted by -Parliament to the Board of Woods and Forests. No new legislation was -wanted to save many splendid tracts of forest land (over which the Crown -then—and as well in 1845, as in 1800—possessed what might have been -indestructible ‘forestal rights’), for public enjoyment for ever. -Existing laws would have sufficed. But no blame on this score lies at -the charge of the then Chief Justice in Eyre. Had Mr. GRENVILLE, for -example, ever conceived the idea of using the Forest Laws to preserve -for the English people, we will say, Epping Forest, or any other like -sylvan tract on this side of Trent, as a ‘People’s Park’ for ever, he -would have been laughed at as a Quixote. If Parliament in 1870 is fast -becoming alive to the misconduct of those ‘Commissioners’ who have dealt -with the Forestal rights of the Crown exactly in the spirit of the -pettiest of village shopkeepers, rather than in the spirit of Ministers -of State, there was in Mr. GRENVILLE’S time scarcely the faintest -whisper of any such conviction of public duty in regard to that matter. -Not one Member of Parliament, I think, had ever (at that time) pointed -out the gross hypocrisy, as well as the folly, of _selling_ by the hands -of one public board and for a few pounds hundreds of acres of ancient -and lovely woodlands, and then presently _buying_, by the hands of -another public board, acres of dreary and almost unimprovable barrenness -by the expenditure of several thousands of pounds, in order to provide -new recreation grounds for ‘public enjoyment!’ - -Of that forestal Chief-Justiceship Mr. GRENVILLE was the last holder. -The office had been established by WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. It was -abolished by Queen VICTORIA. One of the chief pursuits of those forty -years of retirement which ensued to the founder of the Grenville -Library, upon the breaking up of the Grenville Administration of 1806, -was book-buying and book-reading. ‘A great part of my Library’—so wrote -Mr. GRENVILLE, in 1845—‘has been purchased by the profits of a sinecure -office given me by the Public.’ If that sinecure was not and, under the -then circumstances, could not have been by its holder’s action or -foresight, made the means of preserving for public enjoyment such of the -ancient forests as, early in this century, were still intact in beauty, -and also lay near to crowded and more or less unhealthy towns, it was at -least made the means of giving to the nation a garden for the mind. ‘I -feel it,’ continued Mr. GRENVILLE, in his document of 1845, [Sidenote: -_Will of the Rt. Hon. T. Grenville_; Oct., 1845.] ‘to be a debt and a -duty that I should acknowledge my obligation by giving the Library so -acquired to the BRITISH MUSEUM for the use of the Public.’ - -[Sidenote: MR. T. GRENVILLE’S INTERCOURSE WITH, AND ESTEEM FOR, SIR A. - PANIZZI.] - -I have had occasion, already, to mention that many years before his -death Mr. GRENVILLE formed a very high estimate of the eminent -attainments and still more eminent public services of Sir A. PANIZZI. No -man had a better opportunity of knowing, intimately, the merits of the -then Assistant-Keeper of the printed portion of our National Library. -Mr. GRENVILLE showed his estimate in a conclusive and very -characteristic way. [Sidenote: _Minutes of Inquiry_, &c., 1848, and -subsequent years, pp. 141, seqq.] He had earnestly supported (in the -year 1835) the proposal of a Sub-committee of Trustees that Mr. -PANIZZI’S early services—more especially in relation to the cataloguing -of what are known, at the Museum, as ‘the French Tracts,’ but also as to -other labours—should be substantially recognised by an improvement of -his salary. At a larger meeting, the recommendation of the smaller -sub-committee was cordially adopted in the honorary point of view, but -was set virtually aside, in respect to the ‘honorarium,’ That latter -step Mr. GRENVILLE so resented that he rose from the table, and never -sat at a Trustee meeting again. [Sidenote: _Minutes of Evidence_, as -above.] He many times afterwards visited the Museum; and I well remember -the impression made upon my own mind by his noble appearance, at almost -ninety years of age, on one of the latest of those visits—not very long -before his death. But in the Committee Room he never once sat, during -the last eleven years of his life. - -[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH MARKED THE GIFT TO THE NATION OF THE - GRENVILLE LIBRARY.] - -The fact being so, Readers unfamiliar with the ‘blue-books’ will learn -without surprise that a conversation between Mr. GRENVILLE and Mr. -PANIZZI, in Hamilton Place, was the prelude to his noble public gift of -1846. That conversation took place in the autumn of 1845. [Sidenote: -Ibid.; and comp. p. 780 of the _Minutes_ of 1849.] He, in the course of -it, assured Mr. PANIZZI (by that time at the head of the Printed Book -Department) of his settled purpose, and evinced a desire that his -Library should be preserved apart from the mass of the National -Collection. He then remarked, ‘You will have a great many duplicate -books, and you will sell them,’ speaking in a tone of inquiry. ‘No,’ -replied PANIZZI, the ‘Trustees will never sell books that are given to -them.’ Mr. GRENVILLE rejoined with an evident relief of mind, ‘Well, so -much the better.’ Long afterwards, when visiting Mr. PANIZZI in his -private study, he asked the question—‘Where are you going to put my -books? I see your rooms are already full.’ He was taken to the long, -capacious, but certainly not very sightly, ‘slip,’ contrived by Sir R. -SMIRKE on the eastern outskirt of the noble King’s Library. [Sidenote: -See the Plan, hereafter.] ‘Well,’ was the Keeper’s reply, ‘if we can’t -do better, we will put them _here_; and, as you see, my room is close -by. Here, for a time, they will at least be under my own eye,’ The good -and generous book-lover went away with a smile on his genial face, well -assured that his books would be gratefully cared for. - - -[Sidenote: THE RECEPTION AT THE MUSEUM OF THE GRENVILLE COLLECTION.] - -Mr. GRENVILLE died on the 17th of December, 1846. On the day of his -death it chanced that the present writer was engaged on a review-article -about the history of the Museum Library. Ere many days were past it was -his pleasant task to add a paragraph—the first that was written on the -subject—respecting the new gift to the Public. But an accident delayed -the publication of that article until the following summer. - -Meanwhile, the final day of the reception of the books—a dreary, snowy -day of the close of February—was, to us of the Museum Library, a sort of -holiday within-doors. Very little work was done that day; but many -choice rarities in literature, and some in art, were eagerly examined. -All who survive will remember it as I do. To lovers of books, such a day -was like a glimpse of summer sunshine interposed in the thick of winter. - - -To tell what little can here be told of the history and character of the -Grenville Library in other words than in those well-considered and -appropriate words which were employed by the man who had had so much -delightful intercourse with the Collector himself, and to whom belongs a -part of the merit of the gift, would be an impertinence. [Sidenote: -PANIZZI’S ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE CHOICEST BOOKS IN THE GRENVILLE -LIBRARY.] In his report on the accessions of the year 1847, Mr. PANIZZI -wrote thus:—‘It would naturally be expected that one of the editors of -the “Adelphi _Homer_” would lose no opportunity of collecting the best -and rarest editions of the Prince of Poets. ÆSOP, a favourite author of -Mr. GRENVILLE, occurs in his Library in its rarest forms; there is no -doubt that the series of editions of this author in that Library is -unrivalled. The great admiration which Mr. GRENVILLE felt for Cardinal -XIMENES, even more on account of the splendid edition of the Polyglot -_Bible_ which that prelate caused to be printed at Alcala, than of his -public character, made him look upon the acquisition of the _Moschus_, a -book of extreme rarity, as a piece of good fortune. Among the extremely -rare editions of the Latin Classics, in which the Grenville Library -abounds, the unique complete copy of AZZOGUIDI’S first edition of _Ovid_ -is a gem well deserving particular notice, and was considered on the -whole, by Mr. GRENVILLE himself, the boast of his collection. The Aldine -_Virgil_ of 1505, the rarest of the Aldine editions of this poet, is the -more welcome to the Museum as it serves to supply a lacuna; the copy -mentioned in the Catalogue of the Royal Collection not having been -transferred to the National Library. - -‘The rarest editions of English Poets claimed and obtained the special -attention of Mr. GRENVILLE. Hence we find him possessing not only the -first and second edition of CHAUCER’S _Canterbury Tales_ by CAXTON, but -the only copy known of an hitherto undiscovered edition of the same work -printed in 1498, by WYNKYN DE WORDE. Of SHAKESPEARE’S collected Dramatic -Works, the Grenville Library contains a copy of the first edition, -which, if not the finest known, is at all events surpassed by none. His -strong religious feelings and his sincere attachment to the Established -Church, as well as his knowledge and mastery of the English language, -concurred in making him eager to possess the earliest as well as the -rarest editions of the translations of the Scriptures in the vernacular -tongue. [Sidenote: Panizzi’s _Report_, in the _Annual Returns_ of 1847, -passim.] He succeeded to a great extent; but what deserves particular -mention is the only known fragment of the _New Testament_ in English, -translated by TYNDALE and ROY, which was in the press of QUENTELL, at -Cologne, in 1525, when the translators were obliged to interrupt the -printing, and fly to escape persecution. - -‘The History of the British Empire, and whatever could illustrate any of -its different portions, were the subject of Mr. GRENVILLE’S unremitting -research, and he allowed nothing to escape him deserving to be -preserved, however rare and expensive. Hence his collection of works on -the Divorce of HENRY VIII; that of Voyages and Travels, either by -Englishmen, or to countries at some time more or less connected with -England, or possessed by her; that of contemporary works on the -gathering, advance, and defeat of the “Invincible Armada;” and that of -writings on Ireland;—are more numerous, more valuable, and more -interesting, than in any other collection ever made by any person on the -same subjects. Among the Voyages and Travels, the collections of DE BRY -and HULSIUS are the finest in the world; no other Library can boast of -four such fine books as the copies of HARIOT’S _Virginia_, in Latin, -German, French, and English, of the DE BRY series. And it was fitting -that in Mr. GRENVILLE’S Library should be found one of the only two -copies known of the first edition of this work, printed in London in -1588, wherein an account is given of a colony which had been founded by -his family namesake. Sir Richard GRENVILLE. - -‘Conversant with the Language and Literature of Spain, as well as with -that of Italy, the works of imagination by writers of those two -countries are better represented in his Library than in any other out of -Spain and Italy; in some branches better even than in any single Library -in the countries themselves. No Italian collection can boast of such a -splendid series of early editions of ARIOSTO’S _Orlando_, one of Mr. -GRENVILLE’S favourite authors, nor, indeed, of such choice Romance -Poems. The copy of the first edition of ARIOSTO is not to be matched for -beauty; of that of Rome, 1533, even the existence was hitherto unknown. -A perfect copy of the first complete edition of the _Morgante Maggiore_, -of 1482, was also not known to exist before Mr. GRENVILLE succeeded in -procuring his. Among the Spanish Romances, the copy of that of _Tirant -lo Blanch_, printed at Valencia, in 1490, is as fine, as clean, and as -white, as when it first issued from the press; and no second copy of -this edition of a work professedly translated from English into -Portuguese, and thence into Valencian, is known to exist except in the -Library of the Sapienza, at Rome. - -‘But where there is nothing common, it is almost depreciating a -collection to enumerate a few articles as rare. It is a marked feature -of this Library, that Mr. GRENVILLE did not collect mere bibliographical -rarities. He never aimed at having a complete set of the editions from -the press of CAXTON or ALDUS; but _Chaucer_ and _Gower_ by CAXTON were -readily purchased, as well as other works which were desirable on other -accounts, besides that of having issued from the press of that printer; -and, when possible, select copies were procured. Some of the rarest, and -these the finest, Aldine editions were purchased by him, for the same -reasons. The _Horæ_ in Greek, printed by ALDUS in 16º, in 1497, is a -volume which, from its language, size, and rarity, is of the greatest -importance for the literary and religious history of the time when it -was printed. It is therefore in Mr. GRENVILLE’S Library. The _Virgil_ of -1501 is not only an elegant book, but it is the first book printed with -that peculiar _Italic_, known as Aldine, and the first volume which -ALDUS printed, “_forma enchiridii_,” as he called it, being expressly -adapted to give poor scholars the means of purchasing for a small sum -the works of the classical writers. This also is, therefore, among Mr. -GRENVILLE’S books; and of one of the two editions of _Virgil_, both -dated the same year, 1514, he purchased a large paper copy, because it -was the more correct of the two. - -‘It was the merit of the work, the elegance of the volume, the “genuine” -condition of the copy, &c., which together determined Mr. GRENVILLE to -purchase books printed on vellum, of which he collected nearly a -hundred. He paid a very large sum for a copy of the Furioso of 1532, not -because it was “on ugly vellum,” as he very properly designated it, but -because, knowing the importance of such an edition of such a work, and -never having succeeded in procuring it on paper, he would rather have it -on expensive terms and “ugly vellum,” than not at all. - -‘By the bequest of Mr. GRENVILLE’S Library, the collection of books -printed on vellum now at the Museum, and comprising those formerly -presented by GEORGE II, GEORGE III, and Mr. CRACHERODE, is believed to -surpass that of any other National Library, except the King’s Library at -Paris, of which VAN PRAET justly speaks with pride, and all foreign -competent and intelligent judges with envy and admiration. In justice to -the Grenville Library, the list of all its vellum books ought to be here -inserted. As this cannot be done, some only of the most remarkable shall -be mentioned. These are—the Greek _Anthology_ of 1494; the _Book of -Hawking_ of JULIANA BERNERS of 1496; the first edition of the _Bible_, -known as the “Mazarine Bible,” printed at Mentz about 1454; the Aldine -_Dante_ of 1502; the first _Rationale_ of DURANDUS of 1459; the first -edition of FISHER _On the Psalms_, of 1508; the Aldine _Horace_, -_Juvenal_, _Martial_, and _Petrarca_, of 1501; the _Livy_ of 1469; the -_Primer of Salisbury_, printed in Paris in 1531; the _Psalter_ of 1457, -which supplies the place of the one now at Windsor, which belonged to -the Royal Collection before it was transferred to the British Museum; -the _Sforziada_, by SIMONETA, of 1490, a most splendid volume even in so -splendid a Library; the _Theuerdank_ of 1517; the _Aulus Gellius_ and -the _Vitruvius_ of Giunta, printed in 1515, &c. &c. Of this identical -copy of _Vitruvius_, formerly Mr. DENT’S, the author of the -_Bibliographical Decameron_ wrote, “Let the enthusiastic admirers of a -genuine vellum Junta—of the amplest size and in spotless -condition—resort to the choice cabinet of Mr. DENT for such a copy of -this edition of Vitruvius and Frontinus.” [Sidenote: Panizzi’s _Report -to Parliament_, as above.] The _Aulus Gellius_ is in its original state, -exactly as it was when presented to LORENZO DE’ MEDICI, afterwards Duke -of Urbino, to whom the edition was dedicated.’ - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - OTHER BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS.—CREATION OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF - BRITISH AND MEDIÆVAL ANTIQUITIES AND ETHNOGRAPHY. - - ‘Amidst tablets and stones, inscribed with the straight and angular - characters of the Runic alphabet, and similar articles which the - vulgar might have connected with the exercise of the forbidden - arts, ... were disposed, in great order, several of those curious - stone axes, formed of green granite, which are often found in these - Islands.... There were, moreover, to be seen amid the strange - collection stone sacrificial knives ... and the brazen implements - called Celts, the purpose of which has troubled the repose of so many - antiquaries.’—_The Pirate_, c. xxviii. - - ‘A Museum of Antiquities—not of one People or period only, but of all - races and all times—exhibits a vast comparative scheme of the material - productions of man. We are thus enabled to follow the progress of the - Fine and Useful Arts, contemporaneously through a long period of time, - tracing their several lines backwards till they converge at one - vanishing point of the unknown Past.’— - - C. T. NEWTON (_Letter to Col. Mure_, 1853). - - _Scantiness of the Notices of some Contributors to the Natural-History - Collections, and its cause.—The Duke of_ BLACAS _and his Museum of - Greek and Roman Antiquities.—Hugh_ CUMING _and his Travels and - Collections in South America.—John_ RUTTER CHORLEY, _and his - Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish Poetry.—George_ WITT _and - his Collections illustrative of the History of Obscure - Superstitions.—The Ethnographical Museum of Henry_ CHRISTY, _and - its History.—Colonial Archæologists and British Consuls: The - History of the_ WOODHOUSE _Collection, and of its transmittal to - the British Museum.—Lord_ NAPIER _and the acquisition of the - Abyssinian MSS. added in 1868.—The Travels of_ VON SIEBOLD _in - Japan, and the gathering of his Japanese Library.—Felix_ SLADE - _and his Bequests, Artistic and Archæological_. - - -No reader of this volume will, in the course of its perusal, have become -more sensible than is its author of a want of due _proportion_, in those -notices which have occasionally been given of some eminent naturalists -who have conspicuously contributed to the public collections, as -compared with the notices of those many archæologists and book-gatherers -who, in common with the naturalists, have been fellow-workers towards -the building up of our National Museum. [Sidenote: THE INADEQUACY OF THE -NOTICES OF NATURALISTS IN THIS VOLUME, AND ITS CAUSE.] I feel, too, that -my own ignorance of natural history is no excuse at all for so imperfect -a filling-out of the plan which the title-page itself of this volume -implies. I feel this all the more strongly, because I dissent entirely -from those views which tend to depreciate the importance of the -scientific collections, in order (very superfluously) to enhance that of -the literary and artistic collections. Far from looking at the splendid -Galleries of mammals, or of birds, or of plants, as mere collections of -‘book-plates,’ gathered for the ‘illustration’ of the National Library, -or from sharing the opinion that the books and the antiquities, alone, -are ‘what may be called the permanent departments of the British Museum’ -(to quote, literally, the words of a publication[45] issued whilst this -sheet is going to press, words which seem somewhat rashly—considering -whence they come—to prejudge a question of national scope, and one which -it assuredly belongs alone _to Parliament_ to settle), I regard these -scientific collections as possessing, in common with the others, the -highest educational value, and as also possessing, even a little beyond -some of the others, a special claim, it may be, upon the respect of -Englishmen. - -That speciality of claim seems to me to accrue from the fact, that two -of the early FOUNDERS, and one of the most conspicuous subsequent -BENEFACTORS of the Museum, were pre-eminently Naturalists. Such was -COURTEN. Such was SLOANE. Such was Sir Joseph BANKS. I shall have erred -greatly in my estimate of the regard habitually paid by a British -Parliament to the memory of the eminent benefactors of Britain, if, in -the issue, it do not become apparent that such a consideration as this -will weigh heavily with those who will shortly—and after due -deliberation and debate—have to decide pending questions in relation to -the enlargement and to the still further improvement of the British -Museum. - -Be that however as it ultimately shall prove to be, if the Public should -honour this volume with a favourable reception, it will be its author’s -endeavour (in a second edition) to supplement, by the knowledge and -co-operation of others, the ignorance and the deficiencies of which he -is very conscious in himself. - - -[Sidenote: THE FORMATION OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH AND MEDIÆVAL - ANTIQUITIES.] - -In resuming the notices connected with the now truly magnificent -Collection of Antiquities, we have to glance at the organizing of a new -‘Department’ in the Museum. During at least two generations it has been, -from time to time, remarked—with some surprise as well as censure—that -the ‘British’ Museum contained no ‘British’ Antiquities. Sometimes this -criticism has been put much too strongly, as when, for example, one of -the recent biographers of WEDGWOOD thus wrote (in 1866, but referring -also to a period then ninety years distant). ‘At that date, _as at -present_, everything native to the soil, or produced by the races who -had lived and died upon it, was repudiated by those who were the rulers -of the National Collection.’ [Sidenote: Meteyard, _Life of Josiah -Wedgwood_, vol. ii, p. 162.] At that time, assuredly, there were already -in the Museum a good many British beasts, British birds, and British -books;—no inconsiderable part of the ‘productions’ of our soil and of -the races born and nurtured upon it. - -But, within a few months after the appearance of the criticism I have -quoted, all ground for its repetition was removed by the formation of -the ‘Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography.’ It -is thus organized, in six separate sections:— - - § I. British Antiquities anterior to the Roman period. - - II. Roman Antiquities found in Britain. - - III. Anglo-Saxon Antiquities. - - IV. Mediæval sculpture, carving, paintings, metal work, enamels, - pottery, glass, stone ware; and implements of various - kinds, and of various material. - - V. Costumes, weapons, accoutrements, tools, furniture, - industrial productions, &c.—both ancient and modern—of - non-European races. - - VI. Pre-historic Antiquities.[46] - -To the enrichment of the fourth section of this new department of the -Museum (in a small degree), as well as (much more largely) to that of -the Classical Collections, the choice treasures gathered in France -during two generations by successive Dukes of BLACAS largely -contributed. - -[Sidenote: THE BLACAS MUSEUM AND ITS FOUNDERS, 1815–1860.] - -The first of these Dukes, Peter Lewis John Casimir de BLACAS, was born -at Aulps in the year 1770. He was of a family which has been conspicuous -in Provence from the beginning of the Crusades. Attaining manhood just -at the eve of the Revolution, the Duke followed the French princes into -exile, and warmly attached himself to LEWIS THE EIGHTEENTH, to whom, in -after years, he became the minister of predilection, as distinguished -from that monarch’s many ministers of constraint. He had, in his own -day, the reputation of being a courtier; but seems to have been, in -truth, an honest, frank, and outspeaking adviser. One saying of his -depicts quite plainly the nature of the man, and also the nature of the -work he had to do:—“If you want to defend your Crown, you musn’t run -away from your Kingdom.” Those words were spoken in 1815; and, as we all -know, were spoken in vain. - -A statesman of that stamp—one who does _not_ watch and chronicle the -shiftings of popular opinion, in order to know with certainty what are -his own opinions, or in order to shape his own political -‘principles’—rarely enjoys popularity. DE BLACAS became so little -popular at home, that the King was forced to send him, for many years, -abroad. At Rome, he negotiated the Concordat (1817–19); at Naples, he -advised an amnesty (1822), together with other measures, some of which -were too wise for the latitude. In the interval between his two -residences at the Court of Naples, he took part in the Congress of -Laybach. - -[Sidenote: FORMATION OF THE BLACAS MUSEUM.] - -The opportunities afforded by diplomacy in Italy and in other countries -were turned to intellectual and archæological, as well as to political, -account. He imitated the example of HAMILTON and of ELGIN, and that of a -crowd of his own countrymen, long anterior to either. Since his son’s -death, the British Museum has, by purchase, entered into his -archæological labours almost as largely—in their way and measure—as it -has inherited the treasures of its own enlightened ambassadors at Naples -and at Constantinople. - -The Duke died at Goeritz in 1839. Nine years earlier, he had advised -CHARLES X against the measures which precipitated that king into ruin; -and when the obstinate monarch had to pay the sure penalty of neglecting -good advice, the giver of it voluntarily took his share of the -infliction. He offered to attend CHARLES into exile in 1830, as he had -attended him forty years before, when in the flush of youth. He lies -buried at the King’s feet, in the Church of the Franciscans at Goeritz— - - ‘He that can endure - To follow, in exile, his fallen Lord, - Doth conquer them that did his master conquer, - And earns his place i’ the story.’ - -[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE BLACAS COLLECTION.] - -The late Duke of BLACAS augmented his father’s collections by many -purchases of great extent and value. His special predilection was for -coins and gems. In that department the combined museum of father and son -soon came to rank as the finest known collection, belonging to an -individual possessor. It includes seven hundred and forty-eight ancient -and classical cameos and intaglios, and two hundred and three others -which are either mediæval, oriental, or modern. The most precious -portion of the STROZZI cabinet passed into it, as did also a choice part -of the collections, respectively, of BARTH and of DE LA TURBIE. The -Blacas Museum is also eminently rich in vases and paintings of various -kinds; in sculptures, on every variety of material; in terracottas, and -in ancient glass. Its ‘silver toilet service’ of a Christian Roman lady -of the fifth century, named PROJECTA, has been made famous throughout -Europe by the descriptive accounts which have appeared from the pen of -VISCONTI and from that of LABARTE. The casket is richly chased with -figure-subjects. Among them are seen figures of Venus and Cupid; of the -lady herself and of her bridegroom, SECUNDUS. Roman bridesmaids, of -indubitable flesh and blood, are mingled with the more unsubstantial -forms of Nereids, riding upon Tritons. - - -[Sidenote: HUGH CUMING; HIS TRAVELS AND HIS COLLECTIONS, IN AMERICA AND - ELSEWHERE, 1791.] - -Of the men devoted, in our own day, to the enchaining pursuits of -Natural History, few better deserve a competent biographer than does -Hugh CUMING, whose career, in its relation to the Museum history, has an -additional interest for us from the circumstance that his course in life -was partly shaped by his having attracted, in childhood, the notice of -another worthy naturalist and public benefactor, [Sidenote: See page -376.] Colonel George MONTAGU, of Lackham. - -Young CUMING’S childish fondness for picking up shells and gathering -plants attracted Colonel MONTAGU’S notice about the time that the boy -was apprenticed to a sailmaker, living not far from the boy’s native -village, West Alvington, in Devon. The elder naturalist fostered the -nascent passion of his young and humble imitator, and the trade of -sailmaking brought CUMING, whilst still a boy, into contact with -sailors. The benevolent and Nature-loving Colonel told the youngster -some of the fairy tales of science; the tars spun yarns for him about -the marvels of foreign parts. A few, and very few, years of work at his -trade at home were followed by a voyage to South America. At Valparaiso -he resumed his handicraft, but only as a step (by aid of frugality and -foresight) towards saving enough of money to enable him to devote his -whole being to conchology and to botany. Seven years of work under this -inspiring ambition, seem to have enabled the man of five-and-thirty to -retire from business, and to build himself a yacht. But his was to be no -lounging yachtman’s life; it was rather to resemble the life of an A.B. -before the mast. The year 1827 was spent in toiling and dredging, to -good purpose, amongst the islands of the South Pacific. When he returned -to Valparaiso, the retired sailmaker found that he had won fame, as well -as many precious rarities in conchology and botany. The Chilian -Government gave him special privileges and useful credentials. He then -devoted two years to the thorough exploration of the coasts extending -from Chiloë to the Gulf of Conchagua. [Sidenote: _Athenæum_ of 1865; -_Returns presented to Parliament_, v. y.] He botanized in plains, -marshes and woods; he turned over shingle, and explored the crannies of -the cliffs, with the patient endurance of a Californian gold-digger, and -was much happier in his companions. In 1831, he returned to England, -with a modest but assured livelihood, and with inexhaustible treasures -in shells and plants, of which multitudes were theretofore unseen and -unknown in Europe. - -The year 1831 was a happy epoch for a conchologist. The Zoological -Society had just gained a firm footing. BRODERIP and SOWERBY were ready -to exhibit and to describe the rich shells of the Pacific. Richard OWEN -was eager to anatomize the molluscs, and to write their biography. Some -of the novelties brought over by CUMING in 1831 were still yielding new -information thirty years afterwards; probably are yielding it still. - -In 1835, Mr. CUMING returned to America. He devoted four years to an -exhaustive survey of the natural history—more especially, but far from -exclusively, the conchology and the botany—of the Philippine group of -islands, of Malacca, Singapore, and St. Helena. - -CUMING was fitted for his work not more by his scientific ardour and his -patient toil-bearing, than by his amiable character. He loved children. -His manner was so attractive to them that in some places to which he -travelled a schoolful of children were extemporised into botanic -missionaries. The joyous band would turn out for a holiday, and would -spend the whole of it in searching for the plants, the shells, and the -insects, with the general forms and appearances of which the promoter -and rewarder of their voluntary labours had previously familiarised -them. He returned to England with such a collection of shells as no -previous investigator had brought home; and with about one hundred and -thirty thousand specimens of dried plants, besides many curious -specimens in other departments. - -[Sidenote: R. Owen, _On a National Museum of Natural History_, pp. 53, - seqq.] - -His collections had been a London marvel before he set out on his third -voyage of discovery. He then possessed, I believe, almost sixteen -thousand _species_, and they were regarded as a near approximation to a -perfect collection, according to the knowledge of the time. [Sidenote: -Comp. _Athenæum_ as above, and the Museum returns of 1865 and subsequent -years.] If the writer of the able notice of him which the _Athenæum_ -published immediately after his death was rightly informed, CUMING -nearly doubled that number by the results of his final voyage, and by -those of subsequent purchases made in Europe. - -Very naturally, strenuous efforts were made to ensure the perpetuity of -this noble collection during its owner’s lifetime. The history of those -efforts still deserves to be told, and for more than one reason. But it -cannot be told here. This inadequate notice of a most estimable man must -close with the few words which, three years ago, closed Professor OWEN’S -annual _Report on the Progress of the Zoological Portion of the British -Museum_. ‘The discoveries and labours of Mr. Hugh CUMING,’ he then -wrote, ‘do honour to his country; the fruition of them by Naturalists of -all countries now depends mainly _on the acquisition of the space -required for the due arrangement, exhibition—facility of access and -comparison—of the rarities which the Nation has acquired_.’ And then he -adds a small individual instance, as a passing illustration of the value -of Mr. CUMING’S life-long pursuit—‘Among the choicer rarities, ... -brought from the Philippines in 1840, was a specimen of siliceous sponge -(described and figured in the _Transactions of the Zoological Society_), -known as _Euplectella Aspergillum_.’ Up to the date of Mr. CUMING’S -death (tenth August, 1865), this specimen—of what, for non-zoological -readers, may be likened to a sort of coral of rare beauty—brought over -in 1840, was unique. [Sidenote: _Transactions_, &c., vol. iii, p. 203.] -In the year next after the discoverer’s death, _many_ fine and curious -specimens were sent from the Philippines. The solitary explorer of 1839 -had at length been followed by a school of explorers. Such men as CUMING -live after their death, and hence the marvellous increase, within a very -few years, in our knowledge of Nature, and of GOD’S bounty to the world -he made. - - -[Sidenote: J. R. CHORLEY AND HIS COLLECTION OF THE SPANISH POETS AND - DRAMATISTS.] - -By a man who did but little in literature, although he possessed -attainments which, in some respects, seem to have surpassed those of a -good many men whose lucubrations have had much publicity and vogue, a -valuable addition was made a few years ago, by bequest, to the Museum -Library, both in the printed and manuscript departments. [Sidenote: -_Will of Mr. Rutter Chorley_, 1866.] Mr. John Rutter CHORLEY had -collected about two hundred volumes of the Spanish poetry and drama, and -had enriched them with manuscript notes, bibliographical and critical. -He had also prepared chronological tables of the dramatists—writing them -in Spanish, of which he was a master—together with an account of their -respective works. He had, I think, contemplated, at some future time, -the preparation of some such book on the Spanish theatre as that -published by Mr. TICKNOR, many years ago, on Spanish literature at -large. Whether the appearance of TICKNOR’S valuable book deterred Mr. -CHORLEY from prosecuting his purpose, I know not. Probably he was one of -the many men the very extent of whose knowledge inspires a -fastidiousness which prompts them to keep on increasing their private -store, and to defer, almost until death overtakes them, the drawing from -that store for the Public. If there may really, by some dim possibility, -have been here and there an inglorious HAMPDEN, or a mute SHAKESPEARE, -it is very certain that there have been, in literary history and in like -departments of human study, many an unknown DISRAELI, many a Tom WARTON, -brimful of knowledge about poets and poetry, who never could have lived -long enough to put to public use the materials he had laboriously -brought together. - - -[Sidenote: GEORGE WITT AND HIS COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY - OF SUPERSTITIONS.] - -Of another Collector, whose pursuits lay at an opposite pole to those of -Mr. CHORLEY, it would not be edifying to say very much in these pages. -Some among the collections illustrative of the history of obscure -superstitions (to quote the polite euphuism of one of the Museum -_Returns_ to Parliament) partake, in a degree, of the peculiar -associations which connect themselves with the bare name of a place at -which some few of them were really found—that too famous retreat of the -Emperor TIBERIUS. Others of them, however, possess a real archæological -value from a different point of view. All, no doubt, are -characteristically illustrative, more or less, of the doings ‘in the -dark places of the earth,’ and may point a moral, howsoever little -fitted to adorn a tale. - -Mr. George WITT, F.R.S., the collector of these curiosities of human -error, was a surgeon who had lived much in Australia, and who, on his -return from the Colonies, had retired to a provincial town in England, -where, at first, he amused his leisure by gathering a small museum of -natural history. Of that collection I remember to have seen a printed -catalogue, but I imagine that he sold it in his lifetime, as no part of -his objects of natural history came, with his other and much more -eccentric museum, to the augmentation of the public stores. Towards the -close of his life he lived in London, and used to amuse himself by -exhibiting, and by lecturing upon, what he regarded as the more racy -portion of his later collections. He chose (I am told) the hour of -eleven o’clock on Sunday morning for such peculiar expositions, but I do -not think that _these_ ‘Sunday Lectures’ were regarded, either by the -man who gave them or by his auditors, as especially fitted for ‘the -instruction of the working classes.’ - - -[Sidenote: THE CHRISTY MUSEUM AND ITS FOUNDER’S HISTORY.] - -Of a very different calibre to Mr. George WITT was the donor of the -noble Museum of Ethnography which, _for want of room at Bloomsbury_, -still occupies the late donor’s dwelling-house, almost two miles off. It -is not too much to say of Henry CHRISTY, that he was both an illustrious -man of science and an eminent Christian. The man whose fame as a -searcher into antiquity is spread alike over Europe and America, is also -remembered in many Irish cabins as one who was willing to spend, -lavishly, his health and strength, as well as his money, in lifting up, -from squalid beds of straw and filth, poor creatures stricken at once -with famine and with fever, and so stricken as sometimes to have almost -lost the semblance of humanity. He is also remembered by Algerian -peasants, by West African negroes, and by Canadian Indians for like -deeds of beneficence. When Prussian insolence and Prussian barbarity -struck down Danes who were defending hearth and home, CHRISTY was again -the open-handed benefactor of the oppressed. When Turks were, in like -manner, beating down by sheer brute force the Druses of Syria, Henry -CHRISTY was relieving the distressed and the down-trodden in the East, -with no less liberality than he had evinced a little while before in -relieving them in the North of Europe. - -The time which works of good-samaritanism such as these left unoccupied -was given to a vast series—or rather to a succession of series—of -explorations which have had already a noble result, and which will yield -more and more fruit for many a year to come. The scene of them embraced -Mexico, the United States, British America, Denmark, and several -Departments of Southern and Western France. Their period reached from -1860—when he had just entered the fiftieth year of his age—almost to the -day of his lamented and sudden death in the May of 1865. His able and -beloved friend and fellow-worker LARTET was with him in the Allier, when -the fatal illness struck him, at the age of fifty-four. It will be -pardoned me, I trust, if in this connection I quote, once again, those -thoughtful words, out of the private note-book of Lord BACON, which I -applied in a former chapter to another and more recent public -loss—‘Princes, ... when men deserve crowns for their performances, do -not crown them below, where the deeds are performed, but call them up. -So doth GOD, by death.’ - - -[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTY MUSEUM.] - -The little that need here be added as to the nature and extent of Mr. -CHRISTY’S gift to the Public, will be best said in the words of the -present able Curator of the Collection, Mr. A. W. FRANKS. But it should -be first premised that the posthumous gift was only the continuation of -a long series of gifts, which embraced the Museums, not of England -alone, but those of Northern and of Southern Europe, and (as I think) -some of those of America:— - -[Sidenote: ANCIENT EUROPE AND PART OF NORTH AMERICA.] - -Among the most important contents of the CHRISTY Museum is a collection -of stone implements from the Drift. They are the most ancient remains of -human industry hitherto discovered; they include a remarkably fine -series from St. Acheul, near Amiens. Antiquities found in the Caves of -Dordogne, were excavated by Mr. CHRISTY and M. LARTET, at the expense of -the former. This collection is very extensive, and includes a number of -drawings on reindeer bone and horn, probably some of the most ancient -works of art that have been preserved. [Sidenote: Franks’ _Report on -Christy Museum_ (abridged).] It would have been still more extensive, -had it not been known that Mr. CHRISTY intended to present the unique -specimens to the French Museum, an intention which the Trustees under -his Will have felt bound to fulfil. The Museum includes many ancient -stone implements found on the surface, in England and Ireland, France, -Belgium, and Denmark. The last of these is a remarkable collection, and -includes a good series from the Danish Kitchenmiddens. A few specimens -from Italy are also to be found; a valuable collection from the caves at -Gibraltar; and specimens from the Swiss Lakes. For convenience, a case -of ancient stone implements from Asia has been placed in this room, as -well as the more modern implements, dresses, and weapons of the -Esquimaux of America and Asia, and of the maritime tribes of the -North-West Coast of America. These furnish striking illustrations of the -remains found in the Caves of Dordogne, and prove that, while the -climate was similar to that of the northern countries in question, the -inhabitants of that part of France must have resembled the Esquimaux in -their habits and implements. - -[Sidenote: AFRICA AND ASIA.] - -The African Collection is very extensive, and supplies a lacuna in the -collections of the British Museum, where there are few objects from this -continent. The same may be said of the series from the Asiatic Islands. -The collection from Asia proper is not very numerous; the races now -occupying that continent being generally in a more advanced state of -civilization than that which especially interested Mr. CHRISTY. -Attention should, however, be called to two valuable relics from China; -an Imperial State Seal carved in jade, and a set of tablets of the same -material, on which has been engraved a poem by the Emperor KIEN-LUNG. - -[Sidenote: MELANESIA AND POLYNESIA.] - -The Polynesian Room contains a valuable collection of weapons, -ornaments, and dresses, both from the islands inhabited by the black -races of the Pacific, and from those of Polynesia proper. Many of the -specimens are of interest, as belonging to a state of culture which has -now completely changed, and as illustrating manners and customs that -have disappeared before the commerce and the teaching of Europeans. - -[Sidenote: ASIA.] - -In the ‘Asian Room’ are placed the larger objects from the Pacific, such -as spears, clubs, and paddles. The collection of spears is very large -and interesting. - -[Sidenote: AUSTRALIA AND PART OF NORTH AMERICA.] - -The Australian Collection is very complete, and it would not be easy to -replace it, inasmuch as the native races are dwindling in most parts of -that continent. - -[Sidenote: NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA.] - -The American department in chief includes antiquities and recent -implements and dresses from the North American Indians; ancient Carib -implements; and recent collections from British Guiana, and other parts -of South America. The most valuable part of the contents of this room is -the collection of Mexican antiquities, which is not only extensive, but -includes some specimens of great rarity. Among them should be especially -mentioned the following:—An axe of Avanturine jade, carved into the form -of a human figure; a remarkable knife of white chalcedony; a sacrificial -collar formed of a hard green stone; a squatting figure, of good -execution, sculptured out of a volcanic rock; and three remarkable -specimens coated with polished stones. The latter consist of a wooden -mask covered with a mosaic of blue stones, presumed to be turquoises, -but more probably a rare form of amazon-stone; a human skull made into a -mask, and coated with obsidian and the blue stone mentioned above; and a -knife with a blade of flint, and with a wooden handle, sculptured to -represent a Mexican divinity, and encrusted with obsidian, coral, -malachite, and other precious materials. [Sidenote: Franks’ _Report_, as -above.] There is also a small but choice collection of Peruvian pottery. - -A catalogue of the collection was privately printed by Mr. CHRISTY in -1862; but it embraces only a small part of the present collection. A -more extended catalogue is in preparation. - -It is due to accuracy to add that the aspect of the rooms devoted to the -CHRISTY Museum in Victoria Street, and the facilities of study which -they afford, are utterly unsatisfactory to real students. They are -adapted only to holiday sightseers, who look and go, and but to very -small groups, indeed, even of them. - -Every praise is due both to the Trustees and to their officer, for -having done their best, under strait and lamentable limitations, the -_removal_ of which is the duty of Parliament and of the Chancellor of -the Exchequer, not that of the Trustees. Under the Premiership of such -an eminent scholar and writer as Mr. GLADSTONE, humbler students of -history and of literature would fain hope that a long-standing reproach -will speedily be removed; but his ministerial surroundings are -unfriendly to such anticipations. After words which we have recently -heard, _from the Treasury Bench itself_, about Public Parks, there is -only scanty ground for hope that much improvement can, under existing -circumstances, be looked for in respect to Public Museums. - -At all events, the condition, as to space, of the CHRISTY Museum in -Victoria Street, no less than the condition, in that respect, of -portions of the general Museum of Antiquities at Bloomsbury itself—and -of nearly all our splendid national collections in Natural History—gives -tenfold importance to that question of speedy enlargement or efficient -reconstruction which it will be my duty rather to state, than to -discuss, in the next chapter. [Sidenote: THE STATE OF THE CHRISTY -COLLECTION VIEWED IN ITS BEARINGS UPON THE QUESTION OF MUSEUM -RECONSTRUCTION.] It will be my earnest aim to state it with -impartiality, and, for the most part, in better words than my own. - - -[Sidenote: THE ARCHÆOLOGICAL BEQUEST OF JAMES WOODHOUSE, OF CORFU.] - -Next in importance—but next at a long interval—to the accessions which -the Nation owes to the munificence of Henry CHRISTY, comes the bequest -of Mr. James WOODHOUSE, of Corfu, the circumstances attendant upon which -have much singularity. - -It is only of late years (speaking comparatively) that British Consuls -have become at all notable as collectors of antiquities. But when once -the new fashion was set, it spread rapidly, and it may now be hoped that -there will be as little lack of continuance as of speed. In Chapter V, I -had to mention (though very inadequately to the worth of their labours) -several Consuls in the Levant, who have eminently distinguished -themselves in augmenting our National Museum. But in this chapter the -reader must be introduced to a Consul who rather obstructed than -promoted a worthy public object. - -James WOODHOUSE was a British subject engaged in commerce, who had -resided for many years at Corfu (where for a time he had filled the -office of Government Secretary), and who consoled his self-imposed exile -by collecting a cabinet of coins, which eventually became one of great -value, and also an extensive museum of miscellaneous, but chiefly of -Greek, antiquities. Repeatedly, during his lifetime, he announced his -desire and purpose to perpetuate his collection by giving it to the -British Museum. When his health failed, he began to superintend in -person the packing up of the most valuable portions of his museum; but -illness grew upon him, and he was forced to leave off his preparations -abruptly. - -A delicate circumstance connected with his family circle seems to have -combined with this regretted interruption, by increasing illness, of his -precautionary measures and intentions (the secure fulfilling of which -lay near his heart), to make him uneasy and anxious. [Sidenote: THE -CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE WOODHOUSE BEQUEST.] He sent for a legal friend, Dr. -ZAMBELLI; told him of his plans, and also of his fears that they might -be—in the event of his sudden death, and he felt that death was fast -coming—obstructed. ZAMBELLI told him that the person to whom his purpose -and wishes ought to be communicated, without delay, was undoubtedly the -British Consul-General, Mr. SAUNDERS. In joint communication with both -of them, a deed of gift was prepared. ‘Having been engaged,’ said the -donor, ‘in numismatic pursuits, ... and being desirous that the -Collection of Coins _and other Antiquities_ so formed by me, should be -dedicated to national purposes, I give,’ and so on. No inventory, -however, had been made when the donor died, on the twenty-sixth of -February, 1866. Before WOODHOUSE’S death, Mr. Consul-General SAUNDERS -put a guard round the house; and, immediately after the event, sent away -all the household, taking official possession of the whole of the -effects, in the manner usual in cases of undoubted _intestacy_.[47] He -then, according to his own statement, set about ‘selecting such -portions’ of Mr. WOODHOUSE’S property as ‘seemed’ (to him and to a -clerical friend of the collector) ‘_suitable_ for the British Museum.’ - -Most naturally, when the intelligence came to the Museum, it was thought -by the Trustees that Mr. SAUNDERS had both very seriously exceeded, and -very gravely fallen short of, his obvious official duty. ‘Selection’ was -felt to have been superfluous in respect to any and every item, of every -kind, belonging to the donor’s museum. Just as plainly, the instant -forwarding of the whole, on the other hand, was a peremptory obligation -upon the British Consul. - -Eventually (and by the zealous exertions of Sir A. PANIZZI and of Mr. -Charles NEWTON, respectively, on behalf of the Trustees) conclusive -evidence was placed before Lord STANLEY (the now Earl of DERBY, and -then, it will be remembered, Foreign Secretary of State) that Mr. -Consul-General SAUNDERS had divided the Woodhouse antiquities into _two_ -portions, and had then proceeded to allot the smaller portion to the -British Museum, and the larger to the ‘heirs-at-law’ of the deceased. -Nor is it yet quite certain that such division was _all_ the division -that occurred. - -After long inquiries and much correspondence—as well between the Foreign -Office and the Queen’s Advocate, as between the Trustees and their -officers on the one hand, and various persons at Corfu, including, of -course, the Consul-General himself, on the other—Lord STANLEY touched -the point of the affair with characteristic keenness when he wrote, in -his despatch to Mr. SAUNDERS of the seventh of January, 1867: ‘Your -neglect to _make an Inventory_ of the effects of the deceased has been -the main cause of the doubts which have been felt as to the propriety of -your conduct in this matter, and of the inquiry which has been the -consequence of those doubts.’ - -But that neglect was then incurable. And, subsequently to the despatch -thus worded, further inquiry has but made the omission more regrettable. -The making of the Inventory had been pressed on Mr. SAUNDERS’ attention -at the time of the Collector’s death. - - -[Sidenote: Newton; in _Returns to Parliament_, of the year 1866.] - -That part of the WOODHOUSE Museum which came to England in 1866 included -a very interesting Collection of Greek Coins, chiefly from Corcyra, -Western Greece, and the Greek islands; an extensive series of rings and -other personal ornaments; some ancient glass; a few medallions; a few -sculptures, in marble, of doubtful antiquity; and last, but far indeed -from being least acceptable, a most beautiful head of Athené in cameo, -cut on a sardonyx. [Sidenote: Vischer, _Archaeologische Beiträge aus -Griechenland_, p. 2.] It was thought by the antiquary VISCHER—who saw -this fine cameo about the year 1854—that it represents the head of -PHIDIAS’ famous statue in gold and ivory, and therefore had a common -origin with the jasper intaglio so often praised by archæologists who -have seen the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna. - - -[Sidenote: LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA, AND THE ADDITIONS TO THE MUSEUM OF - THE ANTIQUITIES AND MSS. OF ABYSSINIA, 1867–8.] - -Some of my readers will remember that although war, and the calamities -which commonly accompany it, have often devastated museums and -libraries, it has occasionally enriched them. Sometimes by sheer -plunder, as under CATHARINE of Russia and the marshals of her predatory -armies. Sometimes by acts of genuine beneficence and public spirit, as -in Ireland under BLOUNT (afterwards Earl of Devonshire); and, again, -under the great Protector. Lord NAPIER adds his honoured name to the -small category of the soldiers who have justifiably turned victorious -arms to the profit of learning, and the enrichment of honestly built-up -national collections. I cannot, however, but regard as utterly unworthy -of the British arms and name certain acquisitions which were incidental -to that campaign. ‘Mr. HOLMES, the officer attached to the Abyssinian -Expedition by the Trustees of the British Museum’—I quote exactly and -literally from the ‘_Accounts and Estimates_’ of last year -(1869)—‘collected ... among other objects, a silver chalice and a paten -bearing Æthiopic inscriptions, showing them to have been given to -various churches by King THEODORE.’ - -[Sidenote: THE COLLECTION OF SACRAMENTAL PLATE IN ABYSSINIA.] - -I am certain to be uncontradicted when I assert, that neither the -Trustees of the British Museum, nor Lord NAPIER of Magdala, instructed -Mr. HOLMES to take from Christian churches in Abyssinia their -sacramental plate, or their processional crosses. - -It is a far pleasanter task to praise the diligence with which Mr. -HOLMES executed the Commission really given him by the Trustees. He -collected many specimens of Abyssinian art and industry which were fit -contributions to the National Museum. [Sidenote: THE COLLECTION OF -ABYSSINIAN MSS.] In like manner, Lord NAPIER authorised the collection, -partly by officers under his command, and partly by the researches of -Mr. HOLMES, of a series of Abyssinian Manuscripts, extending to three -hundred and thirty-nine volumes. These were given to the Museum by the -then Secretary of State for India. - - -[Sidenote: THE SLADE BEQUEST.] - -In the same year with the Abyssinian spoils, came a noble addition to -the Art Collections of the Museum by the bequest of the late Felix -SLADE, and a rich addition to the Library, by the purchase of the -Japanese books collected by the late Dr. VON SIEBOLD, during the later -of his two visits to Japan, a country which he so largely contributed to -make well known to the rest of the world. - -Felix SLADE was the younger son of Robert SLADE, in his day a well-known -Proctor in Doctors’ Commons. Mr. William SLADE, elder brother of Felix, -had inherited the valuable estate of Halsteads in Lonsdale (Yorkshire), -under the will of the last male-heir of that family, and on his early -death he was succeeded by his brother, the benefactor. - -Truly a ‘benefactor.’ To purposes of public charity he bequeathed not -less than seven thousand pounds, and bequeathed that sum with wise -forethought, and with Christian generality of view. He founded and -munificently endowed Professorships of Art at each of the ancient -Universities, and at University College in London. To the British Museum -he gave the splendid bequest about to be described, which had been -selected with exquisite taste, knowledge and judgment, and which, under -such rare conditions of purchase, had cost him more than twenty-five -thousand pounds. [Sidenote: THE SLADE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES. 1869.] I -describe it in the precise words—chiefly from the pen of one of his -Executors—which are used in the Return to Parliament of 1869:—‘The -collection of glass and other antiquities bequeathed to the Nation by -the late Felix SLADE, Esq., F.S.A., includes about nine hundred and -fifty specimens of ancient glass, selected with care, so as to represent -most of the phases through which the art of glass-working has passed. -Collected in the first instance with a view to artistic beauty alone, -the series has been since gradually enriched with historical specimens, -as well as with curiosities of manufacture, so as to illustrate the -history of glass in all its branches. - -‘Of early Egyptian glass there are not many examples in the collection; -one of some interest is a case for holding the _stibium_, used by the -Egyptian ladies for the eye, and which is in the form of a papyrus -sceptre. The later productions of Egypt are represented by some very -minute specimens of mosaic glass, formed of slender filaments of various -colours fused together, and cut into transverse sections. - -‘To the Phœnicians have been attributed the making of many little vases -of peculiar form and ornamentation that are met with, not unfrequently, -in tombs on the shores of the Mediterranean. They are of brilliant -colours, with zigzag decoration, and exhibit the same technical -peculiarities, so that they must have been derived from one centre of -fabrication. Of these vases there is a considerable series, showing most -of the varieties of form and colour that are known. - -‘The collection is especially rich in vessels moulded into singular -shapes, found principally in Syria and the neighbouring islands, and -which were probably produced in the workshops of Sidon, but at a later -time; possibly as late as the Roman dominion. The Museum Collections -were previously very ill provided with such specimens. To the same date -must belong a vase handle, stamped with the name of ARTAS the Sidonian, -in Greek and Latin characters. - -‘Of Roman glass there is a great variety, as might be expected from the -skill shown in glass-making during the Imperial times of Rome. -[Sidenote: A. W. Franks, _Account of Slade Museum_, in the Parliamentary -Returns of 1869.] Large vases were not especially sought after by Mr. -SLADE, but two fine cinerary urns may be noticed, remarkable not only -for their form, but for the beautiful iridescent colours with which time -has clothed them. There is also a very fine amber-coloured ewer, with -blue filaments round the neck, which was found in the Greek Archipelago; -an elegant jug or bottle with diagonal flutings, found at Barnwell, near -Cambridge, and a brown bottle, splashed with opaque white, from Germany. -Of cut glass, an art which it was formerly denied that the Romans -possessed, there are good examples; such, for instance, is a boat-shaped -vase of deep emerald hue, and of the same make apparently as the Sacro -Catino of Genoa; a bowl cut into facets, found near Merseburg, in -Germany; and a cup, similarly decorated, found near Cambridge. The last -two specimens are of a brilliant clear white, imitating rock crystal, a -variety of glass much esteemed by the Romans. Several vessels found in -Germany are remarkable for having patterns in coloured glass, trailed as -it were over the surface. There are two very fine bowls of millefiori -glass, one of them with patches of gold, and very numerous polished -fragments illustrating the great variety and taste shown by the ancients -in such vessels. Two vases exhibit designs in intaglio; one of them, a -subject with figures; the other, a bowl found near Merseburg, exhibits -the story of Diana and Actæon; the goddess is kneeling at a pool of -water in a grotto; Actæon is looking on, and a reflection of his head -with sprouting horns may be distinguished in the water at the goddess’s -feet; to prevent any mistake, the names of the personages, in Greek, are -added. This bowl may be of a late date, probably early Byzantine. Of -vases decorated in cameo, fragments alone are to be found in the -collection; but as only four entire vases are known, this is not -surprising. One of the fragments seems to be part of a large panel which -has represented buildings, &c., and has on it remains of a Greek -inscription. There are several glass cameos and intaglios, the -representatives of original gems that have long since been lost; one of -the cameos is a head of AUGUSTUS; another represents an Egyptian -princess; whilst among the intaglios are several of great excellence; of -these should particularly be noticed a blue paste representing Achilles -wounded in the heel, and crouching down behind his rich shield, a gem -worthy of the best period of Greek art. One of the rarest specimens in -the collection is a circular medallion of glass, on which is painted a -gryphon; the colours appear to be burnt in, and it is therefore a -genuine specimen of ancient painting on glass, of which but three other -instances are known. - -‘In the fourth and fifth century it was the habit to ornament the -bottoms of bowls and cups with designs in gold, either fixed to the -surface or enclosed between two layers of glass. These specimens have -generally been found in the Catacombs of Rome; but two or three have -been found at Cologne, one of which is in the collection. It is the -remains of a disc of considerable size, with a central design, now -destroyed; around are eight compartments, with subjects from the Old and -New Testaments: Moses striking the Rock, the History of Jonah, Daniel in -the Lions’ Den, the Fiery Furnace, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Nativity, -and the Paralytic Man; of these, the Nativity is a very rare -representation. - -‘Of glass of a Teutonic origin there is but one specimen in the -collection, a tumbler of peculiar form, from a cemetery at Selzen, in -Rhenish Hesse. Like other glasses of the time, it is so made that it -cannot be put down until it has been emptied, and thus testifies to the -convivial habits of the Teutons. - -‘Of early Byzantine glass but little is known; the bowl with Diana and -Actæon, already noticed, is very probably of that period; and a -Byzantine cameo with the head of CHRIST should be mentioned. - -‘Of glass of the middle ages, from the West of Europe, but little or -nothing has been preserved save the exquisite painted glass in -cathedrals and churches. Of the Eastern glass of the same period several -specimens are in the collection. Among these is a very beautiful bottle, -probably of the thirteenth century, decorated with a minute pattern of -birds; a lamp of large size, made in Syria to hang in a mosque, bears -the name of SHEIKHOO, a man of great wealth and importance in Egypt and -Syria, who died in 1356, after building a mosque at Cairo. - -‘To a later period of the Eastern glass works may be referred an ewer of -a sapphire blue, resplendent with gold arabesques, and several other -richly decorated pieces, all made in Persia. - -‘Venice for many centuries held the foremost place among the makers of -glass. Enriched, to begin with, by her very extensive trade in beads, -she received gladly the Byzantine workers in glass, who had been driven -out of Constantinople by the Turks. Henceforward the variety of her -glass wares increased, and must have brought much profit. The earliest -glass vases which can with certainty be referred to Venice are of the -fifteenth century; of these, a large covered cup with gilt ribs is -remarkable for its early date and size. The two finest specimens are, -however, two goblets richly enameled; one of them is blue, with a -triumph of Venus; the other green, with two portraits. These were the -choicest specimens in the DEBRUGE and SOLTYKOFF Collections -successively, and were obtained by Mr. SLADE, for upwards of four -hundred pounds, at the sale of the latter collection. Among other -enameled specimens may be noticed three shallow bowls, or dishes, with -heraldic devices: one has the arms of Pope LEO X, 1513–1521; another -those of LEONARDO LOREDANO, Doge of Venice, 1501–1521; and the third the -arms of FABRIZIO CARETTO, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of -Jerusalem, 1513–1521. - -‘The blown glasses of Venice are numerous and well selected, exhibiting -great beauty of outline and variety of design. Among them should be -especially remarked, a very tall covered cup, surmounted with a winged -serpent, from the BERNAL Collection; and two drinking glasses, with -enameled flowers forming the stems. - -‘The coloured vases display most of the hues made at Venice; ruby, -purple, green, and blue, as well as an opalescent white and an opaque -white, the latter often diversified with splashes of other colours. To -these may be added various imitations of agate, avanturine, &c. -[Sidenote: Franks, as above.] Another peculiar fabric of Venice is well -illustrated, the frosted glass belonging generally to an early period. - -‘In the production of millefiori glass the Venetians did not equal the -ancients, either in harmony of colour or variety of design. The rosettes -were formed of sections of canes, such as were employed in making beads. -The specimens of this glass are rare, but there are not less than seven -pieces so ornamented in the collection. - -‘Of lace glass, one of the most remarkable productions of Venice, and -which nowhere has been carried to such perfection, there are many fine -specimens, both in form and delicacy of pattern, as there are likewise -of the variety called reticelle. Among the latter is a tall covered cup -with snakes on the cover and in the stem; there should also be noticed a -drinking glass, in the stem of which is enclosed a half sequin of the -Doge FRANCESCO MOLINO, 1647. - -‘Of unquestionably ancient French glass but few specimens are known. -This adds much to the value of a goblet in the collection, with enameled -portrait of Jehan BOUCAU and his wife Antoinette, made about 1530. - -‘German glass is fully represented: the earlier specimens are richly -decorated with enamel, chiefly heraldic devices; they are dated 1571, -1572, &c. A few are painted like window glass, and among them is a -cylindrical cup, dated 1662, on which is depicted the procession at the -christening of MAXIMILIAN EMMANUEL, afterwards Elector of Bavaria. The -later German specimens are engraved, and some of them by artists of -note. Of ruby glass, another production for which Germany was famed, -there are good specimens; one bears the cypher of JOHN GEORGE IV, -Elector of Saxony, another that of FREDERICK THE FIRST. KUNCKEL, to whom -these glasses are attributed, was successively in the service of both -princes. - -‘Though glass was early made in Flanders, the most ancient specimens in -the collection under this head have been regarded as Venetian glasses -decorated in the Low Countries. If made at Venice, they must, from -certain peculiarities of form, have been designed for the Flemish and -Dutch markets. The ornaments are etched, and contain allusions to the -political events of the country: for instance, the arms of the seventeen -provinces chained to those of Spain, and dated 1655; a portrait of -PHILIP IV; WILLIAM II of Orange; his wife, MARY OF ENGLAND; OLDEN -BARNEVELDT, &c. Some of the later specimens are engraved on the lathe in -a very ornamental manner, and others delicately stippled. One of the -latter bears the name of F. GREENWOOD, and others are attributed to -WOLF. - -‘In English glass the collection is not rich, the difficulty of -identifying such specimens being very great; some of them are referred -to the works at Bristol, which produced ornamental glass about a century -ago. - -‘Some valuable additions to the collection of glass have been received -from the Executors of Mr. SLADE, purchased by them out of funds set -aside for the purpose. They are nineteen in number, and among them may -be especially noticed a very fine Oriental bottle with elaborate -patterns in gold and enamel, together with figures of huntsmen, &c. It -may be referred to the fourteenth century, and was formerly in the -possession of a noble family at Wurzburg. Two specimens of Chinese -glass, dated in the reign of the Emperor KIEN-LUNG, 1736–1796; and -several ancient Flemish and Dutch glasses. - -[Sidenote: Franks, as above.] - -‘By the acquisition of the SLADE Collection the series of ancient and -more recent glass in the British Museum has probably become more -extensive, as well as more instructive, than any other public collection -of the kind, and it will afford ample materials for study both to the -artist and the antiquary. - -‘In addition to his collection of glass, Mr. SLADE has bequeathed to the -Museum a small series of carvings in ivory and metal work, from Japan, -which are full of the humour and quaintness which characterise the art -of that country. - -‘He has likewise bequeathed to the Museum such of the miscellaneous -works of art in his possession as should be selected by one of his -Executors, Mr. FRANKS. The objects so selected are not numerous, but -include some valuable additions to the National Collection. - -‘Among them may be noticed the following:—Two very beautiful Greek -painted vases, œnochoæ with red figures of a fine style; these were two -of the gems of the DURAND and HOPE Collections successively; also a fine -tazza, with red figures very well drawn, formerly in the ROGERS -Collection. Two red bowls of the so-called Samian ware, with ornaments -in relief; one of them was discovered near Capua, the other is believed -to have been found in Germany; an antique hand, in rock crystal, of -which a drawing by Santo BARTOLI is preserved in the Royal Library at -Windsor, and a small Roman vase of onyx; a panel, probably from a book -cover, a fine example of German enamel of the twelfth century, from the -PREAUX Collection; a very fine flask-shaped vase of Italian majolica, -probably of Urbino ware, and representing battle scenes; three elegant -ewers, one of them made at Nevers, another of Avignon ware, and the -third probably Venetian—all three are rare specimens; an oval plate of -niello work on silver, and a silver plate engraved in the style of -CRISPIN DE PASSE; three early specimens of stamped leather work, -commonly termed cuirbouilli; [Sidenote: Franks, as above.] a tile from -the Alhambra, but probably belonging to the restorations made to that -building in the sixteenth century. - -‘The value of Mr. SLADE’S bequest is considerably increased by a very -detailed and profusely illustrated catalogue of the Collection which, -having been prepared during his lifetime, will be completed and -distributed, according to his directions. - -‘Since the CRACHERODE bequest, which formed the nucleus of the British -Museum Print Collections, no acquisition of the kind approaches the -bequest of Mr. SLADE in rare and choice specimens of etchings and -engravings, wherein nearly every artist of distinction is represented. -The collection comprises rare specimens of impressions from Nielli and -prints of the School of Baldini; fine examples of some of the best -productions of Andrea Mantegna, Zoan Andrea Vavassori, Girolamo Mocetto, -Giovanni Battista del Porto, Jean Duvet, Marc Antonio, with his scholars -and followers, the master of the year 1466; [Sidenote: G. W. Reid, in -Parliamentary Returns of 1869.] Martin Schongauer, Israel van Meckenen, -Albert Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Hans Burgmair, Lucas Cranach, Matheus -Zazinger, the Behams, Rembrandt, Vandyck, Adrian Ostade, Paul Potter, -Karl du Jardin, Jan Both, N. Berghem, Agostino Caracci, Wenceslaus -Hollar, Cornelius Visscher, Crispin and Simon de Passe, S. à Bolswert, -Houbraken, L. Vorsterman, Jacques Callot, Claude Mellan, Nanteuil, -George Wille, Faithorne, Hogarth, L. A. B. Desnoyers, F. Forster, Sir R. -Strange, William Woollett, Porporati, Pefetti, Pietro Anderloni, Raphael -Morghen, Giuseppe Longhi, Garavaglio, and others. There are also some -rare English portraits and book-illustrations. - -[Sidenote: THE SPECIMENS OF PRINTING AND BINDING IN THE SLADE - COLLECTION.] - -‘The specimens of binding from the SLADE Collection (now placed in the -Printed Book Department), continues the Report of 1869, are twenty-three -in number, chiefly of foreign execution, and afford examples of the -style of PADELOUP, DUSSEUIL, DEROME, and other eminent binders. One of -the volumes, an edition of PAULUS ÆMYLIUS, _De gestis Francorum_ (Paris, -1555, 8vo), is a beautiful specimen of the French style of the period, -with the sides and back richly ornamented in the Grolier manner. An -Italian translation of the works of Horace (Venice, 1581, 4to), is of -French execution, richly tooled, and bears the arms of HENRY III of -France. A folio volume of the _Reformation der Stadt Nürnberg_ -(Frankfort, 1566), which is a magnificent specimen of contemporary -German binding, formerly belonged to the Emperor MAXIMILIAN THE SECOND, -whose arms are painted on the elegantly goffered gilt edges. An edition -of PTOLEMY’S _Geographicæ Narrationis libri octo_ (Lyons, 1541, fol.) -affords a fine illustration of the Italian style of about that date. The -copy of a French translation of XENOPHON’S _Cyropædia_, by Jacques de -VINTEMILLE (Paris, 1547, 4to), appears to have been bound for King -EDWARD VI, of England, whose arms and cypher are on the sides, while the -rose is five times worked in gold on the back. [Sidenote: T. Watts, in -_Returns_, as above.] A volume of Bishop HALL’S _Contemplations on the -Old Testament_ (London, 1626, 8vo), in olive morocco contemporary -English binding, has the Royal arms in the centre of the sides, and -appears to have been the dedication copy of King CHARLES THE FIRST.’ It -is proposed, concludes the _Report_, to exhibit some of the most -beautiful specimens comprised in Mr. SLADE’S valuable donation, in one -of the select cases in the King’s Library. - -Mr. SLADE also bequeathed three thousand pounds for the augmentation, by -his Executors, of his Collection of Ancient Glass, and five thousand -pounds to be by them expended in the restoration of the parish church of -Thornton-in-Lonsdale. - - -[Sidenote: VON SIEBOLD AND HIS JAPANESE COLLECTIONS OF 1823–8.] - -Philip VON SIEBOLD was born at Wurtzburg, in February, 1796, and in the -university of that town he received his education. He adopted the -profession of medicine, but devoted himself largely to the study of -natural history. In the joint capacity of physician and naturalist, he -accompanied the Dutch Embassy to Japan in the year 1823. He was a true -lover of humanity, as well as a lover of science. Many Japanese students -were taught by him both the curative arts, and the passion for doing -good to their fellow-men, which ought to be the condition of their -exercise and practice. He won the respect of the Japanese, but his -ardent pursuit of knowledge brought him into great peril. - -In 1828 he was about to return to Europe, laden with scientific -treasures, when he was suddenly seized and imprisoned for having -procured access to an official map of the Empire, in order to improve -his knowledge of its topography. His imprisonment lasted thirteen -months. At last he was liberated, and ordered to do what he was just -about to do when arrested. (SIEBOLD, says his biographer, _kam mit der -Verbannung davon_.) But his banishment was not perpetual. In 1859, he -returned. He won favour and employment from the then Tycoon. He returned -to his birthplace in 1862, and died there in October, 1866. - -Of his second library, Mr. WATTS wrote thus:—‘The collection of Japanese -books was one of two formed by Dr. VON SIEBOLD during his residence in, -and visits to, Japan. The first of these collections, which is now at -Leyden, and of which a catalogue was published in 1845, was long -considered as beyond comparison the finest of its kind out of Japan and -China; but the second, now in the Museum, is much superior. That at -Leyden comprises five hundred and twenty-five works, that in London one -thousand and eighty-eight works, in three thousand four hundred and -forty-one volumes. It contains specimens of every class of literature: -cyclopædias, histories, law-books, political pamphlets, novels, plays, -poetry, works on science, on antiquities, on female costume, on cookery, -on carpentry, and on dancing. It abounds in works illustrative of the -topography of Japan, as, for instance, one, in twenty volumes, on the -secular capital Yeddo, and two, in eleven volumes, on the religious -capital Miaco; collections of views of Yeddo and of the volcano -Fusiyama, &c. &c. There are also several dictionaries of European -languages, testifying to the eagerness with which the Japanese now -pursue that study. The Museum was already in possession of a second -edition of an English dictionary published at Yeddo in 1866, in which -the lexicographer, HORI TATSNOSKAY, observes in the preface, “As the -study of the English language is now becoming general in our country, we -have had for some time the desire to publish a pocket dictionary of the -English and Japanese languages, as an assistance to our scholars,” and -adds that the first edition is “entirely sold out.” These dictionaries -may now assist Europeans to study the language of Japan, and it is -believed that the Japanese Library now in the Museum will afford -unequalled opportunities for the study of its literature.’ - -This was the last sentence in the last official report which Mr. WATTS -lived to write, for the purpose of being laid before Parliament. He died -on the ninth of September, 1869, at the age of fifty-nine. His post was -not filled up until the end of December, when he was succeeded by Mr. -William Brenchley RYE, who was then Senior Assistant-Keeper in the -Department of Printed Books. Mr. RYE is well known in literature. He has -edited, with great ability, several works of early travel for the useful -‘Hakluyt Society,’—an employment which he has often shared with his -friends and Museum colleagues Messrs. Winter JONES and Richard Henry -MAJOR, and with like honourable distinction in its performance. More -recently, he has increased his reputation by a book which has been -largely read, and which well deserves its popularity—_England as seen by -Foreigners_. This work was published in 1865. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - RECONSTRUCTORS AND PROJECTORS. - - ‘What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we - spend altogether on our Libraries, public or private, as compared with - what we spend on our horses? If a man spends lavishly on his Library, - you call him mad,—a Bibliomaniac. But you never call any one a - Horse-maniac, though men ruin themselves every day by their losses, - and you do not hear of people ruining themselves by their books. Or, - to go lower still, how much do you think the contents of the - bookshelves of the United Kingdom, public and private, would fetch, as - compared with the contents of its wine-cellars.’— - - RUSKIN, _Sesame and Lilies_, pp. 75–77. - - _The various Projects and Plans proposed, at different times, for the - Severance, the Partial Dispersion, and the Rearrangement, of the - several integral Collections which at present form_ ‘The British - Museum.’ - - -[Sidenote: GROSLEY’S IDEA OF SEVERING THE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS, 1765.] - -The first reconstructor, in imagination, of the British Museum on the -plan of severing the literature from the scientific collections, was a -speculative and clever Frenchman, Peter John GROSLEY, who visited it -within less than six years of its being first opened to public -inspection. GROSLEY expressed great admiration for much that he saw, and -he also criticised some of the arrangements that seemed to him -defective, with freedom but with courtesy. Some of my readers will -probably think that he hit a real blot, at that time, when he said: ‘The -Printed Books are the weakest part of this immense collection. The -building cannot contain such a Library as England can form and ought to -form for the ornament of its capital. It has a building quite ready in -the “Banquetting-House” [at Whitehall], and that building could be -enlarged from time to time as occasion might require.’ - -Other writers, at various periods, have advocated the severance of -collections which seemed to them too multifarious to admit of full, -natural, and equable development, in common. There is perhaps no -apparent reason, on the surface, why a great Nation should not be able -to enlarge the most varied public collections as effectively, and as -impartially, within one building, as within half a dozen buildings. Nor -does there seem to be any necessary connection between the wise and -liberal government of public collections, and their severance or -division into many buildings, rather than their combination within a -single structure. Nevertheless it is certain that many thinkers have, by -some process or other, reached the conclusion that severance would -favour improvement. - -[Sidenote: MR. WATTS’ PROPOSITION FOR THE SEVERANCE OF THE MUSEUM - COLLECTIONS, 1837.] - -Seventy years after GROSLEY wrote, Thomas WATTS revived the proposition -of dividing the contents of the British Museum, but he revived it in a -new form. His idea was to remove the Antiquities and to retain at -Montagu House both the Libraries and the Natural History Collections. -‘The pictures have been removed,’ wrote Mr. WATTS in 1837, ‘why should -not the statues follow? The collections at the Museum would then remain -of an entirely homogeneous character. It would be exclusively devoted to -conveying literary information; while the collection at the National -Gallery would have for its object to refine and cultivate the taste.’ - -It was not by any oversight that Mr. WATTS spoke of the ‘homogeneity’ of -Manuscripts, Printed Books, and Natural-History Collections. He (at the -time) meant what he said. [Sidenote: Watts, in _Mechanics’ Magazine_, -vol. xxvi, pp. 295, seqq.] But I doubt if the naturalists would feel -flattered by the reason which he gives in illustration of his opinion. -‘The various curiosities accumulated at the Museum might be considered,’ -he continues, ‘as a vast assemblage of _book-plates_, serving to -illustrate and elucidate the literature of the Library.’ - -Be that as it may, the idea of removing either the Antiquities or the -Printed Books has long ceased to be mooted. All who now advocate -severance advise, I think, that the Natural History Collections should -be removed, and none other than those. But hitherto the idea of -severance, in any shape, has been uniformly repudiated both by Royal -Commissions of Inquiry, and by Parliamentary Committees. The question, -however, is sure to be revived, and that speedily. Ere long it must -needs receive a final parliamentary solution—aye or no. - - -In this chapter I shall endeavour to state,—and as I hope with -impartiality,—the main reasons which have been severally adduced, both -by those who advocate a severance, and by those who recommend the -continuance of the existing union of all the varied and vast Collections -now at Bloomsbury. There can be no better introduction of the subject -than that which will be afforded by putting before the reader, on the -one hand, a detailed and well-considered plan which contemplated the -maintenance of the Museum as it is; and, on the other, the elaborate -report in favour of transferring the scientific collections to a new -site,—in order to gain ample space at Bloomsbury for a great Museum of -Literature and Archæology, such as should be in every point of view -worthy of the British Empire,—which was approved of by a Treasury Minute -more than eight years ago. - - -Of the several schemes and projects of extension which rest on the -twofold basis of (1) the retention at Bloomsbury of nearly all the -existing collections, with ample space for their prospective increase, -and (2) such an effective internal re-arrangement of the collections -themselves as would greatly increase the public facilities of access and -study, none better deserves the attention of the reader than that which -was submitted in the first instance to the Trustees of the British -Museum, and subsequently to Parliament (in 1860) by Mr. Edmund OLDFIELD, -then a Senior Assistant in the Department of Antiquities, entrusted (in -succession to Mr. C. T. NEWTON, on his proceeding to Greece) with the -charge of the Greek and Roman Galleries. By this plan it is proposed to -erect on the west side of the Museum a new range of Galleries for Greek -and Roman Antiquities. The façade in Charlotte Street—prolonged to the -house No. 4 in Bedford Square—would extend to about 440 feet in length, -with an usual depth of 140, increased at the southern extremity to 190 -feet. This new range would provide for the whole of the present Greek, -Roman, Phœnician, and Etruscan Antiquities, and for considerable -augmentations. To Assyrian Antiquities would be assigned the present -Elgin Gallery, the ‘Mausoleum Room,’ and the ‘Hellenic Room,’ together -with two other rooms—gained in part by new adaptations of space -comprised within the existing buildings. [Sidenote: MR. OLDFIELD’S -PROJECT OF RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GALLERIES OF ANTIQUITIES (1858–1860).] -The rooms now devoted to the Antiquities of Kouyunjik and Nimroud would -then be applied to the reception of Egyptian Antiquities, together with -a room to be constructed on the site of the present principal staircase. -The Lycian Gallery would retain its site, with an enlargement westward. -I quote Mr. OLDFIELD’S own descriptive account of his project, in full, -from the Appendix to the _Minutes of Evidence_ of 1860. - -[Sidenote: ENTRANCE HALL.] - - I. _Entrance Hall._—On the north side is a staircase, such as - suggested by Mr. PANIZZI, forming the access to the galleries of - Natural History. - -[Sidenote: PRIVATE ROOM FOR SCULPTURES.] - - II. Room for the first reception, unpacking, and examination of - sculptures, the consideration of such as are offered for purchase, the - cleaning and repairing of marbles and mosaics, and storing of - pedestals, mason’s apparatus, and machinery, &c. - -[Sidenote: FIRST EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - III. _First Egyptian Room._—The present two staircases, and the wall - at the east end of the Assyrian Transept being removed, a handsome - entrance would be obtained to the galleries of Antiquities. The room - would be about seventy-six feet by thirty-five, and though not very - well lighted, might suffice for the monuments of the first twelve - dynasties of Egypt, at present in the northern vestibule and lobby, - which have no very artistic character. - -[Sidenote: SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - IV. _Second Egyptian Room._—The monuments of the Eighteenth Dynasty - would here commence. Terminating the vista from the north would be the - head of Thothmes III, more advantageously seen than in its present - position, where it stands in front of a doorway, and exposed to a - cross light. - -[Sidenote: THIRD EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - V. _Third Egyptian Room._—For smaller remains of the same period. The - alcoves should be removed, and a door opened on the north side. - -[Sidenote: FOURTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - VI. _Fourth Egyptian Room._—To remedy the darkness of this room, an - opening should be made in the ceiling, inclosed by a balustrade in the - room above (_v._ Plan of Upper Floor), and covered with glass; whilst - the roof of this upper room should be lightened, at least in the - central compartment, by substituting glass for its present heavy - ceiling. The small space thus sacrificed in the floor of the upper - room would be a less serious loss than the virtual uselessness of so - large an apartment below. With the proposed improvement in the - lighting, the Fourth Egyptian Room would be well adapted for the - colossal monuments of Amenophis III; without it, the room could hardly - serve for any purpose but a passage. - -[Sidenote: FIFTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - VII. _Fifth Egyptian Room._—In the middle would be arranged, in two - rows, the remaining sculptures of the Eighteenth and part of those of - the Nineteenth Dynasty. In the recesses between the pilasters might be - fixed wall-cases, which would rather improve than impair the - architectural effect of the room, and for which the light is well - adapted, the rays from the opposite windows striking sufficiently low - to obviate the shadow occasioned by shelves in rooms lighted from - above. Such cases would contain small objects from the Egyptian - collection now on the Upper Floor. - -[Sidenote: SIXTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - VIII. _Sixth Egyptian Room._—This room, originally ill lighted, has - been further darkened by the new Reading-Room, erected within a few - yards of its windows. If, however, an opening were made in the ceiling - (as proposed for Room VI), and if the roof of the room above were - somewhat modified, light might be thrown both on the magnificent bust - of Rameses II and on the east wall of the room. The middle window in - that wall, which furnishes no available light, might then be blocked - up; and before it might stand the cast from the head of the colossus - at Abousimbul, now placed over a door in the northern vestibule, but - which ought, in any re-arrangement, to be united with the other - monuments of Rameses II, and which would finely terminate the vista, - looking from the west. - -[Sidenote: SEVENTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - IX. _Seventh Egyptian Room._—Here would be the sculptures, both of the - native dynasties posterior to the Nineteenth, and of the Ptolemaic and - Roman periods, which at present occupy the southern Egyptian Gallery. - In the recesses between the pilasters might be wall-cases. - -[Sidenote: EIGHTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - X. _Eighth Egyptian Room._—This, and the two succeeding rooms, would - be appropriated to smaller Egyptian remains. The light on the western - side of these rooms falls so nearly vertically, from the overshadowing - mass of building adjoining, that wall-cases would have their contents - completely thrown into shade by the shelves, or by the tops of the - cases. Objects in the middle of the room, on the other hand, would be - in uninterrupted light. It is, therefore, proposed to place against - the walls inscribed tablets, which are best seen under an acutely - striking light; painted plaster friezes, which, from their strong - colours and coarse execution, do not require much light; and framed - papyri, which are liable to injury from exposure to powerful light. - Along the centre of the room would be arranged mummies, and mummy - cases, in glass frames, with table-cases for scarabæi, and other small - objects, which are most conveniently exhibited on flat or sloping - surfaces. - -[Sidenote: NINTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - XI. _Ninth Egyptian Room._—The thoroughfare is here too great for - objects to be conveniently arranged in the centre; but the walls might - be occupied as in the preceding room. - -[Sidenote: TENTH EGYPTIAN ROOM.] - - XII. _Tenth Egyptian Room._—To be arranged similarly to the Eighth. - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF ACCOMMODATION FOR EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.] - - SUMMARY of the Accommodation provided in the plan for EGYPTIAN - ANTIQUITIES:— - - 1. The large sculptures would gain Rooms III, IV, and VI, in lieu of - the northern vestibule. - - 2. The inscribed tablets, which at present occupy the recesses of - Rooms VII, VIII, IX, containing four hundred and twenty-two linear - feet of wall-space, and the walls of the northern vestibule, - containing about eighty feet, or altogether about five hundred and two - feet, would share with the framed papyri and painted plaster friezes - the walls of Rooms III, IV, V, VI, VIII, X, XI, XII, containing - altogether about nine hundred and sixty feet. - - 3. The mummies, overcrowded in a room containing two thousand and - fourteen square feet of available open space, and the coffins in the - present ‘Egyptian Ante-room,’ would be arranged, with several table - cases, in Rooms X and XII, containing altogether about four thousand - and eighty square feet. - - 4. The small objects, now in wall-cases extending to two hundred and - thirty-seven feet of linear measurement, and in three table-cases, - would be arranged in wall-cases, extending to three hundred and - eighty-three feet, and in several table-cases, of which the exact - extent cannot be fixed. - - The additional space here provided for large Egyptian sculptures is - not so much needed for the present as is the case in some other - series; but the greater comparative difficulty of moving objects so - bulky makes it advisable to secure, as far as possible, the permanence - of any re-arrangement, by leaving room for the probable incorporations - of future years. The accommodation provided for smaller objects is - little more than they already require for advantageous display. - -[Sidenote: FIRST ASSYRIAN ROOM.] - - XIII. _First Assyrian or Nimroud Room._—This room, on the site of the - basement room, would be formed by demolishing the small room, with the - adjoining students’ room and staircase; by extending over their site - the glass roof of room; by throwing a floor, on a continuous level - with those of the adjoining galleries, and supported upon iron - pillars, over so much of room as is coloured brown in the plan; and by - carrying up thin partitions from this floor to the glass roof, so as - to inclose a new apartment. This apartment would, at the south end, - extend across the whole breadth of room, but elsewhere it would be - limited to a central space, nineteen feet wide, corresponding to the - present central compartment of room, so as to leave open an area of - ten feet wide on each side. The open areas would serve to light both - the whole room below, of which the central portion would be partially - obscured by the new structure, and also the rooms in the adjoining - basements, which, though no longer used for exhibition, might be - serviceable for other subordinate purposes. In one of the open areas - might be a private staircase to the basement. Room XIII would be - considerably loftier than the present ‘Nimroud Side Gallery,’ and it - would contain two thousand nine hundred and seventy superficial feet, - and three hundred and fourteen linear feet of wall-space, instead of - two thousand one hundred and seventy-six superficial feet, and two - hundred and seventy-eight feet of wall-space. In this new room would - be placed the earliest of the Assyrian monuments, those of - Sardanapalus I; at the south end those found in the two small temples - at Nimroud, including the colossal lion, the arched monolith and - altar, and the mythological figures from a doorway; in the northern - portion, the sculptures from the North-west Palace at Nimroud, - including the small winged lion and bull, now in room. - -[Sidenote: SECOND ASSYRIAN ROOM.] - - XIV. _Second Assyrian Room._—This would contain a continuation of the - series from Nimroud. On the west side the colossal winged lions now in - the western compartment of the Assyrian Transept, which would complete - the monuments of Sardanapalus I; in other parts of the room, the few - but important sculptures of Divanubara, Shammaz-Phal, and Pul, now - somewhat scattered for want of the requisite accommodation in room, - but for which there would here be ample space, and an advantageous - light. - -[Sidenote: THIRD ASSYRIAN ROOM.] - - XV. A proposed new room, to be entitled the _Third Assyrian or - Khorsabad Room_, the Assistant-Keeper’s study being removed, and - accommodation being provided for him elsewhere. The room might be - forty-seven feet by forty, about the same height as XIV, and similarly - lighted by a central skylight; beneath it would be a basement room for - the uses of the establishment. Room XV would contain, first, the - bas-reliefs of Tiglathpileser II from the South-west edifice of - Nimroud; and secondly, the Khorsabad collection, or monuments of - Sargina, which is next in chronological order to the Nimroud - collection. The two colossal bulls of Sargina are marked in the plan - as facing each other, an arrangement common at Khorsabad. Deducting - space for the bulls, upwards of eighty linear feet of wall-surface - would remain in the room, which is considerably more than the - bas-reliefs of Tiglathpileser and Sargina require. The new building - would necessarily obscure some of the windows of the adjoining - basement, but this is of minor importance; and the evil might be - diminished on the western and southern side, by leaving open spaces in - the floor behind each of the colossal bulls. Between the bulls would - be a passage to - -[Sidenote: FOURTH ASSYRIAN ROOM.] - - XVI. _Fourth Assyrian or Sennacherib Room._—Here would be the first - part of the collection discovered at Koyunjik, the monuments of - Sennacherib, now inconveniently divided, and arranged partly in the - ‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ and partly in the ‘Assyrian Basement Room.’ These - monuments consist, almost entirely, of bas-reliefs, extending as at - present arranged, to about three hundred and fifty-one feet (two - hundred and eight on the ground floor, and one hundred and forty-three - in the basement). In a lofty and wide room, however, such as XVI, an - upper row of bas-reliefs might be introduced over many of the smaller - slabs, now arranged in a single row only; by this means the sculptures - of Sennacherib might all be included on the east, west, and north - sides of the room, containing three hundred and seventeen linear feet - of wall-space, leaving the south side, or twenty-seven feet, for - sculptures of Sardanapalus III, the last monarch of the Assyrian - series. In the centre of the room would be glass cases for the - numerous tablets, cylinders, and other small objects of this - collection, which it is most instructive to exhibit in connection with - the sculptures. The only architectural alteration desirable in the - room would be to open skylights in the lateral portion of the roof, - and to close those in the central, in order to obtain a sharper light, - upon the principle so successfully adopted in the present ‘Nimroud - Side Gallery.’ - -[Sidenote: FIFTH ASSYRIAN ROOM.] - - XVII. _Fifth Assyrian Room._—Here would be the continuation of the - monuments of Sardanapalus III, which conclude the Assyrian department; - they are at present divided like those of Sennacherib, and part - exhibited in the ‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ part in the basement room; - altogether they now extend to three hundred and seventy-three feet; - but as the greater part might, in Room XVII, be very well arranged in - double rows, and some of those in single rows might, without injury, - be less widely spread, two hundred and twenty-five feet would suffice - for their exhibition; of this space twenty-seven feet would be - supplied by Room XVI, and the remainder by XVII. The centre of the - room should be appropriated as the preceding, and the lighting - similarly modified. - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF ACCOMMODATION FOR ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES.] - - ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ SUMMARY OF THE ACCOMMODATION PROVIDED IN THE PLAN FOR ASSYRIAN │ - │ ANTIQUITIES. │ - ├──────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┤ - │ _Amount of Wall-space now in use │_Amount of Wall-space in the Plan │ - │ for Assyrian Bas-reliefs._ │ for Assyrian Bas-reliefs._ │ - │ │Linear│ │Linear│ - │ │feet. │ │feet. │ - │Nimroud Side Gallery │ 278│Room XIII │ 314│ - │Nimroud Central Saloon │ 82│Room XIV │ 95│ - │Assyrian Transept │ 125│Room XV │ 145│ - │Koyunjik Gallery │ 242│Room XVI │ 344│ - │Assyrian Basement Room │ 243│Room XVII │ 199│ - │ │ ———│ │ —————│ - │ │ 970│ │ 1,097│ - │Bas-reliefs in the middle │ │ │ │ - │ of Basement Room │ 254│ │ │ - │ │ —————│ │ │ - │ │ 1,224│ │ │ - └───────────────────────────┴──────┴───────────────────────────┴──────┘ - - It thus appears that the wall-space provided in the plan, though one - hundred and twenty-seven feet more than the wall-space in the existing - rooms, falls short by one hundred and twenty-seven feet of the total - linear extent of the bas-reliefs, as now arranged. In lieu, however, - of placing slabs in the middle of a gallery, as is done in the - basement room, and as it would likewise be possible to do in XVI or - XVII, it is thought better, in these last rooms, to provide the - additional space by simply carrying up the slabs to a greater height. - - The space for central cases for small objects, which is at present - four thousand and eighty square feet in rooms would be eight thousand - one hundred and seventy square feet in Rooms XVI and XVII, an amount - so abundant as to supersede the necessity for any wall-cases. - - The accommodation here provided for Assyrian antiquities is little - more in quantity, though much better in quality, than the present. But - this is nearly the only branch of the archæological collections to - which there seems little probability of future additions. If, contrary - to expectation, any such should be made, a supplemental room might be - built on the vacant space to the north of the Assyrian galleries. - -[Sidenote: PERSIAN ROOM.] - - XVIII. _Persian Room._—The sculptures to be here exhibited, which are - all bas-reliefs, would probably not occupy more than half the - wall-space, which is forty-seven linear feet. They belong chiefly to - the sixth century, B.C., and properly therefore succeed the Assyrian, - which range from the tenth to the seventh century, B.C. - -[Sidenote: LYCIAN GALLERY.] - - XIX. _Lycian Gallery._—It is intended to reserve this room for the - monuments peculiarly characteristic of Lycia, and to transfer to the - Greek galleries those in which the Greek element is predominant; such - as, particularly, the sculptures of the Ionic trophy monument or - _heroum_ from Xanthus, now scattered over the room, and, if necessary, - the casts from the rock tomb at Myra. This would leave abundant space - for the purely Lycian remains. The harpy tomb, of which the - bas-reliefs furnish a very important illustration of archaic Greek - art, might best be placed in an isolated position near the entrance to - the Greek galleries, where it would be favourably lighted and - conspicuously seen. Its present place might be filled by the rude - sarcophagus with sculptures of lions. The lighting of the Lycian room, - which is very defective, should be improved by an alteration in the - roof; but it is thought better not to enter into the details of such - alteration in the present paper. - -[Sidenote: FIRST GREEK ROOM.] - - XX. _First Greek or Inscription Room._—The room beneath this being - supposed to be withdrawn from exhibition, the staircase at the west - end should be separated by a partition, and entered through a private - door. All Greek inscriptions, except the sepulchral, and such as are - engraved on architectural or sculptural monuments, would be here - collected. - - At this point the new buildings commence with— - -[Sidenote: SECOND GREEK ROOM.] - - XXI. _Second Greek or Branchidæ Room_, thirty feet by twenty-four.—The - height both of this and the four succeeding rooms should be about - twenty feet. This would contain the earliest Greek sculptures, of - which the principal are those procured by Mr. NEWTON from Branchidæ. - The ten seated statues would be arranged on each side, as in the - ‘Sacred Way’ at that place, and the recumbent inscribed lion and the - sphinx placed at the end of the room. - -[Sidenote: THIRD GREEK ROOM.] - - XXII. _Third Greek Room_, twenty-four feet by seventeen.—This would - contain other archaic works, including the casts from Selinus. - -[Sidenote: FOURTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXIII. _Fourth Greek or Æginetan Room_, thirty-eight feet by - twenty-four.—Here would be fixed, in two recesses, the restorations of - the two pedimental groups from Ægina, which are exactly of the length - of this room, and which might be placed at a more convenient level for - examination than their present elevated position in room. - -[Sidenote: FIFTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXIV. _Fifth Greek Room_, seventeen feet by twenty-four.—On a - pedestal, facing the great Greek gallery, might stand the semi-archaic - Apollo, from Byzantium. - -[Sidenote: SIXTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXV. _Sixth Greek or Phigaleian Room_, thirty-eight feet by - twenty-four.—Here would be the casts from the Temple of Theseus, and - the sculptures and casts from the Temple of Wingless Victory, both of - the middle of the fifth century, B.C.; also the Phigaleian collection, - which is a somewhat later production of the same school. The friezes, - arranged in two rows, would just fill the room. - -[Sidenote: SEVENTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXVI. _Seventh Greek or Parthenon Room._—Here would commence the grand - suite of galleries for large sculptures, of which the general breadth - would be forty-two feet, and the height from thirty to thirty-five - feet. By its side would run a secondary suite, twenty feet wide, and - from fifteen to twenty feet high, for minor specimens, of which the - interest generally is rather archæological than artistic. These latter - objects are both more conveniently classified, and more favourably - seen, in small rooms; if placed in large galleries, beside grand - monumental works, they lose importance themselves, whilst they fritter - away the effect of what is really more valuable. The Seventh Greek - Room, which is two hundred and forty-one feet long, would contain only - the remains of the Parthenon; which might be arranged as indicated in - the Plan, so as at once to keep the pedimental groups and the frieze - from interfering with each other, and to distinguish, more accurately - than is now done, the original connection or disconnection of the - several slabs of the frieze. As we possess the entire frieze from the - east end of the temple, and casts of the entire frieze from the west, - these two are here arranged opposite each other, towards the middle of - the two side walls of the room. On either side are the slabs from the - north and south flanks of the temple, which are mostly disconnected. - In front of the casts from the west is a proposed full-sized model of - part of the entablature, supported by one original and five restored - capitals, with the upper parts of their shafts, and incorporating ten - of the metopes, so as to explain their original combination with the - architecture. The total height of this model might be about eighteen - feet. The metopes not included in it should be attached to the wall - opposite, over the frieze. The finest of the pedimental groups would - face the grand entrance from the Lycian Gallery, through which the - whole might be seen in one view, from any distance less than - forty-eight feet. If it were desired to retain the two small models of - the Parthenon in the room, they might stand near the south end. - -[Sidenote: EIGHTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXVII. _Eighth Greek or Erechtheum Room_, sixty-five feet by - twenty-six, for monuments of the era between Phidias and Scopas, of - which the principal are the remains of the Erechtheum. - -[Sidenote: NINTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXVIII. _Ninth Greek, or Mausoleum Room_, one hundred and twenty feet - in length, forty-two in breadth, and eighty across the transept.—Here - would be, 1. The marbles procured by Lord STRATFORD and Mr. NEWTON, - from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; in the west transept, the group - from the _quadriga_, and in the southern part of the room the other - important sculptural and architectural remains of the building, - including the frieze. 2. In the east transept, the colossal lion from - Cnidus, with a few other sculptures of the same school. 3. In the - northern part of the room, the Xanthian Ionic monument, here placed - for comparison with the remains of the Mausoleum. The whole upper - portion of this monument, commencing with the higher of the two - friezes which surrounded the original base, might be reconstructed, - though not restored, and would form a striking termination to the - vista through the galleries. The lower frieze might be arranged - against the adjoining walls of the room. - -[Sidenote: TENTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXIX. _Tenth Greek Room._—Having thus passed through the great - monumental series of Greek sculptures in chronological order, the - visitor would return south by the side rooms, containing minor remains - of the same school. The Tenth Greek Room would be forty-two feet by - twenty, and would contain the latest of the smaller sculptures. - -[Sidenote: ELEVENTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXX. _Eleventh Greek Room_, thirty-three feet by twenty.—This should - be appropriated to the small fragments from the Mausoleum, which would - thus be in immediate connection with its larger sculptures, without - impairing their grandeur of effect. - -[Sidenote: TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH GREEK ROOMS.] - - XXXI, XXXII. _Twelfth and Thirteenth Greek Rooms_, together one - hundred and thirty-five feet in length and twenty in breadth.—The - exact position of the wall separating these rooms might be reserved - till the arrangement of their contents was settled. In one might be - architectural fragments, from buildings not represented in the large - galleries; in the other, small tablets, votive offerings, altars, and - other minor sculptures. - -[Sidenote: FOURTEENTH GREEK ROOM.] - - XXXIII. _Fourteenth Greek or Sepulchral Room_, ninety-three feet by - eighteen.—Here would be all the Greek sepulchral monuments now in the - basement. The casts from the sculptured tomb at Myra, of which the - style is more Greek than Lycian, might also be here placed, as - indicated in the plan, in case it should be thought desirable to - remove them from the Lycian Room, though the expediency of this - transfer may perhaps be doubted. Wherever placed, these casts ought to - be so put together as to explain the true arrangement of the - originals. - - [Then follows a Summary of the Accommodation provided in the Plan for - Greek Sculptures, amounting to a superficial area of twenty-seven - thousand four hundred and ten square feet, and to two thousand one - hundred and ninety-one lineal feet of wall-space.] - -[Sidenote: ETRUSCAN ROOM.] - - XXXIV. _Etruscan Room._—The next parallel on the ground floor would be - devoted to the monuments of ancient Italy. The earliest are the - Etruscan, which, being altogether taken from tombs, would properly be - placed adjacent, on the one side to the Greek, on the other to the - Roman, sepulchral collections. The principal portion of the Etruscan - Room would be fifty-five feet by forty, with additional recesses at - the south end, the whole about twenty feet high. Two rows of pilasters - would divide the room into three compartments, the central for the - gangway, the other two to be fitted up as a series of tombs, of which - the sides would be formed of the mural restorations, with fac-similes - of paintings from Corneto and Vulci. Within these restored tombs would - be such sarcophagi as we possess, found in the tombs themselves. The - fac-similes of the painted roofs of two of the tombs might be fixed - above them, at such a height as not to obstruct the light. In the - central compartment, which contains six shallow recesses between the - pilasters, might be monuments from various tombs other than those here - restored. - - XXXV. _Staircase Room_, forty feet by thirty, and of the same height - as the three united stories of the western galleries.—Four successive - flights of steps would be required to reach each floor. The landings - between the first and second, and between the third and fourth - flights, might each be supported by Caryatid or Atlantic figures, - which would give the whole composition an ornamental effect, as seen - from the east side. Beneath one side of this staircase might be a - private one leading to the western basement. - - To the north is another private staircase, conducting to the basement - under the Greek galleries. The adjoining passage leads to— - -[Sidenote: FIRST GRÆCO-ROMAN ROOM.] - - XXXVI. _First Græco-Roman Room._—The Etruscan monuments are succeeded - chronologically by the Græco-Roman, here placed so as to adjoin the - galleries both of Greek and of Roman art. In accordance with the - character of Græco-Roman sculpture, the apartments containing it - should be somewhat ornamentally constructed and arranged, as in the - great continental museums, where works of this class form the staple - of the collections. The position of the principal objects in all this - series of rooms is marked in the plan, without distinguishing them - individually, as none are of such a character as to require any - special architectural provision. The first room is one hundred and six - feet by twenty-six, exclusive of the alcoves. Its height need not, for - the display of statuary, exceed twenty feet; but if, for architectural - effect, a vaulted ceiling is preferred, the height must be increased. - In the Braccio Nuovo, in the Vatican Museum, which is probably the - finest gallery of this kind in Europe, and has a cylindrical vault, - with a central skylight, the proportion of height to breadth is about - thirty-seven feet to twenty-seven; but in the darker climate of London - the height should not, if possible, exceed the breadth. - -[Sidenote: SECOND GRÆCO-ROMAN ROOM.] - - XXXVII. _Second Græco-Roman Room, or Rotunda_, sixty feet in diameter, - and about sixty feet high in the centre, being surmounted by a - hemispherical dome.—This room is, with slight variations, and on a - somewhat smaller scale, a copy of the Rotunda in the Museum of Berlin, - an apartment universally admired for its architectural beauty, and - only defective as a hall for sculpture from the unnecessary smallness - of the central skylight. The entablature over the columns would - support a gallery, opening into the first floor of the western - buildings. - -[Sidenote: THIRD GRÆCO-ROMAN ROOM.] - - XXXVIII. _Third Græco-Roman Room_, similar to the first, but only one - hundred and one feet long, exclusive of the northern alcove. - - The spaces between the lateral alcoves on the east side of the First - and Third Græco-Roman Rooms might either be covered with glass, or - left open for ventilation, though the second arrangement would involve - a provision for the drainage below. - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF ACCOMMODATION FOR GRÆCO-ROMAN SCULPTURES.] - - The amount of accommodation for Græco-Roman sculptures cannot, from - the form of the rooms, be stated with the same exactness as that for - the Greek. Exclusive of the alcoves, there would be in the— - - ┌─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐ - │ │Superficial Area.│ Length of │ - │ │ │ Wall-space. │ - │First Galley │2,756 square │ 180 linear │ - │ │ feet. │ feet. │ - │Third Gallery │2,626 „ │ 152 „ │ - │ │————— │ ——— │ - │ │5,382 „ │ 332 „ │ - └─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘ - - The Rotunda would not have available space in proportion to its size. - Twelve statues or busts between the columns, and perhaps a large - sculpture in the centre, would be the natural complement of the room. - The wall-space behind the columns would not be available for - sculpture. The total accommodation in the three rooms would amply - suffice for our present collection, even somewhat enlarged. [Sidenote: - MEANS OF FUTURE ENLARGEMENT.] As it increased, however, further space - might be obtained by erecting in the first and third rooms transverse - walls, opposite the alcoves in the Roman galleries, thus subdividing - the first room into three principal compartments, with a small lobby - at each end, and the third into three compartments (of which the most - northern would need some modification), with a lobby at the south end. - The doorways through these walls might be twelve feet wide, so as to - preserve the continuous appearance of the suite; and they would still - leave one hundred and twelve feet of additional wall-space in the - first room, and eighty-four in the third. The lighting would be - somewhat improved by such an alteration. - -[Sidenote: WESTERN GALLERIES.] - - The last suite of galleries on the ground floor would contain the - Roman and Phœnician remains. To avoid any obscuration from the houses - on the west side of Charlotte Street, the windows should be as high in - the wall as possible, and as broad as architectural propriety would - admit, whilst the rooms should be not less than twenty-five feet high. - -[Sidenote: FIRST ROMAN ROOM.] - - XXXIX. _First Roman Room_, one hundred and ten feet by twenty-eight, - exclusive of the alcoves.—It would contain mosaics, including those - from Carthage, and miscellaneous sculptures, altars, architectural - fragments, &c.; the mosaics indifferently placed on all sides of the - room, the sculptures on the east side and against the two end walls. - -[Sidenote: HALL.] - - XL. _Hall_, fifty-six feet by seventeen.—Here might be an entrance - from Charlotte Street, which on many occasions would furnish a - convenient relief to the principal entrance to the Museum. It would - open immediately into the Rotunda, and through the vista beyond would - be seen, in the distance, the cast of the colossal head from - Abousimbul. Within the two abutments of the Rotunda would be recesses - for the attendants to sell catalogues, receive umbrellas, &c. - -[Sidenote: SECOND ROMAN ROOM.] - - XLI. _Second Roman or Iconographical Room_, fifty-four feet by - twenty-eight, without the alcoves.—This would contain the series of - portrait statues and busts, in chronological order. The west, or dark - side of the room, could only be used for very inferior sculptures. - -[Sidenote: THIRD ROMAN ROOM.] - - XLII. _Third (or Anglo-) Roman Room_, the same size as the preceding, - for Roman monuments found in this country. The rude character of many - would admit of placing them on the west side. - -[Sidenote: FOURTH ROMAN ROOM.] - - XLIII. _Fourth Roman or Sepulchral Room_, eighty-two feet by - twenty-six, containing Roman sarcophagi for which the west side might - be partially available, and sepulchral cippi, and inscriptions. At the - north-east angle would be a Columbarium, twenty-three feet by - fourteen, fitted up like that in the present Sepulchral Basement Room, - but with the advantage of a skylight. - - [Then follows a Summary of Accommodation provided in the plan for - Roman Sculptures, amounting to a superficial area (without alcoves) of - eight thousand five hundred and fifty-eight square feet, and seven - hundred and seventeen linear feet of wall-space.] - -[Sidenote: MEANS OF FUTURE ENLARGEMENT.] - - The first three rooms, when their contents sufficiently increased, - would admit of an easy alteration, which would not merely increase the - wall-space, but much improve the lighting, by simply inserting - transverse walls between each window. Against these walls the - sculptures would have a true side light, whilst those against the east - wall would be protected from double lights. It may even be doubted - whether such an arrangement should not be adopted in the first - instance, without waiting till the additional accommodation is - actually required. - -[Sidenote: PHŒNICIAN ROOM.] - - XLIV. _Phœnician Room_, twenty-six feet square.—Here would be the - _stelæ_ and bas-reliefs from Carthage and its vicinity, with the few - Punic inscriptions which we possess. The room contains six hundred and - seventy-six superficial feet, and eighty-eight of wall-space. - -[Sidenote: SUPPLEMENTAL ROOM.] - - XLV. A similar room to the preceding, which, in case of necessity, - might serve for extending the Phœnician collection. In the mean time - it might perhaps be used for exhibiting such miscellaneous inferior - sculptures as could be advantageously weeded from the regular series, - though circumstances might temporarily prevent their removal from the - Museum. In such case it might be entitled ‘Supplemental Room.’ - - In accordance with a suggestion made in the Committee now sitting, the - writer has added to the new buildings proposed in his plan another - story, or second floor, over the first. The advantage of this is, that - it would provide for objects which it might be more costly or - inconvenient to accommodate elsewhere. But it involves necessarily two - evils: [Sidenote: PLAN OF UPPER FLOORS. ADVANTAGES AND EVILS OF A - SECOND STORY.] 1. That the height of the second floor, involving an - ascent of perhaps nearly one hundred steps (though this is not more - than is common in continental museums), might excite complaint in - English visitors. 2. That so lofty a building, by excluding all - oblique rays from the east side of the Græco-Roman galleries, would - make the light on the statues and busts there placed somewhat too - vertical. - -[Sidenote: COLLECTIONS RETAINED OR REMOVED.] - - With regard to the collections to be provided for on the upper floors, - it is here assumed, though of course without any express authority, - that Ethnography and Oriental Antiquities would be removed from the - Museum, and better accommodated elsewhere. The British and Mediæval - Collections, however, are supposed to be retained; if they are - removed, a modification of this plan must in consequence be made. - -[Sidenote: FIRST FLOOR OR NEW BUILDINGS FOR ANTIQUITIES; ITS - CONSTRUCTION.] - - The apartments should all be about eighteen feet high, the windows of - the same breadth as those below, but, except in the Terracotta Room, - only about eight feet high, and as near the ceiling as possible. On - the east side should be corresponding windows, so that each wall would - be illuminated; for cross lights, though so injurious to sculptures, - are generally desirable for galleries filled with wall-cases. All the - windows should have ground glass, to prevent injury to the collections - from the sun. - -[Sidenote: VASE GALLERY.] - - 1. _Vase Gallery._—Two hundred and twenty-two feet long, the southern - half twenty-six feet wide, and the northern twenty-eight feet. The - wall-cases should be about eight feet high, like those in our First - Vase Room; and the transverse projections, flanked by pilasters, would - be only of the same height, so as not to shut out the view of the - upper part of the gallery; having glass on each side, they would serve - for vases with double paintings, such as we now exhibit only in dwarf - central cases. The most important vases should stand isolated on - tables, or pedestals, on each side the gangway; as in the present - arrangement of the Temple Collection. [Sidenote: ITS ACCOMMODATION.] - Although the superficial area of this gallery (five thousand nine - hundred and ninety-two feet) is little more than a third greater than - that occupied by vases in the present buildings (four thousand three - hundred and twenty-one feet), the amount of accommodation it would - afford is nearly double. For the present wall-cases, eight feet high, - extend to one hundred and forty-six feet of linear measurement; those - ten feet high will, when the collection is fully arranged, extend to - eighty-four feet; the whole therefore may be reckoned as equivalent to - two hundred and fifty-one feet of cases, eight feet high. The total - extent, however, of such wall-cases in the proposed gallery is four - hundred and fifty-five feet. The projections also, with the tables and - pedestals, may safely be estimated as providing twice the - accommodation for vases painted on both sides which is now furnished - by the dwarf central cases, besides exhibiting them much more - conveniently. It should be added that the vases would be better - lighted than at present; whilst the length and comparative openness of - the gallery would produce a more striking impression on the passing - visitor. - -[Sidenote: PROPOSED ETRUSCAN APARTMENT.] - - The accommodation here provided being so ample, it might be desirable - to appropriate one compartment of the gallery to an exclusively - Etruscan Collection, comprising not merely the pottery of the - Etruscans, properly so called, but that for which they were really - more distinguished in ancient times, their bronze and other metal - work. - -[Sidenote: TERRACOTTA ROOM.] - - 2. _Terracotta Room._—Fifty-six feet by seventeen. As no windows could - be made on the east side, there should be no cases on the west; but - the western windows, which do not correspond with the others of this - story, should extend from near the ceiling to four or five feet from - the floor. A sloping case might then be placed in each window, for - lamps and other small objects, requiring a strong light. Against the - east wall should be cases for vases, and other large objects. - -[Sidenote: GALLERY OF ROTUNDA.] - - 3. _Gallery of the Rotunda._—From one hundred and eighty to one - hundred and ninety feet in circumference, and about nine feet wide. - The powerful light from the centre of the dome would be favourable to - terracotta statuettes and bas-reliefs, which could all be contained in - shallow wall-cases, that would not materially narrow the gangway.[48] - The Townley Collection of bas-reliefs, now in the Second Vase Room, - might be arranged in panels all round, so as to produce a decorative - effect, agreeable to their original destination. - -[Sidenote: ACCOMMODATION FOR TERRACOTTAS.] - - The entire space provided in these two rooms is much more than our - terracottas can absolutely require; but this will facilitate an - ornamental arrangement of the collection, appropriate to the character - of the larger room. The small spaces between the Rotunda and the main - building would serve for closets. - -[Sidenote: GLASS ROOM.] - - 4. _Glass Room_, twenty-eight feet by twenty-six.—The fittings proper - for glass being different from those of terracottas, it is desirable - to give it a separate room. This should be similarly arranged to the - Vase Gallery, with wall-cases eight feet high, and table-cases in the - centre. - -[Sidenote: BRONZE GALLERY. ITS ACCOMMODATION.] - - 5. _Bronze Gallery_, three apartments united; together eighty-two feet - by twenty-eight.—As the advantage of a skylight for the bronze - statuettes is necessarily sacrificed by the adoption of an upper - floor, it would be best to place them, as far as possible, against - each side of the transverse projections, separating those sides by - internal partitions, and employing some contrivance to protect the - bronzes from the cross light of the further windows, an arrangement - possible with small objects in glass cases, though not with large - statuary. In the middle of the gallery might be table-cases, placed - longitudinally, or important objects on pedestals. The increase of - accommodation in the Bronze Gallery, as in the Vase Gallery, is more - than proportionate to the increase of space. Though the superficial - area is only two thousand two hundred and ninety-six feet, in lieu of - our present quantity, two thousand and twenty-one, the extent of - wall-cases, which now is only one hundred and thirty-eight feet, - would, even allowing doorways of twelve feet wide between each of - these compartments, be increased to two hundred and fifty feet, - equivalent, after allowing for the difference in height of the cases, - to two hundred feet. This, if the Etruscan bronzes were transferred as - already suggested, would liberally provide for the Greek and Roman - Collection. - -[Sidenote: SECOND FLOOR OF NEW BUILDINGS FOR ANTIQUITIES.] - - Each room should be fifteen to eighteen feet high; the windows - exclusively on the east side, and extending from the ceiling to four - or five feet from the floor. As the aspect is nearly N.E., the sun - could not be injurious, and the glass of the windows, therefore, had - better be unground. - -[Sidenote: BRITISH ROOMS.] - - 1. _British Rooms_, each twenty-seven feet by twenty-six.—That which - adjoins the staircase (and, if necessary, those on each side), should - be lighted from the roof, and have wall-cases all round, with a - separate case in the centre. The other rooms should have wall-cases on - the west side, and shallower cases against the transverse walls. Two - long table-cases in each room might extend from the windows to a line - with the doorway. - -[Sidenote: MEDIÆVAL ROOMS.] - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF ACCOMMODATION FOR BRITISH AND MEDIÆVAL.] - - 2. _Mediæval Rooms_, each twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, and - similarly arranged to the British.—Though the entire superficial area - in the British and Mediæval Rooms is only five thousand and - seventy-two feet, in lieu of four thousand and forty-six, the amount - in the present building, yet the wall-space is four hundred and - sixty-six feet, instead of only two hundred and ninety-seven, and the - cases, having no windows above, might, if necessary, be made ten feet - high, like the present. The gain in table-cases would be much greater. - In lieu of six, there would be twelve, each sixteen or eighteen feet - long, instead of ten; whilst the central case in the room adjoining - the staircase might be at least as capacious as the large separate - case in the present British and Mediæval Room. The lighting would - throughout be more advantageous for these collections than at present; - and the rooms, from the character of the windows, might be bright - instead of gloomy. - -[Sidenote: GEM ROOM.] - - 3. _Gem Room._—As the contents of this and the succeeding room have - more or less intrinsic value, an iron door might be placed at the end - of the Mediæval Gallery, to be open only when the public are admitted - to the Museum. The Gem Room, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, would - be fitted like the preceding. The gems would occupy the table-cases, - which would accommodate a far larger collection than ours, and would - exhibit them in the best possible light for such objects. In the - wall-cases might be displayed the gold and silver ornaments, which - would have much more space than as now arranged, though in a room only - of the same size. - -[Sidenote: COIN AND MEDAL GALLERY.] - - 4. _Coin and Medal Gallery_, fifty-six feet by seventeen.—As the dome - of the Rotunda would only rise a few feet above the floor of this - gallery, and would, from its curvature, recede to a distance of - several feet, windows on the east side would be quite unobstructed. In - each might stand a table-case, six or seven feet long, on which would - be exhibited, under glass, a series of coins and medals which, though - not the most valuable of our collection in the eyes of a numismatist, - would suffice to give the public an interesting and instructive view - of the monetary art. In the drawers of these cases might be kept the - moulds and casts of the Coin Collection. Against the side walls might - be upright cases, or frames, for extending the exhibition; but the - walls facing the windows, having a front light, would be unsuitable - for coins or medals, and must be employed for some other purpose. - -[Sidenote: PRIVATE ROOMS OF COIN DEPARTMENT.] - - 5. The rooms which remain would be a private suite for the Coin - Department. The present rooms of that department are arranged in an - order the reverse of what is best for security and convenience, the - coins being kept in an outer room, which must be passed in going - either to the Keeper’s study, or to the Ornament Room, a room open to - all persons merely on application. In the accompanying plan the - contents of the Ornament Room have been transferred to the Gem Room; - and the Keeper’s study is placed near the beginning of the private - suite. - -[Sidenote: OUTER COIN ROOM.] - - _Outer Coin Room_, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, for the freer - exhibition of coins to properly introduced persons, for the use of - artists copying coins or other minute objects, and all other purposes - now served by the Medal Room, except the custody of the collection, - and work of the department. - -[Sidenote: INNER COIN ROOM.] - - _Inner Coin Room_, fifty-five feet by twenty-eight, secured by a - strong iron door, of which the Keeper, Assistant-Keeper, and - Principal-Librarian, would alone have keys.—In this room, to which - none but the departmental staff would be admitted, the coins and - medals would be preserved, arranged, and catalogued; they would be - carried hence by the officers into the Outer Room when required for - inspection. The room is somewhat more than half as large again as the - present Medal Room; and as the absence of visitors, and of the - barriers their presence now requires, would leave the whole space - free, there would be ample accommodation for any probable enlargement - of the collection. The library of the department might be arranged - partly in this, partly in the Outer Room. - - Of the apartments reserved as private, two are placed at the south end - of the first and second floors, and each of these might, if necessary, - be subdivided into two small studies, each twenty-six feet by - thirteen, for the use either of officers or students. [Sidenote: - PRIVATE ROOMS IN PLAN. OTHERS SUGGESTED.] Private rooms are, however, - required on the ground floor, to replace the female students’ room, - and the Assistant-Keeper’s study, proposed to be removed for the new - Nimroud and Khorsabad Galleries. The most effectual provision for - these and other wants would be one which has been suggested during the - present inquiry, namely, to transfer to the Department of Antiquities - the several rooms now occupied as the Trustees’ Room and adjoining - offices, and to remove the official establishment to new rooms to be - erected on the east side of the Museum. Should this be found - impracticable, the present Insect Room, and adjoining studies, might, - in the event of the transfer of this part of the Zoological Department - to the upper floor, furnish the required accommodation. In default of - both these alternatives, rooms might be constructed north of the new - Assyrian Galleries, though, in the opinion of the writer, this ground - should only be built over as a last resort. - -[Sidenote: USE OF BASEMENT.] - - The basement, both of the old and new buildings, would, though - unfitted for exhibition, and shut up from the public, be more or less - available for workshops, storing-places, retiring-rooms, &c. No part - of the existing basement would be made altogether useless, though the - rooms under the present Greek Galleries would all be somewhat - darkened. [Sidenote: LIGHTING OF BASEMENT.] The basement under the new - buildings may, with reference to lighting, be divided into three - classes:—1. The rooms under the first six or small Greek Rooms, the - south end of the Etruscan Room, and the north end of the Greek - Galleries, would all have ordinary windows, and be better lighted than - any part of the basement now used for the purposes mentioned. 2. The - rooms under the Roman Galleries, which would also have windows, would - be less well lighted than the preceding, being some feet below the - level of Charlotte Street, and being further somewhat obscured by the - grating over the area, and the parapet to screen it from passengers in - the street, which would both probably be thought necessary. 3. The - basement under the Græco-Roman, and greater part of the small Greek - Galleries, would receive a partial light from the openings between - them. To increase this, however, and to furnish the only light to the - basement under the Fourteenth Greek Room, and the apartments adjoining - its west side, panels of strong glass or open metal work might be - inserted at convenient places in the various floors, and serve rather - as an ornament to them. With the aid of some such arrangement, the - last-mentioned portions of the basement would serve as storing-rooms; - in default of it, they could merely be available for any apparatus - used in heating or ventilation. - - [Then follows a General Summary of Additional Space provided for the - Collections of Antiquities, amounting to a net addition of forty-one - thousand nine hundred and fifty-six square feet of superficial area.] - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF SPACE FOR ANTIQUITIES.] - - This is somewhat less than the additional space demanded in the - estimate supplied to the Committee by Mr. HAWKINS; but it supposes the - removal of the Oriental and Ethnographical Collections, which Mr. - HAWKINS, when considering only the existing department, and not the - question of its modification, included in its contents. - -[Sidenote: EXTRA SPACE.] - - In addition, however, to the space provided for the collections, the - new buildings would comprise about eight thousand six hundred feet on - the three principal floors, for studies, closets, staircases, &c. - -[Sidenote: SPACE IN BASEMENT.] - - The space in the basement it is unnecessary to estimate in detail, - being manifestly superabundant for its purpose. - -[Sidenote: SPACE TRANSFERRED TO NATURAL HISTORY.] - - The Plan of the Upper Floors shows the accommodation which might be - provided, upon the present scheme, for the Departments of Natural - History, by transferring to them the galleries and studies on that - floor now occupied by Antiquities, and constructing an upper room on - the site of the staircase, to unite the Central Saloon (Return 379, - Plan 18, No. 1), into which the new principal staircase would conduct, - with the galleries so transferred. The apportionment of the space - amongst the different collections of Natural History must be left to - more competent authorities than the present writer. He may, however, - add a few words on the general character of the apartments - comprehended in the transfer. [Sidenote: PUBLIC GALLERIES.] The public - galleries are similar to the present Zoological Galleries, not merely - in their structure, but in their fittings. The wall-cases, therefore, - might be available, without alteration, for the new collections; and - the central cases might either be retained for Natural History, or - removed to the new upper floors for Antiquities, as was found more - convenient. [Sidenote: STUDIES FOR OFFICERS AND STUDENTS.] The present - Medal and Ornament Rooms might serve for the use of students, whilst - the four private studies numbered 6, 7, 10, and 10 in Plan 18, would - be used by the officers. [Sidenote: SUGGESTION FOR INCREASING THOSE - FOR STUDENTS.] The rooms for students might, if necessary, be further - increased by a trifling alteration, in the event of the official - establishment being transferred to the east of the Museum. In place of - the closet adjoining the Medal Room, a private staircase might descend - by a few steps to the entresol below, the whole of which might then be - made an appendage to the upper, instead of the lower floor, and would - furnish two convenient rooms for students, over those numbered 4 and 6 - in Plan 17. The same staircase, falling in with one already existing - between the entresol and Secretary’s Office, would supply a private - communication between the upper and lower floors, in lieu of that - abolished for the construction of the First Egyptian Room (III, 69). - -[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF SPACE FOR NATURAL HISTORY.] - - The total area of the apartments transferred to Natural History may be - summarily stated thus:— - - ┌──────────────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐ - │ │ │ Without │ With │ - │ │ │Entresol.│Entresol.│ - ├──────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ - │Public Galleries: │ │ │ │ - │ Present Galleries of Antiquities│ 19,185│ │ │ - │ Proposed room over III (69) │ 2,660│ │ │ - ├──────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ - │ │ │ 21,845│ 21,845│ - │Students’ Working Rooms │ │ 1,749│ 3,168│ - │Officers’ Studies │ │ 868│ 868│ - │Closets, Passages, and Staircase │ │ 936│ 1,557│ - ├──────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ - │ Total addition │ │ 25,398│ 27,438│ - └──────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘ - -[Sidenote: CONVENIENCE OF GIVING IT A DISTINCT FLOOR.] - - Independently of the increased accommodation, the advantage of - acquiring for Natural History the exclusive possession of the upper - floor is obvious and unquestionable, though the gain is not limited to - that department. By separating its galleries entirely from those of - Antiquities, the practical superintendence of each would be - simplified; one department would no longer be a necessary thoroughfare - to another; the confusion of ideas experienced by ordinary visitors - from the juxtaposition of collections so incongruous would be avoided; - and as each department would have a separate entrance, a facility - would be given for varying their periods or regulations of admission, - as the circumstances of each might at any time require; considerations - which must hereafter acquire increasing weight in proportion to the - increasing magnitude of the Museum. - -[Sidenote: ESTIMATE OF APPROXIMATE EXPENSE.] - - The ground immediately round the Museum, on the average of its three - sides, is valued in the Report of the Special Committee of Trustees - (twenty-sixth November, 1859), at about forty-three thousand five - hundred pounds per acre. [Sidenote: EXPENSE OF GROUND.] The houses in - Charlotte Street are inferior in character to those on the other two - sides, and might doubtless be purchased at a proportionately less - price; but the writer, being anxious to err only on the safe side, - assumes the average price as necessary. The ground proposed to be - taken is about four hundred and fifty feet long, by a breadth - generally of one hundred and fifty feet, but at the south end not - exceeding one hundred and ten feet; so that the total area is about - sixty-four thousand seven hundred square feet, or somewhat less than - an acre and a half. The price, therefore, may be set down at - sixty-five thousand pounds. - - Buildings are estimated in the same report to cost about two pounds - per square foot, reckoned upon the total internal area of the - principal floors, without the basement. This calculation is founded on - buildings consisting of a basement, a ground floor, and one upper - floor. [Sidenote: OF BUILDINGS.] The buildings proposed by the writer - are in one respect more costly than these, as their basements bear a - larger proportion to those floors on which the cost is calculated. But - in two other respects they are more economical:—1. Because they - include, in one part, a second floor, which swells the space from - which the expense is calculated, without involving any addition to the - basement. 2. Because some of the galleries on the ground floor are not - really separate buildings, but parts of a single block of buildings, - subdivided merely by partition walls. On the whole, therefore, the - estimate of two pounds per foot seems the safest basis of calculation. - - Now the quantity of internal area or floor space in the proposed new - buildings is— - - ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │For the collections 71,760 square feet.│ - │For studies, staircases, &c. 8,600 „ │ - │ ______ │ - │Total 80,360 „ │ - └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ - - This gives, therefore, one hundred and sixty thousand seven hundred - and twenty pounds for buildings, which, added to sixty-five thousand - pounds for ground, would amount to two hundred and twenty-five - thousand seven hundred and twenty pounds. A further sum must be added - for alterations of the existing building, particularly for the removal - and reconstruction of the staircase, and the formation of the two - rooms described as III (69) and XIII (15). Assuming the expense of - these alterations, quite conjecturally, at ten thousand pounds, the - total cost would be two hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hundred - and twenty pounds. The largeness of the valuation allowed for the - ground gives reason to believe that the actual expense of ground and - buildings would not exceed, and might probably fall short of, this - estimate. - -[Sidenote: MEANS OF FUTURE EXTENSION.] - - [In concluding his remarks on this plan of reconstruction, Mr. - OLDFIELD points out that if ever hereafter further extensions should - be required, they might be obtained without material disturbance of - the proposed galleries. [Sidenote: _Appendix to Minutes of Evidence_, - 1860, pp. 245, _ad fin_.] For Antiquities, one or more additional - houses might be purchased either in Bedford Square, commencing with - No. 4, or in Charlotte Street, commencing with No. 3. The former would - be required for the prolongation of the Greek, Græco-Roman, or Roman - Galleries; the latter for the Etruscan or Phœnician. For the minor - collections on the upper floors either side would be equally - appropriate. If further space were needed for Natural History, - galleries might be built as suggested by Professor MASKELYNE, - extending either northwards to Montague Place, or eastwards to - Montague Street, as found convenient.] - -To the clear and forcible exposition of his plan, thus given by its -framer in the paper submitted to the Committee of 1860, many further -elucidations were added in evidence. But enough has already been quoted -for the perfect intelligibility of the plans so proposed for the -sanction of the Trustees and of Parliament. [Sidenote: _Minutes of -Evidence_, June, 1860, Q. 2034, p. 143.] ‘I think,’ said Mr. OLDFIELD, -when questioned, in the Committee, as to the extent of provision _for -the probable future_ requirements of the Museum, ‘the proper mode is to -secure so much space as will at least meet those demands which are -likely to occur during the construction of the building; and then, above -all, to adopt a system of construction which would at any future time -admit of an extension, without derangement of that which now exists, and -so would obviate the very great expense and inconvenience which has -hitherto occurred from alterations and reconstructions.’ - -In reporting upon this plan, originally framed in 1858, the Committee of -1860, after comparing with it two other but only partial plans of -extension and re-arrangement, prepared respectively by Mr. Sydney SMIRKE -and by Mr. Nevil STORY-MASKELYNE, observe: ‘Your Committee have reason -to think that if any of these plans were adopted—involving the -[immediate] purchase of not more than two acres of land, with the -[immediately] requisite buildings and alterations—the cost would not -exceed three hundred thousand pounds. If, however, only this limited -portion of land should be at once acquired, it is probable that the -price of what remains would be enhanced. If the whole were to be -purchased, as your Committee have already recommended, the cost above -stated would be, of course, increased.’ - -The recommendation here referred to has been already quoted in a -preceding chapter, together with a statement of the grounds on which it -was based. - -[Sidenote: See Chap. III of Book III.] - -The only additional elucidation, on this head, which it seems necessary -to give may be found in a passage of the evidence of one of the -Trustees, Sir Roderick MURCHISON, who, in 1858, with other eminent men -of science, presented a Memorial to the then Chancellor of the -Exchequer, praying that the British Museum might _not_ be dismembered by -any transference of the Natural History Collections to another locality. -After saying: ‘I entirely coincide still in every opinion that was -expressed in that Memorial, and I have since seen additional and -stronger reasons for wishing that [its prayer] should be supported,’ Sir -Roderick added: ‘When it was brought before us [that is, before a -Sub-Committee of Trustees] in evidence, that if we were largely to -extend the British Museum at once _in sitû_, and that as large a -building were to be made _in sitû_ as might be made at Kensington, we -then learned that the expense would be greater. But I have since seen -good grounds to believe that by purchasing the ground rents or the land, -to north, east, or west, of the Museum, according to a plan which I -believe has now been prepared and laid before the members of the -Committee [referring to that of Mr. OLDFIELD, just described], and -availing ourselves of the gradual[49] power of enlargement ... -[Sidenote: _Minutes of Evidence_, 1860, Q. 1243–1250, pp. 102, 103.] the -Nation would be put to a much less expense for several years to come, -and would in the end realise all those objects which it is the aim[50] -of men of science to obtain.’ - -The chief alternative plan is based on the transference of the Natural -History Collections to an entirely new site, and on the devotion to the -uses of the Literary and Archæological Departments of the Museum of the -whole of the space so freed from the scientific departments. - -[Sidenote: PLAN FOR THE TRANSFERENCE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS - TO KENSINGTON (OR ELSEWHERE). 1861–62.] - -The Committee of 1860 condemned this plan in the main (but only, as it -seems, by a single voice upon a division), but what that Committee had -under consideration was only the first form into which the plan of -separation had been shaped. At the end of the year 1861 and beginning of -1862, that plan was again brought before a Sub-Committee of the -Trustees, at the express instance of the Lords of Her Majesty’s -Treasury, and it was thus reported upon:— - -[Sidenote: REPORT OF SUB-COMMITTEE OF TRUSTEES, Jan., 1862.] - - Your Committee, to whom it has been referred to consider the best - manner of carrying into effect the Treasury Minute of the thirteenth - of November, 1861, and the Resolution passed at the special general - meeting of the third of December of the same year, have unanimously - agreed to the following report:[51]— - -[Sidenote: MINUTE OF TREASURY.] - - The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury state in that - Minute, ‘That, in their judgment, some of the collections ought to be - removed from the present buildings, and that they will be prepared to - make proposals at the proper time to the Royal Commissioners of the - Exhibition of 1851, with a view to the provision, on the estate of the - Commissioners, of space and buildings, which shall be adequate to - receive in particular, at first the Mineralogical, Geological, and - Palæontological Collections, and ultimately, in case it shall be - thought desirable, all those of the Natural History Departments.’ - Their Lordships, after having invited the Trustees to prosecute the - further examination of the question, continue as follows:—‘It will - have to be considered what other or minor branches of the collections - may, with propriety or advantage, be removed to other sites, or even - made over, if in any case it might seem proper, to other - establishments.’ - - Your Committee have, therefore, thought it their duty at the outset to - examine whether all the Natural History Collections, viz. the - Zoological and Botanical, in addition to the Geological, - Palæontological, and Mineralogical, specified in the Treasury Minute, - might with propriety and advantage be removed from the present British - Museum buildings. [Sidenote: ALL COLLECTIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY TO BE - REMOVED.] The importance, as regards science, of preserving together - all objects of Natural History, was forcibly urged by Sir R. - MURCHISON, at the special general meeting of the third of December. In - a Memorial laid before the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1858, and - signed by more than one hundred and twenty eminent promoters and - cultivators of science,[52] it was represented ‘that as the chief end - and aim of natural history is to demonstrate the harmony which - pervades the whole, and the unity of principle, which bespeaks the - unity of the Creative Cause, it is essential that the different - classes of natural objects should be preserved in juxtaposition under - the roof of one great building.’ Your Committee concur in this - opinion, and they have come to the conclusion that it is essential to - the advantage of science and of the collections which are to remain in - Bloomsbury, that the removal of all the objects of Natural History - should take place, and, as far as practicable, should be - simultaneously effected. - -[Sidenote: BOTANY.] - - With regard to Botany, it is a question whether the existence of the - Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew does not suggest an exception as to the - place to which the British Museum Botanical Collection should be - removed, reserving a small series for the illustration of fossil - Botany, in connexion with Palæontology. - - It is to be kept in view that the removal of the Palæontology, - Geology, and Mineralogy, would leave unoccupied only two very - inconveniently placed rooms in the basement, besides the north half of - the north gallery on the upper floor (about four hundred feet in - length, by thirty-six in width); whereas the recently imported marbles - from Halicarnassus, Cnidus, Geronta, and Cyrene, fill completely the - space under the colonnade, extending to about five hundred and forty - feet in length. Nor can your Committee omit to add, that should the - removal of the Botany and Zoology be delayed, the final and systematic - arrangement of the collections which are to remain must be equally - delayed; while, if any portions of these were removed to other - situations in the Museum, or their final transfer postponed, many of - the objects retained would have again to be shifted for the sake of - congruity and economy of space. - - It is, therefore, recommended by your Committee, that all the Natural - History Collections be speedily and simultaneously removed. - -[Sidenote: ETHNOLOGICAL COLLECTION TO BE REMOVED.] - - Together with these the Ethnological Collection ought to be provided - for elsewhere. Most of the objects which it contains have no affinity - with those which are contained in the other parts of the Museum, nor - is the collection worthy of this country for its extent, nor yet, - owing to its exceptional character, is it brought together in a - methodical and instructive manner. Occupying but a secondary place in - the British Museum, it cannot obtain either the space or the attention - which it might obtain, were it not surrounded and cast into the shade - by a vast number of splendid and interesting objects which have - irresistible claims to preference. Mr. HAWKINS was of opinion, ‘that - if Ethnography be retained,’ it would be necessary to quadruple the - space for its exhibition. The Select Committee in their report (p. - vii), state that ‘they have received evidence from every witness - examined on this subject in favour of the removal of the - Ethnographical Collection.’ If it were to be retained, an area of ten - thousand feet (same report, p. xi) would be required. Your Committee - cannot, therefore, hesitate to recommend the removal of the - Ethnographical Collection to a fitter place. [Sidenote: PORTRAITS.] - Nor can they hesitate in proposing the removal, from the present - Ornithological Gallery, of the Collection of Portraits hanging on the - walls above the presses containing the stuffed birds. Those paintings - having no connexion with the objects for the preservation of which the - Museum was founded, would never have been placed there had there been - a National Portrait Gallery in existence for their reception. - -[Sidenote: SPACE LEFT VACANT.] - - The following is a detailed statement of the space which would be left - vacant in various parts of the Museum by the removal of the above - collections.... - -Then follows an enumeration, first, of the space left vacant by the -removal of the Geological, Palæontological, and Mineralogical -Collections, amounting in the whole to an area of twenty thousand one -hundred and thirty-five feet; secondly, of the space left vacant by the -removal of the Zoological Collection, amounting to an area of -thirty-five thousand four hundred and twenty-eight feet; thirdly, of the -space left vacant by the removal of the Botanical Collection, amounting -to five thousand nine hundred feet; and, finally, of the space left -vacant by the removal of the Ethnological Collection, namely, a room on -the south side of the upper floor, marked ‘3’ on the plan, ninety-four -feet by twenty-four, giving an area of two thousand two hundred and -fifty-six feet; and giving, in the whole, an aggregate area of -sixty-five thousand and seventy-nine feet. - -[Sidenote: TREASURY MINUTE; ALTERATION OF PRESENT BUILDING.] - -Having enumerated the collections which might, with propriety and -advantage, be removed from the British Museum, and stated the extent of -new accommodation which would consequently be gained for other -collections, the Committee proceeded to consider, in the words of the -Treasury Minute, ‘the two important questions—first, of such final -enlargement and alterations of the present buildings as the site may -still admit, and as may be conducive to the best arrangement of the -interior; secondly, of the redistribution of the augmented space among -the several collections that are to remain permanently at the Museum, -among which, of course, my Lords give the chief place to the Library -Departments and the Antiquities.’ - -The Committee, agreeing with their Lordships that the chief claims in -the redistribution of the augmented space are those of the Antiquities -and of the Library Departments, then proceed to say that— - - They have thought themselves bound also to pay attention to certain - other important purposes, to which a portion of the space to be - obtained by alterations within and by building on some remaining spots - of unoccupied ground, might be beneficially applied. - -[Sidenote: TRUSTEES’ OFFICES.] - - Your Committee have, in the first place, had their attention drawn to - that part of the existing buildings appropriated to the administrative - department of the Museum. The want of space for clerks, for Museum - publications, for stationery, for the archives of the Trust, for - papers of all descriptions, for the transaction of business with - officers and servants of the Trustees, and with tradesmen, as well as - the want of a waiting-room for strangers of all ranks who have to - attend on the Trustees, or wish to have interviews with their chief - officer or any of the persons attached to his office, is the cause of - great embarrassment and discomfort. To which is to be added the - inconvenience caused by the unsuitable arrangement of the rooms, which - renders those who occupy them liable to perpetual interruptions. - Moreover, by the strict rule forbidding the admission of artificial - light into the Museum, the period of available working time is - occasionally much abridged. Another site must be found for this - department; there are no means of providing on its present site - against the evils above mentioned. - - In the next place, your Committee have taken into consideration the - absolute necessity of providing for the exhibition of specimens of - coins and medals, always intended by the Trustees, but never carried - into effect for want of space. [Sidenote: EXHIBITION OF COINS AND - MEDALS.] And not only a selection of coins and medals, but also one of - gems, cameos, and valuable ornaments, should be exhibited to Museum - visitors. The want of room for such a purpose is the source of great - trouble and inconvenience. The present Medal Room is much too confined - even for the arrangement and preservation of its contents, and for - such accommodation of its officers as is necessary to enable them to - perform properly their duties. Moreover, as visitors cannot be - indiscriminately admitted to the Ornament Room, still less to the - Medal Room, such of them as do not take the proper steps for gaining - access to those rooms are debarred from seeing even specimens of - objects which acquire a peculiar interest in proportion to the - strictness with which they are guarded. The general visitors should - have an opportunity of satisfying their laudable curiosity by seeing a - good selection of coins, just as they can at the present time see - interesting specimens of manuscripts and printed books; scholars and - persons who have special reasons for examining coins leisurely and - minutely, ought to have the means of doing so comfortably under proper - regulations, and in a separate room, in the same manner as readers are - allowed to use books; but no stranger should be admitted into the room - where the Collection of Coins and Medals is preserved unless in rare - and exceptional cases, and always in the presence of the - Principal-Librarian, or the keeper of the department. - -[Sidenote: EXHIBITION OR PRINTS AND DRAWINGS.] - - In the third place, your Committee, being aware of the importance of - space for the due exhibition of prints and drawings, and of the - repeated complaints of the keeper of that department, who cannot find - room wherein to arrange the collection so as to have it safely - preserved as well as readily accessible, have given their best - attention to those complaints. Most of the inconveniences which are - felt by visitors, as well as by Museum officers, in the existing Medal - Room, are equally felt in the existing Print Room; and many of the - wants which it is suggested should be provided for to make the - Collection of Coins and Medals as useful and instructive as it ought - to be in a great national institution, are wants against which - provision must be made in order to render equally useful and - instructive the Collection of Prints and Drawings. These wants are - ample space for classing, arranging, and preserving the bulk of the - collection, as well as ample space wherein to exhibit, for the - amusement and instruction of the public generally, such a selection of - prints and drawings as may be calculated to give a general notion of - both arts from their infancy to comparatively modern times, in various - countries, and according to the style of the most celebrated masters. - Studies should likewise be provided for the keeper, and also for an - assistant-keeper, in this department, as well as accommodation for - artists who come to copy or study critically any of the objects, or - classes of objects, forming part of this collection, and for those who - come for the purpose of researches requiring less minute attention, - and who desire to see a variety of prints and drawings in succession. - -[Sidenote: BINDERS’ SHOPS.] - - In the fourth place, your Committee have taken into consideration the - want of space for carrying on the binding of the Museum books. The - Collection of Manuscripts, and, much more, that of Printed Books, have - of late years been increasing with unexampled rapidity; but the - bookbinders’ accommodation has not been increased in a corresponding - ratio. The damage caused, particularly to new books, placed unbound in - the readers’ hands, may well be conceived; and the Trustees were - compelled, by the necessity of the case, to sanction an expedient of - doubtful legality, by allowing a large number of books, which in case - of misfortune might be easily replaced at a comparatively small - outlay, to be taken out of the Museum to be bound in a house - immediately opposite to it, hired by the bookbinder. Your Committee - think that such an arrangement, avowedly a temporary one, ought not to - continue a moment longer than is unavoidable; and that adequate - provision should be made as speedily as possible within the Museum - premises for binding all books belonging to the Trust. - -[Sidenote: ALTERATIONS AND REDISTRIBUTION OF SPACE GENERALLY.] - - Your Committee will now proceed to consider the questions of the final - enlargement and alterations of the present buildings, and of the - redistribution of the augmented space for the several purposes above - mentioned. In making the following proposals, your Committee have kept - in view the principle that it would not be advisable for the Trustees - to appropriate specifically to particular objects any particular - space. They will, therefore, as much as possible, confine themselves - to stating how the augmented space should be generally redistributed - among the remaining collections, giving the chief place to the - Antiquities and Library; the arrangement of the particular objects or - classes of objects should rest on the responsibility of the head of - each department, who would in due time submit his views to the - Trustees. Your Committee also wish it to be clearly understood that - the structural details herein suggested or implied, must be considered - liable to such modifications as the farther development of the scheme - may require. - -[Illustration: - - BRITISH MUSEUM. - - PLAN OF THE GROUND FLOOR. -] - -[Sidenote: NEW STAIRCASES.] - - In the building as now arranged, the principal staircase (No. 69 on - the plan of the ground floor) is situated on the left in the Entrance - Hall (No. 2); opposite to the entrance is the corridor (No. 80) - leading to the Reading-Room; east and west of that corridor, between - the main building and the new Library, there is an area (No. 70 and - 79) about thirty feet wide unoccupied. It has long been suggested that - the principal staircase should be removed from No. 69, and that two - staircases be erected on the area 70 and 79, one on each side of No. - 80. The hall entrance (No. 2) would be lighted by the skylight already - existing in the roof, and by a corresponding opening to be made in the - upper floor. The site of the principal staircase, No. 69, would be - occupied by a large room, seventy-five feet by thirty-five, giving an - area of two thousand six hundred and twenty-five feet, exactly like - the one opposite to it (No. 58) in height as in every other respect, - with a floor on a level with the rest of the building. - -[Sidenote: PRESENT ROMAN GALLERY.] - - There are blank windows on the north side of the principal staircase - that would have to be cut through to light the new room, and - additional light could be admitted if necessary. On the south of the - projected new room is a narrow room, ninety-four feet by twenty-four - (No. 3), designated as the Roman Gallery, the light of which is very - defective, especially on the side of the windows opening under the - front colonnade. The Collections of Antiquities contain some large - objects, more interesting archæologically than artistically, for which - light on each side of them is very desirable. If the wall now - separating the staircase from No. 3 were removed, and pilasters or - columns substituted (the upper part of that wall in the floor above - might likewise be removed if desirable), a room ninety-four feet by - sixty, giving an area of five thousand six hundred and forty feet, - admirably adapted for antiquities of this kind, would be obtained. - -[Sidenote: TRUSTEES’ PRESENT OFFICES.] - - At the western extremity of the Roman Gallery (No. 3), and turning - southward, are the Trustees’ room (No. 4), two rooms for clerks (No. 5 - and 6), and the study of the Principal-Librarian (No. 7). It is - proposed to remove all the partition walls inside the space occupied - by No. 4, 6, and 5, and by the corridor on the east of No. 4, and to - open windows on the west side at the same height, and uniform with - those in the gallery No. 17, of which this part of the building would - then be a continuation, opening a communication like that on the - corresponding side on the east (between No. 56 and 63). The Egyptian - Gallery might thus be extended to the total length of four hundred and - sixty-five feet. - -[Sidenote: NEW BUILDINGS ON NO. 11.] - - By removing the corridor and study No. 7, as well as the projection on - the north side of the house now occupied by Mr. CARPENTER, so far west - as the point at which it would intersect a prolongation to the south - of the west wall of the first Elgin Room, a plot of unoccupied ground, - one hundred feet by seventy-five, might be turned to great advantage. - The interior arrangement of this newly acquired space would depend on - the purposes to which the Trustees should think fit to apply it: - whether, for instance, it might be advisable to throw into it the - third Græco-Roman Saloon (No. 10), which is now by common consent too - narrow, or whether the western part of that plot of ground had not - better be set out as a continuation of the Elgin Room, which should be - carried through the end of the above room (No. 10) and of the Lycian - Room (No. 13). Before finally deciding this point it would be - imperative to determine what is to be done with the Lycian Room, which - is in an unfinished state, because it neither is nor ever was large - enough for the collection for which it was intended; whilst, on the - other hand, it contains objects which ought never to have been placed - there, and which ought to be removed. [Sidenote: SPACE ACQUIRED (NO. - 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13).] Until the keeper of the department has - before him a correct plan of all the space which he may eventually - have at his disposal, and until he has well considered how the objects - to be placed ought to be arranged, he cannot give a decided opinion - upon any scheme for building on the plot now under consideration. For - the present purpose it is enough to say that the Trustees’ room and - those annexed (No. 4, 5, and 6), giving an area of about two thousand - nine hundred and fifty feet on the ground floor, and a large piece of - ground, one hundred feet by seventy-five, may be beneficially applied - to the Department of Antiquities. - -[Sidenote: BUILDINGS ON NO. 31 AND 32, AND ALTERATION OF PRESENT PRINT - ROOM.] - - No. 14 and 18 are the two Elgin Rooms, containing the finest reliques - of Greek art in existence, which have remained unarranged for years, - owing to the difficulties which the space hitherto available presented - for their definitive arrangement, and to the uncertainty of the final - appropriation of the space No. 31. It seems, however, to be generally - admitted that on the unoccupied plot of ground, No. 31, a continuation - of the second Elgin Room should be erected of the same width, to - include the Print Room, the floor of which should be lowered to the - general level of the Museum ground floor, and its width extended - westward about seven feet. Another gallery might thus be formed - altogether four hundred and seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven - wide. Should it not extend farther than the southern extremity of the - first Elgin Room (No. 14), its length would be three hundred and - thirty feet. The plot of ground, No. 32, ought also to be applied to - the accommodation of Antiquities. The study No. 23 should be done away - with. [Sidenote: ALTERATION OF STAIRCASE, NO. 27.] The two lower - flights of the N.W. staircase, No. 27, should be taken down and - reconstructed in No. 26 and 36, with the necessary alterations to - reconnect them with the two upper flights, which would remain as they - are now. The studies No. 28, and passage No. 29, should be cleared - away, as well as those above them, together with the lower part of the - western wall of No. 27, the southern wall of that space being - continued to No. 30, thus forming a passage or gallery, about - twenty-two feet wide, for communication between the Northern Egyptian - Gallery and the new gallery to be erected at the north of the Elgin - Rooms. From the new passage thus formed there should be an opening on - the south side, and a flight of steps to descend to the gallery which - is to be built on No. 32. There would be room under the new staircase, - in the space No. 36, to form an additional study for the Printed Book - Department, where it is much wanted. Upon No. 32, a gallery should be - erected from the basement, like the Assyrian Gallery, No. 15, to both - of which access might be had by two handsome staircases, descending - north and south of No. 19, from which it is taken for granted the - Phigaleian Marbles and other objects, now there, would be removed, the - central space being applied to better purposes. - -[Illustration: - - BRITISH MUSEUM. - - PLAN OF THE GROUND FLOOR. - WITH THE - PROPOSED ALTERATIONS. -] - - It does not appear to your Committee that any farther accommodation - for Antiquities can be procured on the ground floor, without - interfering with rooms now appropriated to the Library. - -[Sidenote: NEW GALLERY ON NO. 32, LIKE ONE NOW ON NO. 13.] - - On the north side of the upper floor, all that portion marked 21, 32, - 31, 30, 29, 33, 28, and 27, on the plan of that floor, now occupied by - Geology, Palæontology, and Mineralogy, should be transferred to the - Antiquities. It would be desirable to remove the two studies, marked - 21, at the western extremity of that floor, and to add so much more - space to the gallery for exhibition. - -[Sidenote: SPACE FOR ANTIQUITIES ON NORTH UPPER FLOOR.] - - But before proceeding farther, your Committee wish to make one or two - remarks on the advantages which all the galleries on the upper floor - offer for the exhibition of Antiquities, even of considerable size and - weight, were any of the space on this floor wanted for such objects. - [Sidenote: FITNESS OF UPPER FLOOR FOR SUCH PURPOSES.] With respect to - light, as all these galleries may, if requisite, be lighted by - skylights (those on the east and west being so already), they will so - far meet with the approbation of those who are considered judges of - the kind of light peculiarly required for the exhibition of - sculptures. The size of the rooms gives ample space for the public - exhibition of Antiquities, including statues, not much less than - life-size, if necessary; whilst the galleries, though lofty, will not - dwarf them. Competent critics have pronounced that it is a mistake to - suppose that all sculptures look better in magnificent rooms. The - solidity of the Museum building, throughout, leaves no doubt of its - upper floor being strong enough to receive ordinary marble statues, - not to speak of busts and smaller objects. The floor of the western - end of the northern gallery, marked No. 21 and 32 on the plan, offers - extra solidity, as it rests on substantial walls at intervals of - twelve feet from each other. Your Committee have been assured by their - architect that a mass of marble, weighing several tons, might be - safely deposited on any part of that floor. - -[Sidenote: STUDIES.] - - With respect to the northernmost central portion (No. 33) of the - gallery now under consideration, it could not be better applied than - to studies for the officers of the Department of Antiquities. Five - such studies might be formed therein, each eighteen feet by sixteen, - opening on a corridor six feet wide and eighty-four long, in which - might be kept the Departmental Collection of Books for the common - daily use of the occupiers of those studies. - - The whole of the eastern side of the upper floor, including rooms 35 - to 40 (all Zoology), together with the rooms marked 41 (Zoology), 42, - 43 (Botany), 1 (Zoology), 2 (the site of the principal staircase, as - well as the smaller staircase on the west of it), and finally No. 3 - (Ethnography), should be transferred to the Departments of - Antiquities; subject to the consideration whether the rooms No. 42 and - 43 might not be reserved for the Department of Manuscripts, if at any - time required. Space is wanted, not only for Antiquities now - unprovided with any accommodation, but also for the display of future - additions, and for the better arrangement of what is now - unsatisfactorily exhibited, either too far from the eye or in dark - corners. [Sidenote: SPACE FOR ANTIQUITIES ON THE EAST AND SOUTH UPPER - FLOORS.] A large number of objects, to be seen as they ought to be, - must be spread over twice the space which they fill at present; a - great many more, now placed where they cannot be seen at all, ought to - be removed to more suitable situations. [Sidenote: WEST SIDE OF UPPER - FLOOR TO REMAIN FOR ANTIQUITIES.] The whole of the west side—that is, - rooms 9 to 15—would continue to be applied to the exhibition of - Antiquities; it is not, however, to be assumed that the objects now - there would necessarily be left where they are, nor yet that, for - instance, Egyptian Antiquities should necessarily occupy the same - galleries which they occupy at present. From room No. 14 must be - removed either the Egyptian Antiquities now in it, or the Temple - Collection, which was placed there from absolute necessity, there - being no other space whatever where it could be exhibited. The British - and Mediæval Collections would probably have to be removed to some - other part of the upper floor, now occupied, or which it is now - proposed should be occupied, by Antiquities, where the transition - would be less abrupt than from Egyptian to Mediæval. - -[Sidenote: EXHIBITION OF COINS AND MEDALS.] - - As before suggested, space should be set apart for the exhibition of - Coins and Medals, besides that which is required for their safe - custody, arrangement, and study. Your Committee will presently state - how the latter ought to be provided for. As to the public exhibition - of coins, the three rooms, 8, 5, and 4, in which the coins, medals, - gems, &c., are now kept, would be admirably adapted for the purpose, - after the internal partition walls are removed. It would be desirable - to preserve the two rooms, 6 and 7, the one as a study for an - assistant, who should be always at hand to give information connected - with the coins exhibited close by, and to answer such questions as - would not require reference to the general collection; the other as a - waiting-room, to which a stranger might be more safely and freely - admitted, on the understanding that nothing valuable be kept in it, - whilst admission to the assistant’s room should be much more sparingly - granted. An obvious reason for applying this part of the premises to - the above purpose is, that it is provided with special doors, windows, - and locks, for the safety of the present contents. And as the objects - which it is proposed should be therein exhibited would be of some - considerable value, advantage should be taken of the existing - arrangements for their security. It is to be noted that this - exhibition would not interfere with the arrangement of any Collection - of Antiquities, with none of which could the coins and medals properly - mix, although so nearly allied to them. - -[Illustration: - - BRITISH MUSEUM. - - PLAN OF THE UPPER FLOOR. -] - - The corresponding part of the upper floor on the south-east corner, - No. 44 and 45, is perfectly well adapted for the exhibition of prints - and drawings. As to space for the arrangement and preservation of the - prints and drawings, for the tranquil examination and study of them, - for the studies of the officers, &c., your Committee will presently - lay before you their views. - -[Sidenote: EXHIBITION OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS.] - - Your Committee have endeavoured to show how far a portion of the new - accommodation to be gained by removing the Natural History and - Ethnographical Collections, by alterations within the now existing - buildings, and by building on some remaining spots of unoccupied - ground, may with propriety and advantage be applied to the Departments - of Oriental, Mediæval, and Classical Antiquities, of the Coins and - Medals, and of the Prints and Drawings; your Committee will now show - what part of that accommodation might be made available for Printed - Books and Manuscripts. - -[Sidenote: PRINTED BOOKS.] - - When the erection of the new Library and Reading-Room was suggested, - it was stated that that Library would hold eight hundred thousand - volumes; that is, the annual increase for forty years, calculating - that increase at twenty thousand volumes. But the annual increase has - been, during the last five years, at the rate of upwards of thirty - thousand volumes, and during the last four years at the rate of about - thirty-five thousand, which number, however, is ultimately reduced by - the practice of binding two or more volumes of the same work in one; - while, on the other hand, the new building will certainly contain two - hundred thousand volumes more than it was originally estimated to - hold; so that if the present rate of increase continues, as it ought, - the new Library will be full in about twenty-five years from this - date. It was necessary to say thus much, as a notion seems prevalent - that a great deal more was promised when that building was suggested, - and that the number of books, which that new Library can hold, may - reach an almost fabulous quantity, and the space be sufficient for an - extravagant number of years. - -[Sidenote: ROOMS IN BASEMENT TRANSFERRED TO PRINTED BOOKS.] - - The rooms on the basement floor of the north side, both marked 15 on - the plan of that floor, and now occupied by Geology, cannot be - otherwise appropriated than to the Department of Printed Books; the - same is to be said of the seven small rooms, marked 17, now used for - Geology, as well as of rooms 18 and 19 on the east side, now used for - Zoology; all these rooms are immediately under the Department of - Printed Books, and naturally belong to it. The rooms marked 13, 14, - and 16, from west to east, were formerly appropriated to the - Department of Printed Books, to which they should now be restored. - When the first importation of Halicarnassian Antiquities took place, - they were deposited temporarily in these rooms, as no other space - whatever could be found in which to shelter and unpack them. In this - space are now arranged the Inscriptions, which have had to be removed - from under the colonnade to make room for the Marbles recently arrived - from Cyrene. Appropriate space for the Inscriptions will be found - without difficulty in the Department of Antiquities, enlarged - according to the foregoing suggestions, or, at all events, in the - basement, either now existing or to be built under the galleries for - Antiquities on the west side of the Museum, where sufficient light may - be procured for objects like these, which are of no great interest to - sightseers, and therefore need not be publicly exhibited; enough that - they be easily accessible to the small number of antiquarians and - scholars who may wish to examine them. - -[Sidenote: PART OF NORTH GALLERY IN UPPER FLOOR TO PRINTED BOOKS.] - - The north galleries on the upper floor are divided lengthways, from - east to west, into two portions; that now containing Zoological - Collections (No. 22 to 26) can be advantageously appropriated to the - Department of Printed Books when required. The volumes placed there - can be easily lowered down and returned through a hoisting apparatus - to be placed at either the south-east or south-west corner of No. 24, - immediately above No. 41 on the ground floor—the nearest point of any - in the main Library to the Reading-Room. By these various alterations - space would be provided for about two hundred and fifty thousand - printed volumes, in addition to that which still remains available in - that department, from which, however, space for about fifty thousand - volumes would have to be deducted, as will be presently shown. - -[Sidenote: WANT OF SPACE IN DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS.] - - Although there is now space remaining in the Department of Manuscripts - for the accommodation of twelve thousand volumes, and although the - annual average increase of manuscript volumes may be safely reckoned - at less than six hundred and fifty, your Committee have, nevertheless, - felt that prospective increased accommodation should now be provided, - not only for the Collection of Manuscripts, but still more for artists - and readers who have occasion to refer to select manuscripts, as well - as for assistants, of whom two, together with one attendant and eight - readers, are pent up in a space of thirty feet by twenty-three, - crowded with tables, chairs, &c., which scarcely allow room for moving - from one place to another or for access to the officers’ study on each - side. The Head of the Department of Manuscripts has recently - represented to the Trustees his want of six assistants; but he has, at - the same time, been obliged to state that, if appointed, he should not - know where to place them. The Trustees have complied with his request, - to the extent of granting two new assistants; and he will experience - great difficulty in placing the two who are to be appointed. Add to - this, the interruption to which each of these persons is unavoidably - liable from each of the others in the performance of his duties and - occupations, owing chiefly to the narrow space in which they are - confined. - -[Illustration: - - BRITISH MUSEUM. - - PLAN OF THE UPPER FLOOR WITH THE PROPOSED ALTERATIONS. -] - - On account of its locality, the Department of Manuscripts cannot - derive any direct advantage from the removal of the Natural History - Collections; no space which will thus become vacant can be rendered - available for the purpose of remedying the inconveniences here stated. - As, however, the Department of Printed Books obtains the additional - accommodation before mentioned, a portion of the space now occupied by - Printed Books, very conveniently situated to supply the wants of the - Department of Manuscripts, ought to be transferred to this department. - -[Sidenote: SPACE TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM PRINTED BOOKS TO MANUSCRIPTS.] - - It is, therefore, proposed that the study, marked No. 57 on the ground - floor plan, be removed to the north end of No. 55, now occupied by - Printed Books, and that the site of No. 55 be attached to the - Department of Manuscripts. In that gallery, one hundred and fifteen by - eighteen, excellent accommodation, with abundance of light, would be - found for twenty thousand manuscript volumes—for fifteen students at - least (this number is ample if admission be strictly and _bonâ fide_ - limited to the class of persons for whom it is intended) at separate - seats, each having a table space of two feet and a half in depth and - four in length,—and for ten assistants or more, admirably placed for - superintendence. The area of the eastern recess of No. 56 would then - be quite clear, and available for the exhibition of manuscripts, like - the western recess in the same room. And when as large an exhibition - of manuscripts as the space permits is accessible to the public (and - still more accommodation for this exhibition might be found in the - present Department of Manuscripts), the same restrictions as have been - suggested with respect to coins and to prints ought to be imposed on - the handling of select manuscripts. - - It now remains to find space wherein to provide proper accommodation - for the binder, as well as for the Trustees’ offices, for the - Collection of Prints and for the Collection of Coins. - -[Sidenote: BUILDINGS IN THE GARDEN ATTACHED TO PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN’S - HOUSE.] - - On the east side of the roadway parallel to the Department of - Manuscripts, there is a piece of ground extending to Montague Street - on the east, to the house No. 30, in that same street towards the - north, and to the Principal-Librarian’s house on the south. On a - portion of this ground stands an old building, now partly appropriated - to the binder and partly used as a guard-house; the remainder forms - the garden attached to the residence of the Principal-Librarian. It - appears to your Committee that by substituting a new building for the - one existing, and by building on the greater part of the garden, ample - accommodation will be found for what is wanted. Your Committee cannot - abstain from mentioning that this great sacrifice of personal - convenience on the part of the Principal-Librarian was suggested and - brought under their notice by that officer himself. - - It was some years ago suggested by the Government that the military - guard might be dispensed with at the Museum; at times when the - services of the army were pressingly required, it was felt that - soldiers might be more usefully employed than in being kept for mere - show at the Museum. It was, however, thought that on removing the - military guard, better provision should be made for the safety of the - Museum. - -[Sidenote: MILITARY GUARD DISCONTINUED.] - -Then follow various details of minor consequence; to which succeed an -enumeration of the additional space gained for the Collections of -Printed Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, Antiquities, Coins and -Medals, as well as for offices, store-rooms, bookbinders’ shops, &c., by -the proposed alterations, as respects each of the several Departments of -Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Antiquities; and a summary of the whole, -from which it appears that the additional space gained by the Department -of Printed Books amounts to an area of seventeen thousand eight hundred -and three square feet; that the additional space gained by the -Department of Antiquities amounts to sixty-seven thousand six hundred -and ninety-two square feet; and, finally, that the additional space -gained by the Department of Manuscripts amounts to three thousand four -hundred and thirty square feet. - - ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ RECAPITULATION. │ - ├───────────────────────────────┬───────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┤ - │ │Present│Proposed │ Proposed │Proposed│ - │ │Space. │Addition.│Deduction.│ Total. │ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ PRINTED BOOKS. │ │ │ │ │ - │Basement │ 33,998│ 14,667│ │ 48,665│ - │Ground floor │ 83,748│ │ 2,070│ 81,678│ - │Upper floor │ │ 5,206│ │ 5,206│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │117,746│ 19,873│ 2,070│ 135,549│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ MANUSCRIPTS. │ │ │ │ │ - │Basement │ 210│ 1,360│ │ 1,570│ - │Ground floor │ 12,968│ 2,070│ │ 15,038│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 13,178│ 3,430│ │ 16,608│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ ANTIQUITIES. │ │ │ │ │ - │Basement │ 33,868│ 16,036│ 6,767│ 43,137│ - │Ground floor │ 39,334│ 13,775│ │ 53,109│ - │Upper floor 21,532│ │ │ │ │ - │ Less Coins and Medals 2,950│ │ │ │ │ - │ ——————│ 18,582│ 44,648│ │ 63,230│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 91,784│ 74,459│ 6,767│ 159,476│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ COINS AND MEDALS. │ │ │ │ │ - │Upper floor │ 2,950│ │ │ │ - │New building │ │ 4,950│ │ │ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 2,950│ 4,950│ │ 7,900│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ PRINTS AND DRAWINGS. │ │ │ │ │ - │Upper floor │ 2,600│ 3,204│ 2,600│ │ - │New building │ │ 4,950│ │ │ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 2,600│ 8,154│ 2,600│ 8,154│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ COMMITTEE ROOM, OFFICES, │ │ │ │ │ - │ STORES, &C. │ │ │ │ │ - │Basement │ 1,290│ │ 1,290│ │ - │Ground floor │ 3,565│ │ 3,565│ │ - │Upper floor │ 1,869│ │ 1,869│ │ - │New Building (Basement) │ │ 5,400│ │ │ - │New Building (Ground) │ │ 4,950│ │ │ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 6,724│ 10,350│ 6,724│ 10,350│ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ BINDERS. │ │ │ │ │ - │Basement │ 1,360│ │ 1,360│ │ - │Detached building │ 3,179│ │ 3,179│ │ - │New building │ │ 7,760│ │ │ - ├───────────────────────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┤ - │ │ 4,539│ 7,760│ 4,539│ 7,760│ - └───────────────────────────────┴───────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┘ - - Your Committee, proceeds the Report, do not think it necessary to give - the particulars of the accommodation which the unappropriated portions - of the basement floor would afford for the preservation of moulds, as - well as for the formatore, for making and preserving casts of statues - and other large objects, as well as of gems and seals, and also for - providing such decent and suitable conveniences as the health and - comfort of the thousands who visit the Museum absolutely require. - -[Sidenote: FUTURE USE OF BASEMENT.] - - It is, perhaps, unnecessary to do more than simply to remind the - Trustees that the want of space at the Museum has been felt and has - been urged on the Government for several years past, and that during - the last four or five years the additions to the Collections of - Antiquities have been so rapid and so numerous, as to render it - impossible to do more than provide for them temporary shelter at a - considerable expense, and to the great disfigurement of the noble - façade which entitles the Museum to claim rank among the most - classical buildings of modern times. [Sidenote: URGENCY OF BUILDING AT - ONCE.] Should the above proposals of your Committee meet with the - approbation of the Trustees and the sanction of the Government, they - ought to be carried into effect without delay. The Government would, - doubtless, lose no time in providing a proper building for the - reception of such collections as are to be removed from the Museum; - until this removal has taken place, no redistribution of the vacated - space can be undertaken; but the new structures proposed to be erected - on ground now unoccupied ought to be proceeded with at once, that they - might be rendered available as speedily as possible. - -[Sidenote: WHAT TO BE FIRST PUT IN HAND.] - - Your Committee are of opinion that the new building facing Montague - Street, the building for the bookbinder, the building intended to be - erected on the ground now vacant between the Elgin Room and the Print - Room, and the construction of the new principal staircases, should be - commenced immediately. The building intended to be erected on the - vacant ground on the west of the Trustees’ Room (No. 11 on the plan), - must, necessarily, be postponed for awhile. The alterations which - might and ought to be rapidly completed, are those which will be - required on the east side of the King’s Library (No. 55 and 57), to - transfer the gallery to the Department of MSS. from that of Printed - Books. - -[Sidenote: COMMITTEE OF TRUSTEES TO BE APPOINTED.] - - The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury state that ‘they - will be prepared to enter upon the details of these questions in - communication with the Trustees, and even, if it should be desired, to - offer suggestions upon them.’ Your Committee are of opinion that the - proffered assistance should be at once accepted; and that in order to - derive all possible advantage from that assistance a small Committee - of Trustees should be appointed to carry on the necessary - communications with the Treasury, either verbally or otherwise, and to - consider with their Lordships all suggestions that might be offered - respecting the points touched upon in this Report, and their details. - This Committee would be similar to that which the Trustees requested - the Treasury to appoint, by letter of the twentieth of June, 1829, and - which was afterwards appointed by the Trustees themselves, with the - approbation of their Lordships, to direct and superintend, not only - the works then in progress, but those to be afterwards undertaken. - -On the tenth of February, 1862—after the communication of this Report to -each of the Trustees individually—the recommendations of the -Sub-Committee were unanimously approved, at a Special General Meeting of -the Trustees, at which twenty-four members of the Board were present. -[Sidenote: _Correspondence Relating to the British Museum_, No. 97 of -Session 1862.] After the adoption of the plans thus accepted, another -Sub-Committee of Trustees was appointed to confer with the Treasury in -order to their realisation. - - -Before Parliament, this plan of severance and of re-arrangement—after -some modifications of detail which are too unimportant for remark—was -supported, in 1862, with the whole influence of the Government. But it -failed to win any adequate amount either of parliamentary or of public -favour. Some men doubted if the estimated saving, as between building at -Bloomsbury and building at Kensington, would or could be realized. -Others denied that the evils or inconveniences attendant upon severance -would be compensated by any adequate gain on other points. [Sidenote: -THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE OF 1862.] The popularity of the Natural History -Collections; the facilities of access to Great Russell Street; the -weighty—though far from unanimous—expressions of opinion from eminent -men of science in favour of continuance and enlargement, rather than of -severance and removal; all these and other objections were raised, and -were more or less dwelt upon, both in the House of Commons and in -scientific circles out of doors, scarcely less entitled to discuss a -national question of this kind. The Commons eventually decided against -the project by their vote of the 19th May, 1862. - -Substantially,—and in spite of small subsequent additions from time to -time to the buildings at Bloomsbury—the question of 1862 is still the -question of 1870. As I have said, it has been my object to state that -question rather than to discuss it. - -Should it seem, after full examination, that good government may be -better maintained, and adequate space for growth be efficiently -provided, by enlarging the existing Museum, would it be worthy of -Britain to allow the additional expenditure of a few scores of thousands -of pounds—an expenditure which would be spread over the taxation of many -years—to preponderate in the final vote of Parliament over larger and -more enduring considerations? - -In the session of 1866 Mr. Spencer WALPOLE spoke thus: ‘You must either -determine to separate the Collections now in the Museum, or buy more -land in Bloomsbury.... I have always been for keeping them together. I -am, however, perfectly willing to take either course, provided you do -not heap those stores one on another—as at present,’ (July, 1866)—‘in -such a manner as to render them really not so available as they ought to -be to those who wish to make them objects of study.’ Few men are so well -entitled to speak, authoritatively, on the question—because few have -given such an amount of time and labour to its consideration. - -By every available and legitimate expression of opinion the Trustees -have acted in the spirit of this remark, made almost four years since, -by one of the most eminent of their number. The words are, -unfortunately, as apposite in March, 1870, as they were in July, 1866. - - - THE END. - - - - - GENERAL INDEX. - - - Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, 66, 70 - - Abercorn, Earl of. _See_ Hamilton - - Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 548 - - Abyssinia, MSS., brought from, 707 - - Accessibility, Public, of the British Museum, Successive changes in the - Regulations and Statistics of the, 323, 336, 338, 339, 341, 368, - 520, 599 - - Adair, Sir Robert, 373 - - Æginæ, Vases and other Antiquities brought from, 386 _seqq._ - - Africa, Pre-historic and Ethnographical Collections from, 699 _seqq._ - - Agarde, Arthur, and Sir Robert Cotton, 85, 86 - - Albemarle, Duchess of. _See_ Monk - - Albums, Series of German, 457 - - Alexandria, Sarcophagus from, 365 _seqq._ - - Allan-Greg Cabinet of Minerals, 606 - - Almanzi, Joseph, Hebrew Library of, 42 - - Amadei, Victor, Marbles from the Collection of, 372 - - Amba-Bichoi, Biblical MSS. from the Monastery of, 615 _seqq._ - - America, Pre-historic and Ethnographical Collections from, 699 _seqq._ - - Anadhouly, Exploration by Sir Charles Fellows of, 644 - - _Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, Description of the_, 372 - _seqq._ - - Anderson, Edmund (of Eyworth and Stratton), 132 - - Andréossi, Anthony Francis, Count, Researches in the Monasteries of - Nitria of, 610 - - Angouleme, Duke of, 539 - - Anne, Queen of England, 207 _seqq._ - - Anne of Denmark, Queen Consort of James I, 153, 156, 166 - - Ansse de Villoisin, John Baptist, G. d’, 455 - - Antiphellus, Researches of Sir Charles Fellows at, 644 - - _Antiquités Étrusques, &c._, 352 _seqq._ - - Apotheosis of Homer, 401 - - Arcadia, Archæological Explorations in, 397 _seqq._ - - Argos, Vases and other Antiquities from, 386 - - Artas of Sidon, Ancient glasswork of, 709 _seqq._ - - Artemisia, Ancient Sculptures from the Mausoleum built by, 664 _seqq._ - - Arundel, Earl of. _See_ Fitzalan - - Arundel, Earl of. _See_ Howard - - Arundelian Library, 198 _seqq._ - - Arundelian Marbles, 197 _seqq._ - - Ashburnham House, Fire at, 140 - - Askew, Anthony, 472 - - Assemani, Joseph Simon, and Stephen Evode, obtain, for the Vatican, - Syriac MSS. from the Monastery of the Syrians, 617 - - Assyrian Antiquities, First beginning of the Collection of, 401; - Account of the Discoveries by Mr. Layard and his successors of, 629 - _seqq._ - - Athanasius, Saint, Syriac Version of the Festal Letters of, 623 - - Athens, Researches of Lord Elgin at, their History and Results, 381 - _seqq._ - - Aublet, John Baptist Christopher Fusée d’, Botanical Collection of, 509 - - - B. - - Baber, Rev. Henry Hervey, M.A., Services of, in the Department of - Printed Books, 532, _seqq._, 542; - Death of, 553 - - Bacon, Francis, Viscount St. Alban’s, is assisted by Sir R. Cotton in - his endeavour to frame an acceptable measure for a union with - Scotland, 57 - - Bankes, George, 441 - - Banks-Hodgkenson, J., 488 - - Banks, Sir Joseph, Bart., P.R.S., Notices of the Life, Travels, - Labours, and Benefactions of, 335, 480–489, 497–501, 509; - His Correspondence with Sir William Hamilton on Volcanic Eruptions, - 354 _seqq._ - - Banks, Mrs. S. S., Bequest of, 27 - - Barbadoes, Notices of the Early History of the Island of, and of the - attempts at plantation there made by William Courten and others, 251 - _seqq._, 261 _seqq._; - Botanizing Expedition of Sir Hans Sloane at, 278 - - Barberini (or Portland) Vase, History of the, 461 - - Barbier, Anthony Alexander, 455 - - Barbier, Eugene Auguste, 452 - - Barlow, Hugh, 349 - - Barnard, Sir Frederick Augusta, Labours of, as Royal Librarian, 468, - 472; - Johnson’s Letter to him on the Collection of Books, _ib._ - - Barrington, Shute, Bishop of Durham, 420 - - Barth Cabinet of Gems, 691 - - Battely, William, 240 - - Bean, Rev. James, M.A., 544 - - Beattie, James, LL.D., Conversation with King George III of, 475 - - Beauclerc, Topham, 425 - - Beaumont, Sir George, Bart., Bequest of a Gallery of Pictures to the - British Museum by, 30, 460 - - Bentinck Papers, 457 - - Bentley, Richard, D.D., Royal Librarianship of, 140, 169 - - Berkeley, Mary, 345 - - Berlin Museum, 579 - - Bernard, Sir John, 299 - - Beroldingen Fossils, 26 - - Bethel, Slingsby, 299 - - Biblical MSS. of the Nitrian Monasteries, 610 _seqq._ - - Biliotti and Salzmann, Messrs., Archæological Researches of, in the - Island of Rhodes, 669 - - Birch, Thos., D.D., Services of, as an early Trustee, 415 _seqq._; - his bequests, 415 - - Blacas, P. L. J. Casimir de, Duke of Blacas, Museum of, 689 _seqq._ - - Blagrove, Major, 408 - - Blois, Earls of, Archives, now at Pomard, of the, 536 _seqq._ - - Bodley, Sir Thomas, and Sir R. Cotton, 332 - - Bolingbroke, Henry, Viscount. _See_ St. John - - Bolton, Edmund, 84 - - Bonaparte, Lucien, Prince of Canino, Acquisition of part of the - Collection of Vases formed by, 35 - - Bond, Edward Augustus, 600 - - Bonpland, M., 455 - - Borell, H. P., Collection of Greek and Roman Coins made by, 34 - - Borough, Sir John, 195 - - Bosset, Colonel de, Collection of Greek Coins made by, 25, 400 - - Botanical Collections, 267, 269, 277 _seqq._, 283, 295, 492 _seqq._, - 507 - - Botanical Collections in France, 260 _seqq._, 500 - - Botanical Collections in Germany and Italy, 267 - - Botanical Studies in England, Notice of the rise and progress of, 259 - _seqq._ - - Botanic Gardens at Chelsea, 275, 293, 297 - - Botanic Garden at Paris, 500 - - Botta, P. E., Assyrian Researches of, 616; - his first and brilliant discoveries at Khorsabad, 629; - his genial and liberal co-operation with Layard, 631, _foot-note_ - - Boudaen, Peter, 255 - - Bourchier, Sir William, 539 - - Bowood in Wiltshire, Lord Shelburne’s improvements at, 428 - - Bowring, J., Entomological Collection of, 51 - - Boyle, Robert, 275 - - Branchidæ, Ancient Sculpture brought by C. T. Newton from, 664 - - Brander, Gustavus, Gift of the ‘Solander Fossils,’ by, 21, 333 - - Briasson’s Correspondence with Sir H. Sloane respecting a French - version of the _Natural History of Jamaica_, 289 - - Bridges’ Zoological Collections made in South America, 581 - - Bridgewater, Francis Henry, Earl of. _See_ Egerton - - Brienne, Henry Lewis de Lomenie de, Count. _See_ Lomenie - - Brindley, James, 447 - - British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography, Formation of the new - Department of, 688 - - British Museum, Chronological Epitome of the principal incidents in the - formation, enlargement, and growth of the successive Collections - which constitute the, 6–47 - - Brocas, Elizabeth, 52 - - Brocas, William, 52 - - Bröndsted, Peter Olave, 399 - - Brougham, Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux, 547 - - Brown, Robert, F.R.S., Keeper of Botany, Services of, 507, 508 - - Browne, William George, Researches in the Nitrian Monasteries of, 610 - - Bruce, Agnes, of Conington in Huntingdonshire, 49 - - Bruce, Thomas, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Archæological Explorations - at Athens and in various other parts of Greece, 381–396; - Notices of his Life and Public Career, _ib._, 400, 411; - the controversy as to the archæological and artistical value of the - Elgin Marbles, 411 _seqq._; - other national results of Lord Elgin’s Embassy and Public Spirit, 439 - - Bruchmann’s Fossils, 39 - - Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, Joseph Anthony, 500 - - Bryant, Jacob, 479 - - Bryaxis, Ancient Sculptures by, 665 - - Buchan, Mr., a Naturalist engaged in the Voyage of Banks and Cook, 493 - - Buckingham House and its History, 318 - - Buckland, William, D.D., 449 - - Budrum (the ancient Halicarnassus), Explorations of C. T. Newton and - other Archæologists at, 663 _seqq._ - - Burckhardt, John Lewis, Travels and Researches in Africa of, 404 - - Burlamachi, Philip, 250 - - Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury, 133, 211 - - Burney, Charles, D.D., Notices of the Life, Labours, and Literary - Character of, with Notices of his Manuscript and Printed - Collections, 435–438; 440 _seqq._ - - Burney, Frances (afterwards Mme. d’Arblay), 475, 503 - - Burnouf, M., Researches on Assyrian Palæography of, 641 - - Bute, Earl of. _See_ Stuart - - Byres, James, 372 - - Byron, George Gordon, Lord Byron, Autograph MSS. of, 458; - Notice of the recent slander on the fame of, _ib._ - - - C. - - Cadogan, Charles Sloane, 297 - - Cadogan, Lord, 300, 304 - - Cadyanda, Casts of Rock-Tombs at, 660 - - Cæsar Papers, 426 - - Calah (of _Genesis_) Conjectural identification of, 629 - - Calvert, Sir William, 299 - - Camden, William, Friendship of Sir Robert Cotton, and, 52, 53; - their joint labours on the _Britannia_, 54; - their archæological tour in the north of England, _ib._; - other joint labours and friendly intercourse, 87, 98 - - _Campi Phlegræi_, 350 - - Canino, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of, and his Collection of Greek Vases, - 35 - - Canning, Stratford, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, encourages liberally - the researches of Layard, 632; - procures from Halicarnassus the primary specimens of the sculptures - of the Mausoleum and presents them to the Nation, 663 - - Canova, Anthony, Opinion on the Elgin Marbles of, 455 - - Caraffa, Carlo, MSS. of, 457 - - Carew, George, 261 _seqq._ - - Carleton, Dudley, Lord Dorchester, 65, 176 - - Carlisle, James, Earl of. _See_ Hay. - - _Carmina Quadragesimalia_ of 1748, Oxford, 418 - - Carr, Robert, Earl of Somerset, Political connection between Sir Robert - Cotton and, 66 _seqq._; - Somerset’s intercourse with the Court of Spain, 69; - His alleged complicity in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, 31 - _seqq._ - - Carr, Frances, Countess of Somerset, 66 _seqq._ - - Carteret, Lady Sophia, 424 - - Carthage, Explorations on the site of ancient, and their results, 666 - _seqq._ - - Cary, Henry Francis, Notice of the Literary Life and Museum Service of, - 532; - circumstances attendant on his Candidature for the Keepership of - Printed Books in 1837, 543 _seqq._ - - Casaubon, Isaac, 167 - - Casier, Margaret, 249 - - Casley, David, Services of, as Deputy Royal Librarian, 140, 144 - - Castile, Earls of, 56 - - Catharine, Empress of Russia, 407 - - _Catalogue of the Anglo-Gallic Coins_, 522 - - _Catalogue of the Printed Books_, 523, 533, 566 _seqq._ - - Cautley, Major, Fossils collected in the Himalayas, by, 39 - - Cavendish, Mary, Duchess of Portland, 462 - - Caxton, William, Series of the productions of the press of, 476–478, - 681–683 - - Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 427 - - Cecil, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 88, 162 - - Chaloner, Sir Thomas, 158, 159 - - Chamberlain, John, 176 - - Charles I, King of England, 68, 91, 94, 98, 101, 124, 331 - - Charles II, King of England, 260 - - Charles X, King of France, 691 - - Charlett, Arthur, 236, 283 - - Chelsea, Botanic Garden at, 275, 293, 297 - - Chelsea, Manor House of, and its History, 294 _seqq._ - - Children, John George, 532 - - Chimæra-Tomb from Lycia, 658 - - Chinese Books, Hull’s Collection of, 461 - - Chinese Antiquities and Curiosities, 700 - - Choiseul Gouffier, M. G. A. L. de, Count, Archæological Researches in - Greece of, 384 - - Chorley, J. Rutter, Collection of Spanish Dramatic Poetry formed and - bequeathed by, 695 _seqq._ - - Christy, Henry, Notices of the Life, Beneficence, and Archæological - explorations of, 697 _seqq._; - his Collections and their bequest to the Public, 699 _seqq._, 701 - - Churchill, John, Duke of Marlborough, 209 _seqq._ - - Clarke, Edward Daniel, LL.D., and the Sarcophagus from Alexandria, 366; - MS. of the Greek Orators obtained by him at Constantinople, 439 - - Clayton’s Herbarium, 509 - - Cnidus, Ancient Sculpture brought by C. T. Newton from, 664 _seqq._ - - Cockerell, Charles Robert, Researches in Phigaleia of, 397 - - _Codex Alexandrinus_, 167, 170 - - Coinage of the Realm, Collections by Sir Joseph Banks, on the, 508 - - Coins, Medals, and Gems, Collection of, 139, 201, 271, 295, 303, 412, - 417, 421, 443, 705 - - Coke, Sir Edward, 80, 82, 149 - - Coke, Thomas, Earl of Leicester, 372 - - Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 545 - - Combe, Taylor, 392, 399 - - Conington, in Huntingdonshire, 49 - - Constable, Alice, 132 - - Constantinople, Early Researches for Greek Marbles and MSS. at, 191 - _seqq._ - - Conway, Sir Edward, 184 - - Conyers, John, 259 - - Cook, Captain James, 334 - - Corinth, Vases and other Antiquities brought from, 386 _seqq._ - - Cotton, Sir John, 135, 139 - - Cotton, Sir John, Great-grandson of the Founder, Donor of the Cotton - Library and Antiquities, 134, 306 - - Cotton, John, Grandson of the Founder, 133 - - Cotton, Robert (of Gedding, Cambridgeshire), 139 - - Cotton, Sir Robert (of Hatley St. George, in Cambridgeshire), 139 - - Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, Descent and Pedigree of, 50 - 1570–1585. His education and early friendships, 52 - 1587–98. Commencement and growth of his library and museum, 53 - 1599. His archæological tour in the North of England with Camden, and - his share in the composition of the _Britannia_, 54; - is employed by the Queen to prepare a tractate on the precedency of - England over Spain, 55; - analysis of that treatise, _ib._ - 1603. Writes a _Discourse on King James’ descent from the Saxon - Kings_, 56; - is knighted, _ib._; - and returned to Parliament for Huntingdonshire, but takes little - part in its debates, 57; - accepts a prominent share in the labour of Committees, _ib._; - and carries on an extensive correspondence both literary and - political, _ib._; - acquires for his Library a mass of State Papers, 58; - petitions Queen Elizabeth for the establishment of a National and - Public Library for England, _ib._; - inference which is obviously deducible thence in relation to the - charge that Sir R. Cotton was an embezzler of Public Records, - 59. - 1607. Receives an address from the Corporation of London, praying him - to restore certain documents alleged to belong to the City - Chamber, _ib._ - 1608. Proposes to the King certain reforms in the naval - administration of the country, 62; - and obtains Letters Patent, creating a commission of Naval Inquiry, - 63; - takes a leading part in the labours of the Commission, and prepares - its report, 63. - 1609. His _Report on the Crown Revenues_, and his Memorials on the - necessity for a reform in the royal expenditure, 64. - 1611. Proposes to the King the creation of a new hereditary - dignity—the Baronetage of England, 65; - receives that dignity, but is dissatisfied with the mode in which - his idea is worked out, 66. - 1613–15. Nature of his political connection and intercourse with the - Earl of Somerset, 67; - his alleged share in carrying on negotiations with Gondomar, in - relation to the projected match with Spain, 68. - 1615. He receives a visit from Gondomar, in which that ambassador - introduces himself as a lover of antiquities desirous to view the - Cottonian Library, _ib._; - is charged with the communication of State Papers to Gondomar, 69; - returns the Spanish ambassador’s visit, 70, 71; - Gondomar’s account of what passed at their several interviews, - _ib._; - notices of Mr. S. R. Gardiner’s comments on and deductions from - that account, 72 _note_; - is entrusted by Somerset with the temporary care of certain jewels - of the Crown, 75; - and is consulted by him with reference to the drafting of a royal - pardon to be passed under the Great Seal, 77; - writes a Letter to Prince Charles (afterwards King Charles I), in - relation to foreign affairs and in praise of warlike exercises, - 79; - is accused of communicating papers and secrets of State to the - Spanish Ambassador, 79; - proceedings taken against him thereupon, 80 _seqq._ - 1616, June. Is liberated, 83; - and receives a pardon under the Great Seal, _ib._; - his conduct and his literary labours in retirement, 84 _seqq._; - instances of the liberality with which he communicates his - knowledge and his manuscripts, 87, 88. - 1616–23. His share in the labours which resulted in the ‘Petition of - Right,’ 89. - 1624, April. His _Remonstrance of the Treaties of Amity and Marriage - with Austria and Spain_ 91; - his advice on the prosecution of the Spanish Ambassadors, and - Report addressed to Buckingham, 92. - 1625, August. Speech ascribed to him in the Parliament held at - Oxford, 93; - its eulogy on the political conduct of Somerset, 96; - the friendly intercourse between Cotton and Sir Symonds d’Ewes, 97 - _seqq._. - 1626. The scene at Cotton House on occasion of the Coronation of - Charles I, 99; - his conduct in 1626 and subsequent years, as an unofficial adviser - of the Crown, 101 _seqq._; - his opinions on Coinage, and on the management of the Royal Mint, - 103 _seqq._ - 1628, Jan. Appears at the Privy Council Board, and delivers a - Discourse advising the immediate calling of a Parliament, 106; - but has no seat in that Parliament, _ib._ - 1629, November. Is accused of circulating a _Proposition to bridle - Parliaments_, written by Sir Robert Dudley, 107 _seqq._; - History of that production, 110 _seqq._; - Sir Robert’s Library is placed under seal, and remains so until his - death, 107, 117, _seqq._; - intercourse between Ben Jonson and Cotton, 116. - 1630. Decline of Cotton’s health, and his correspondence with Dr. - Frodsham, 118; - his visit to Amphyllis Ferrers, and the plot to obtain money from - him, 120 _seqq._; - the proceedings in the Court of Star Chamber thereon, _ib._ - 1631. Illness, 123; - Conferences with Dr. Oldisworth and with Bishop Williams, 124; - death, 125. - - Cotton, Sir Thomas, Bart., 125, 127, 129, 131, 161 - - Cotton, Thomas, 49, 118 - - Cotton, William, 49, 53 - - _Cottoni Posthuma_, 91 _seqq._ and _foot-note_ - - Courten, Peter, 250 - - Courten, Sir Peter, 254 - - Courten, Sir William, Bart., 251, 256, 260, 267 - - Courten, William (I), 249 - - Courten, William (II), 257 - - Courten, William, Founder of the Sloane Museum: - 1642, March. Birth and Parentage, 259 - 1656. Benefaction to the Tradescant Museum, _ib._ - 1657? Residence at Montpelier, 260 - 1662. Contention with George Carew respecting the administration of - the Estates of Sir William Courten, 262 _seqq._ - 1663, July. Presents a petition to King Charles II, 263; - but subsequently enters into a compromise with Carew, _ib._; - and retires to Fawsley, 264 - 1670. Relinquishes his family name and returns to Montpelier, whence - he makes many Continental tours and extensive Collections both in - Natural History and in Antiquities, 267 _seqq._ - 1684? Returns to England, 268; - establishes his museum in the Middle Temple, 269; - his correspondence with Sloane, _ib._ - 1686. Account of a Visit to Courten’s Museum by John Evelyn, 270 - 1695. Another Account of a like visit by Ralph Thoresby, 271 - 1695–1701. His closing years, 272 - 1702, March. Death and monumental inscription, 273 - - Cracherode, Clayton Mordaunt, Notices of the Life and of the Literary - and Archæological Collections of, 417–421; - his Bequests to the Nation, 421 - - Craven, Keppel, Bequest of, 38 - - Croft, Sir Thomas Elmsley, 536 - - Croizet’s Fossil Mammalia collected in Auvergne, 37 - - Crommelinck, Peter, 249 - - Cromwell, Oliver, 90 - - Cromwell, Sir Oliver, 56 - - Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 370 - - Cuming, Hugh, Notices of the Life, Travels, and Collections in Natural - History of, 692 _seqq._ - - Cureton, William, Early labours in Bodley’s Library of, 619; - becomes Assistant-Keeper of MSS. in the British Museum, and devotes - himself to the Oriental Department, 620; - his labours on the MSS. from the Monasteries of Nitria, 621; - and his account of the discoveries there made, given in the - _Quarterly Review_ of 1846, 622; - publishes a Syriac version of the _Festal Letters_ of St. Athanasius, - 623; - his _Spicilegium Syriacum_, 624; - other publications and labours, literary and parochial, _ib._; - is made a Royal Trustee, _ib._; - publishes the _Martyrs in Palestine_ of Eusebius, 625; - his lamented death, _ib._ - - Cuvier, George, 455 - - Cyrene, Archæological Researches at, 40 - - - D. - - Da Costa, Solomon, 328 _seqq._ - - Daniell, Edward Thomas, Researches in Lycia of, 668 - - Davis, Nathan, Explorations on the site of Ancient Carthage made by, - and their results, 666 _seqq._ - - Davy, Sir Humphrey, 508 - - Debruge Collection, Specimens of Ancient Glass now in the British - Museum formerly in the, 712 - - Dee, John, 58 - - De Foe, Daniel, 208 - - Delessert, Benjamin, 587 - - Dendy, Sergeant, 131 - - Dennis, George, Archæological Explorations in Sicily of, 668 - - Denon, Vivant, 362 - - _Description of the Ancient Marbles in the British Museum_, 522 _seqq._ - - _Description of the Terra Cottas in the British Museum_, 522 - - Des Hayes, M., Tertiary Fossils collected in France by, 38 - - Dethick, William, 52 - - D’Ewes, Adrian, 237 - - D’Ewes, Sir Symonds, Notices of the Researches, the Political Career, - and the Antiquarian Collections of, 82, 83, 91, 97–99, 133, 237 - - D’Hancarville, J. B., 372, 375 - - Didyme, Ancient Sculpture brought from, 664 - - Digby, John, Earl of Bristol, 69 - - Dordogne, Exploration of the Caves of, and its results, 699 - - Doubleday, John, 463 - - Downing, Frances, 134 - - Downing, Sir George, 134, 262 - - Drawings, Collections of, 310, 408, 421 - - Dreux, M. de, Researches on the site of Ancient Carthage carried on by, - 626 - - Dryander, Jonas, 509 - - Dudley, Edmund, 113 - - Dudley, Sir Robert, and the _Proposition to bridle the Impertinency of - Parliaments_, 110 - - Dugdale, Sir William, 435 - - Durand Collection of Vases, 715 - - Dureau de La Malle, Researches on the site of Ancient Carthage of, 626 - - Dutertre, M., 362 - - Dyson, Mr., Zoological Collections made in Venezuela by, 581 - - - E. - - Edmonds, Mr., 59 - - Edward VI, King of England, 64 - - Edwards, Major Arthur, Bequest in augmentation of the Cottonian - Library, made by, 142, 305; - this Bequest was, for a long period after the foundation of the - Museum, the mainstay of its Library, 443 and _foot-note_ - - Edwards, George, 301 - - Egerton, Francis, Earl of Ellesmere, 597 - - Egerton, Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, Notices of the Life, - Character, and Testamentary Benefactions of, 446–455 - - Egerton, Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, K.G., 446 - - Egerton, Lady Katharine, 257 - - Egyptian Antiquities, Early History of the Collection of, 347 _seqq._, - 362 _seqq._ - - Egyptian Glass in the Slade Collection, 708 - - Elgin, Thomas, Earl of. _See_ BRUCE - - Eliot, Sir John, 56, 90, 93, 94, 96, 101 - - Elizabeth, Queen of England, 51, 103, 157 - - Ellesmere, Francis, Earl of. _See_ EGERTON - - Ellis, Sir Henry, Notice of the Literary Labours and Public Services - of, 524–534, 549, 569 - - Elmsley, Thomas, 419 - - Empson, James, 304, 322 - - _Epistles of St. Ignatius_, Syriac Version of, 609 - - Erskine, William, Oriental MSS. of, 42 - - Esquimaux Collections made and bequeathed by Henry Christy, 699 _seqq._ - - Estcourt, T. B. Sotheron, 541 - - Ethnography and British and Mediæval Antiquities, Organization of the - Department of, 688 - - Etruria in Staffordshire, Debt to the Hamilton Vases of the Porcelain - Works established at, 353 - - _Evangeliary of King Ethelstan_, 98 - - Evelyn, John, 196, 201, 270 - - - F. - - Farmer, Richard, 476 - - Fellows, Sir Charles, Early Life and Travels of, 642; - his researches in Lycia and other parts of Asia, and his excavations - of ancient marbles, 644 _seqq._; - his death, 653; - his views of the date and archæological character of the Lycian - Marbles, 654 _seqq._ - - Fenwick, Sir John, 206 - - Fermor, Sir William, 199 - - Ferrers, Amphyllis, 120 - - Fitzalan, Henry, Earl of Arundel, 172 - - Fleetwood, Sir Robert, 254 - - Forbes, Edward, Researches in Lycia, of, 668 - - Forshall, Rev. Josiah, 141, 532 - - Foscarini, Anthony, 179 - - Foscolo, Hugh, 547 - - Fossils, Collections of, 22, 26, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 333 - - Fox, Charles James, 673 _seqq._ - - Fox, Henry, Lord Holland, 310, 423 - - Foxe, John, 325 - - _Fragmenta Scenica Græca_, 441 and _foot-note_ - - France, State Papers and other MSS. relating to the history of, 456, - 572 - - France, Notice of the early and persistent efforts for the acquisition - for public use of the treasures of Learning and Art made by the - Statesmen of, 348 - - Franklin, Benjamin, 672, 673 - - Franks, A. W., Account of some of the choice specimens in the Christy - Collection by, 698 _seqq._; - and of those in the Slade Collection, 708 _seqq._ - - Fraser, Mr., Zoological Collections made in Tunis by, 581 - - Frattochi (the ancient Bovillæ), Discovery of Ancient Sculpture at, 401 - - Frederick, Prince of Wales, 294 - - Fusée d’Aublet, J. B. C., 509 - - Fynes Clinton, Henry, Candidature for the Principal-Librarianship of - the Museum of, 533 - - - G. - - Gaisford, Thomas, 620, 624 - - Galloway, Patrick, 155 - - Gardiner, S. R., Notice of the account of the intercourse between Sir - R. Cotton and the Count of Gondomar given by, 52, 72, 146 - - Gardiner, Mr., Zoological Collections made in Brazil by, 581 - - Garnett, Rev. Richard, 549 - - Garrick, David, 415 - - Gaston, Duke of Orleans, 270 - - Gautier, Abbé, 221 - - George III, King of Great Britain, Gift to the Nation of the Thomason - Library by, 330; - his Political Intercourse with Lord Shelburne, 430 _seqq._; - his Literary tastes and Character, 465 _seqq._; - Formation of his Library, 469; - his Conversations with Johnson and with Beattie, 474 _seqq._; - Pains taken by him in forming a series of the early productions of - the English Press, 477 _seqq._; - Circumstances which attended the Gift of his Library to the Nation, - 482 _seqq._ - - George IV, King of Great Britain, 465, 482 _seqq._ - - German Albums, series of, 457 - - German Glass in the Slade Collection, Early, 713 - - Gibbons, Grinling, 273 - - Gibson, Benjamin, Remarks of, on the Lycian Marbles discovered by Sir - C. Fellows, 649 - - Gilbert, Mr., Zoological Collections made in Australia and New Zealand - by, 581 - - Ginguené, Peter Lewis, Library of, 442, 455 - - Glass, Slade Collection of Ancient, 708 _seqq._ - - Goade, Dr., 193 - - Godolphin, Sydney, Earl of Godolphin, 211 - - Goldsmith, Oliver, 425 - - Gondomar, Diego de Sarmiento, Count of, Intercourse of Sir R. Cotton - with, 68, 80, 81, 95, 102, 146 - - Gorges, Ferdinando, 187 - - Gosse, P. H., Zoological Collections made in Jamaica by, 581 - - Goudot, M., Zoological Collections made in Columbia by, 581 - - Gough, Richard, 529 - - Gould, John, Zoological Collections made in Australia and in New - Zealand by, 381 - - Graves, Captain, 651 - - Gray, John Edward, F.R.S., Public Services of, 577 _seqq._; - his _Illustrations of Indian Zoology_, _ib._; - Catalogues and Synopses of the Natural History Collections originated - by, 578; - Evidence on the comparative state of those Collections in 1836 and in - 1849, 579 _seqq._ - - Greek and Roman Marbles, History of the Collection of, 372 _seqq._ - - Greek Coins, Collection of, 412, 705 - - Greek Manuscripts, Researches in the 17th century for the Collection - of, 199 _seqq._ - - Greek Marbles, Early Researches in the Levant for the acquisition of, - 189 _seqq._ - - Gregg, William, 210 - - Grenville, Thomas, Notices of the Political Life of, 670 _seqq._; - on his retirement from politics he devotes himself to literary and - social pursuits, and collects his Library, 677 _seqq._; - its character, 678, 681; - his Conversation with Sir A. Panizzi as to its destination, 679 - - Grenville, Richard, Marquess of Buckingham, 674 _seqq._ - - Greville, Charles, 356, 459 - - Grey, Lady Jane, 113, 477 - - Grey, Henry, Earl of Kent, 254 - - Grey, Henry, Duke of Kent, 446 - - Grey, Lady Anna Sophia, 446 - - Grey, Thomas, Earl of Stamford, 241 - - Gronovius, John Frederick, Herbarium of, 509 - - Grosley, Peter John, Account of the early condition and regulations of - the British Museum by, 337 - - Grotefend, George Frederick, 641 - - Guenther, Dr., 603 - - Guiscard, Anthony de, 217 - - - H. - - Haeberlein Fossils, 40 - - Halicarnassian Marbles, 663 _seqq._ - - Haller von Hallerstein, Charles, 397 - - Halley, Edmund, 276 - - Hamilton, Gavin, 372, 374, 376, 406 - - Hamilton, Sir William, Notices of the Diplomatic Career, the scientific - researches, the archæological and artistic Collections of, 347–360; - his promotion of the explorations of Lord Elgin, 382; - he brings to England the Barberini or Portland Vase, 459 - - Hamilton, Lady, 356, 358 - - Hamilton, William Richard, 399 - - Hampden, John, 300 - - Hanbury, William, 137, 139 - - Hancarville, J. B. d’, 352 - - Harcourt, Simon, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, 225 - - Hardiman, John, 456 - - Harding Prints and Drawings, 36 - - Hardy, Sir Thomas Duffus, 529 - - Hardwicke, Major-General, Bequest of Zoological Collections by, 580 - - Hargrave, Francis, Library of, 435 - - Harley, Sir Edward, 204, 234 - - Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford, a Trustee of the Cotton Library under - the Act of 1700, 139; - Parentage and Descent of, 203; - his first public appearance on occasion of the Revolution of 1688, - 204; - his Parliamentary and Official Career, 205 _seqq._; - his Secretaryship of State, 207; - he protects De Foe, 208; - the crime of William Gregg and the use made of it by Harley’s - enemies, 210; - his dismissal from the Secretaryship, 211; - he intrigues against the Godolphin Ministry, 212; - becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer, 213; - his friendship with Swift, 214; - Guiscard’s attempt on his life and its results, 217; - he becomes Lord High Treasurer, 219; - his intercourse with the ‘October Club,’ 220; - and with the Jacobite exiles, 221 _seqq._; - his intercourse with George the First, 229; - his impeachment, 230; - and trial, 232; - returns to Parliament, 233; - his Domestic Life, 234; - the History of his Library, 235, 477 _seqq._; - its Acquisition by Parliament, 242; - extracts from the Stuart Papers illustrative of the intercourse of - Lord Oxford with the Jacobites subsequently to the Accession of - George I, 242 _seqq._ - - Harley, Edward, Earl of Oxford, 241, 307 - - Harpagus, Monuments of the Conquest of Xanthus by, 662 - - Harpy Tomb, or Pandarus-Tomb, brought from Xanthus, 649, 654 - - Hartweg, Mr., Zoological Collections made in Mexico by, 581 - - Hawes, Sir Benjamin, 544 - - Hawkins, Edward, 43, 532 - - Hawkins, Ernest, 549 - - Hawkins, Thomas, 34 - - Hawley, Sir Henry, 507 - - Hays’ Egyptian Antiquities, 45 - - Heber, Richard, 483 - - Hebrew Books, Collections of, 42, 329 - - Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I, 186 - - Henry III, King of England, 79 - - Henry V, King of England, 79 - - Henry VII, King of England, 113 - - Henry VIII, King of England, 54 - - Henry, Prince of Wales, Life and Character, 153 _seqq._; - his intercourse with Ralegh and his influence upon Naval Affairs, - 160; - his purchase of Lord Lumley’s Library, 162; - the projects for his marriage, 164; - his death, 166; - union of his Library with that at Whitehall, 167; - subsequent history of the Royal Library until its incorporation with - the British Museum, 168 _seqq._ - - Heralds’ College, Arundelian MSS. at the, 202 - - Herbert, Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 235 - - Herbert, Elizabeth, 134 - - Herbert, Lord Chief Justice, 278 - - Herculaneum, Explorations at, 353 - - Hickes, Sir Michael, 426 - - Hickes, Sir William, 426 - - Hill, Sir John, 322 - - Hoare, Sir Richard Colt, Benefactions of, 459 - - Hoeck, J. van, 240 - - Holles Bentinck, Margaret, Duchess of Portland, 242 - - Holles, Thomas, 347 - - Holwell Carr, William, Bequest of Pictures to the British Museum by, 30 - - Homer, Palimpsest Fragments of, found amongst the MSS. from the Nitrian - Monasteries, 624 - - Honeywood, Elizabeth, 133 - - Hope Collection of Vases, 715 - - Hornemann, Frederick, 504 - - Horsley, Samuel, Bishop of St. Asaph, 506 - - Hosking, William, 586 - - Howard, Henry, Earl of Northampton, 64, 66, 81, 113 - - Howard, Margaret, 132 - - Howard, Lady Philippa, 370 - - Howard, Philip, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, 163, 174 - - Howard, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk, Correspondence - with Sir R. Cotton of, 87; - his early life and his career at Court, 174 _seqq._; - beginnings of his extensive Collections in literature, art, and - archæology, 177; - his quarrel with Lord Spencer, _ib._; - the adventure of his wife at Venice and its consequences, 179; - his imprisonment by Charles I, 183 _seqq._; - his efforts in Colonization, 186; - his withdrawal from England, and death, 188; - character and history of the Arundelian Collections, 189 _seqq._ - - Howard, Henry, Duke of Norfolk, 197, 199 - - Howell, James, 52, 94, 101 - - Hubert, Robert, 259 - - Hugessen, Dorothea, 503 - - Hugessen, William Weston, 503 - - Hull, John Fowler, 460 - - Humboldt, William von, 455, 501 - - Huntington, Robert, Bishop of Raphoe, 609 - - Hutchinson, General Lord, 362, 367 - - Hutton, William, 340 - - Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 265 - - Hyde, Lawrence, Earl of Rochester, 572 - - - I. - - Icelandic Books, 497 - - Ignatius, St., Nitrian MSS. of the Epistles of, 609 _seqq._ - - Inglis, Sir Robert Harry, 542 - - Institute of Egypt, 362 _seqq._ - - Institute of France, 505 - - Irish Manuscripts, Collections of, 456, 457 - - Italian Topography, Collection of, 460 - - - J. - - Jackson, Cyril, 422 - - Jacquier, M., 509 - - James I, King of England, &c., 49, 65, 69, 73, 85, 86, 87, 103, 111, - 131, 154 - - James Stuart, Prince of Wales (called ‘The Old Pretender’), 221 - _seqq._, 244, 245 - - James, Richard, 114 _seqq._ - - Japanese Books, 718 _seqq._ - - Jenkins, Thomas, 372, 376, 377 - - Jenkinson, Robert Banks, Earl of Liverpool, 483 - - Johnson, Samuel, 242, 469, 470, 471, 473, 475 - - Jolles, Sir John, 59 - - Jones, John Winter, 568, 575, 600 - - Jones, Inigo, 163 - - Jonson, Benjamin, 116 - - _Journal Britannique_, 343 - - Joursanvault, Baron de, 536 _seqq._ - - Junius, Francis, 199 - - Jussieu, Bernard de, 289 - - - K. - - Kaye, John, Bishop of Lincoln, 441 - - Kennet, White, Bishop of Peterborough, 427 - - Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, Discoveries at, 629 _seqq._ - - King, Dr. William, 286 - - Knatchbull, Sir Edward, 507 - - Knight, Gowin, 321, 342 - - Knight, Richard Payne, Notices of the Public and Literary Life, the - Collections, the Writings, and the Benefactions of, 401–412, 460; - his opinions and his Parliamentary Evidence on the Elgin Marbles, - 389, 411 _seqq._ - - Knightley, Sir Richard, 254 - - Kokscharow Minerals, 42 - - König, Charles, 532, 575 - - - L. - - La Billardière, M. de, Botanical and other Collections of, 500 - - Lambarde, William, 52 - - Lambe, Dr., 87 - - Lansdowne Manuscripts, 526 _seqq._ - - Lansdowne, William, Marquess of. _See_ PETTY-FITZMAURICE - - Lartet, M., 699 _seqq._ - - La Turbie Gems, 691 - - Laud, Archbishop, 151 - - Laurenzano Collection, Marbles formerly in the, 373 _seqq._ - - La Vallière, Duke of, 472 - - Layard, Austen Henry, Notices of the Travels, the Archæological - Researches and Collections of, 627 _seqq._ - - Leach, Dr., 573 - - Leheup, Peter, and his dealings with the Foundation-Lottery of the - British Museum, 309, 340 - - Lemery, Nicholas, 275 - - Le Neve, Peter, 435 - - Lennox, Esme, Duke of. _See_ STUART - - Leochares, Sculptures of, 665 - - Lerma, Duke of, 71 - - Lethieullier, Pitt, 347 - - Lethieullier, Smart, 347 - - Lethieullier, William, 347 - - Levant Manuscripts, Early Researches for the Acquisition of, 609 - _seqq._ - - Lever, Sir Ashton, 339 - - Ley, James, Earl of Marlborough, 53 - - Leyden, Natural History Museum of, 579 - - Limyra, Tombs of, 658 - - Linart, M., Visit to the Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert of, 610 - - Lincolnshire, Collections for, 435 - - Lind, Dr., 495 - - Linkh, James, 397 - - Linnæus, Charles, 509 - - Lisle, William, 87 - - Lloyd, William, Bishop of Lichfield, 236 - - Locke, John, 267 - - Lomenie, Henry de, Count of Brienne, Manuscripts of, 235 - - Long, Charles, Lord Farnborough, 456, 483 - - Loureiro, John de, Herbarium of, 509 - - Lucar, Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople, 167 - - Lumley, John, Lord Lumley, Library of, 162 - - Lusieri, John Baptist, 382 - - Lycian Marbles, 645 _seqq._ - - Lyttelton, Sir Edward, 254 - - Lyttelton, Sir Thomas, 206 - - - M. - - Macclesfield, Earl of. _See_ PARKER - - Madden, Sir Frederick, 122, 141, 523 - - Magna Græcia, Antiquities from, 351 _seqq._ - - Major, Richard Henry, 471 - - Manchester, Henry, Earl of. _See_ MONTAGU - - Manuscript Collections, 242, 303, 304, 426, 455, 460, 461, 485, 523, - 616–624, 707 - - Map and Chart Collections, 471 - - Marsden’s Collections of Oriental Coins, 35 - - Maty, Matthew, 322, 342 - - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Sculptures of the, 664 _seqq._ - - Mausoleum and Cinerary Urns, 522 - - Maynwaring, Roger, 87 - - Menou, General, and the Egyptian Antiquities collected by the French - Explorers, 363 - - Menzies, Archibald, 334 - - Merret, Christopher, 290 - - Mewtas, Thomas, 117 - - Millard, John, 541 - - Mineralogical Collections, 459, 510, 521 - - _Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on the British Museum_ of - 1835–36, 555, 558; - —_before the Royal Commissioners of 1848–50_, 566 - - Moll, Baron von, 413 - - Mommsen, Tycho, MSS. of, 457 - - Monck Mason, Henry, MSS. of, 457 - - Monk, Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, 270 - - Montagu, Colonel George, Collections in Zoology of, and his public - benefaction, 459, 576, 692 - - Montagu, John, Earl of Sandwich, 489 - - Montagu, Ralph, Duke of Montagu, 319 - - Montagu House and its history, 319, 324 - - Monticelli’s Minerals, 521 - - Morghens, Raphael, Prints of, 36 - - Moritz, Charles, 338 - - Morrison, Robert, Chinese Library of, 37 - - Morton, Dr. Charles, 322, 344, 519 - - Mouncey, John, 250 - - _Museum Tradescantianum_, 259 - - Musgrave, Sir William, Benefactions of, 416 - - Myra, Casts of Rock-Tombs at, 660 - - - N. - - Napier of Magdala, Lord, Efforts for the collection of Abyssinian MSS. - and Antiquities during the late Campaign made by, 703 _seqq._ - - Napoleon and the Institute of Cairo, 366; - his plans for the acquisition of the Marbles of the Parthenon, 384 - - Natural History Collections, Propositions which have been made for the - removal of the, 513, 594 _seqq._, 744 _seqq._ - - _Natural History of Jamaica_, 289 _seqq._ - - Nelson, Horatio, Lord Nelson, 356, 359, 361 - - Neville, Sir Henry, 55 - - Newton, Adam, 157 - - Newton, Charles Thomas, Researches for Antiquities at Halicarnassus, - Branchidæ, Cnidus, &c., of, 663 _seqq._; - his labours in respect to the Woodhouse Collection, 704 - - Newton, Sir Isaac, 499 - - Nice, Daniel, Museum of, 195 - - Nicolas, Sir Harris, 535, 541 - - Nimeguen, Discovery of Ancient Bronzes near, 409 - - Nimroud, Excavations of Mr. Layard and his Successors at, 629 _seqq._ - - Nitrian Monasteries, Account of the successive researches for MSS. in - the Libraries of the, 609 _seqq._ - - Norgate, Edward, 195 - - Northampton, Henry, Earl of. _See_ HOWARD - - - O. - - Oldisworth, William, 124 - - Onslow, Arthur, 306 - - Orsini, Flavio, MSS. of, 457 - - Osborne, Sir John, 240 - - Oswald, James, 673 - - Ouseley, Sir Gore, 461, 509 - - Overbury, Sir Thomas, 67, 81, 82, 83 - - Owen, Admiral Sir Edward, 651 - - Owen, Richard, on the growth and progress of the Zoological - Collections, 602, 694; - on the state, classification, and requirements of the Collection of - Minerals, 606. - - - P. - - Pacho, Mr., negotiates the transfer from the Monastery of St. Mary - Deipara of a residuary Collection of Syrian MSS. previously - withheld, 618 - - Paiafa, Xanthian tomb of, 652, 658 - - Palmer, Sir Geoffrey, 263 - - Pandarus, Lycian Marbles illustrative of the Legend of, 654 - - Panizzi, Sir Antonio, 485, 523, 543, 546, 552, 558, 559, 560, 563, 567, - 570, 704; - his influence on the bequest of the Grenville Library, 678 _seqq._; - his designs and labours for the construction of the New Reading-Room, - 586 _seqq._; - his account of the choice books in the Grenville Collection, 681 - _seqq._; - testimony borne in Parliament in 1866 to his public services, 583 - - Papin, Dionysius, 276 - - Paramythia (in Epirus), Discovery of ancient Bronzes at, 407 - - Paris and London Museums compared, 579, 581 - - Parker, George, Earl of Macclesfield, 299, 304 - - Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, 58 - - Parry, John Humffreys, 568 - - Paynell, Robert, 241 - - Pelham, Henry, 307, 309 - - Pell, John, 427 - - Pennant, Thomas, 496 - - Percy, Algernon, Duke of Northumberland, 610 - - Perez, Anthony, 457 - - Persepolitan Marbles, 461 - - Persian MSS., 456, 459 - - Peters, Hugh, 168 - - Petiver, James, 290 - - Pett, Phineas, 161 - - Petty, William, 191, 193 - - Petty-Fitzmaurice, William, Marquess of Lansdowne, 426 _seqq._, 672 - - Petyt, William, 435 - - Phigaleia, Marbles of, 396 _seqq._ - - Phœnician Glass, 708 - - Piaggi, Anthony, 358 - - Pierre-Luisit (Pays-de-Bugey), Discovery of ancient Sculpture at, 407 - - Pindar, Sir Paul, 260, 267 - - Pinelli Library, 438 - - Pirckheimer Library, 195 - - Pitton de Tournefort, Joseph, 267 - - Planta, Andrew, 517 - - Planta, Joseph, Notices of the Life, Literary Works, and Public - Services of, 517 _seqq._ - - Portland Vase, History of the, 461 _seqq._ - - Pourtalès Collection of Antiquities, 669 - - _Proposition to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments_, 100 - - - R. - - Ralegh, Sir Walter, 87, 113, 147, 160, 161, 187 - - Ratcliffe, John, 476 - - Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 641 - - Ray, John, 275, 282 - - Reid, George William, on Prints in the Slade Collection, 716 - - Rich, Claudius James, 459, 616 - - Robartes, John, Earl of Radnor, 241 - - Roberts, Edward, 25 - - Roe, Sir Thomas, Researches in the Levant of, 167, 192 _seqq._ - - Rosetta Inscription, 365 _seqq._ - - Royal Academy of Arts, 471 - - Royal Society, 284 _seqq._, 498 _seqq._ - - Russell, John, Duke of Bedford, 524 - - Rycaut, Sir Paul, 427 - - Rye, William Brenchley, 719 - - Rymer, Thomas, 328 - - - S. - - Saint-John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, 212 _seqq._, 309 - - Saint-John, Oliver, 110, 114 - - Salisbury, Earl of. _See_ CECIL - - Salway, Richard, 268 - - Sancroft, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, 235 - - Saunders, Dr. Sedgwick, on certain MSS. in the Cotton Collection, 151 - - Saunders, William, 703 _seqq._ - - Scharf, George, 645 - - Scopas, Sculptures of, 665 - - Segar, Sir William, 435 - - Seguier, Peter, 235, 240 - - Selden, John, 97, 130, 131, 419 - - Sennacherib, Sculptural Monuments of, 633, 640 _seqq._ - - Serra, Marquess (of Genoa), 665 - - Seymour, Edward, Duke of Somerset, 64, 211 - - Sheepshanks, John, 35 - - Sicily, Archæological Researches in, 668 - - Siebold, Philip Francis von, Travels and Researches in Japan of, 717 - _seqq._; - his Japanese Libraries, 718 - - Slade, Felix, Collections and Bequests of, 707 _seqq._ - - Sloane, Sir Hans: - 1660–1677–1683. Parentage, and early education in Ireland, 274 - 1678. Studies Chemistry, Botany, and Medicine in London, 275 - 1683. Goes to France to prosecute his professional and scientific - education, _ib._ - 1684. Commences his medical career in London, 276 - 1687. Proceeds to the West Indies as Physician to the - Governor-General and to the Fleet, and during that Voyage begins - the formation of his Museum, 278 _seqq._ - 1689. Returns to England with extensive Collections, 281 - 1693. Becomes Secretary of the Royal Society, 282 - 1696. Publishes his first scientific work, _ib._ - 1690 to 1727. Resumes the publication of the suspended _Philosophical - Transactions_, 284; - Discussions between Sloane and Woodward, 286; - Enumeration of the honours and distinctions conferred upon him, 287 - 1708. Publishes the first volume of the _Natural History of Jamaica_, - 288 - 1710–18. Incorporation of the Collections of Plukenet, Petiver, and - others, with Sloane’s Museum, 290; - his extensive correspondence and charities, 291 - 1741. Retires to his Manor House at Chelsea, 293 - 1748. Visit to the Sloane Museum of the Prince and Princess of Wales, - 294 - 1748–9. Last Will and Codicils, 296 _seqq._; - declining years and death, 300; - Comparative Synoptical Table of his Museum in 1725 and in 1753, - 303; - its acquisition by Parliament and its public establishment, in - 1753, 304 _seqq._ - - Smirke, Sir Robert, 584 _seqq._ - - Smirke, Sydney, 587 _seqq._, 596 - - Smith and Porcher, Explorations at Cyrene of Messrs., 40 - - Smith, Joseph, 469 - - Smith, Robert, 59 - - Smith, Dr. Thomas, 142 - - Smith, Sir Thomas, 235 - - Solander, Daniel Charles, 491 - - Soltikoff Collection, 712 - - Somers, John, Lord Somers, 139 - - Somerset, Earl of. _See_ CARR - - Somerville, Lord, 480 - - Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles N. S., Researches in the Nitrian - Monasteries of, 610 - - Spanish MSS., 456 - - Spanish Poetry and Drama, Chorley Collection of, 695 - - Spano (Canon), of Cagliari, 626 - - Spencer, Charles, Earl of Sunderland, 239 - - _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, 735 _seqq._, 410 - - Spelman, Sir Henry, 124 - - Spratt, T. A. B., Researches in Lycia of, 668 - - Stephen, James Francis, 38 - - Strozzi Gems, 691 - - Stuart, Esme, Duke of Lennox, 71, 182 - - Suffolk, Thomas, Earl of. _See_ HOWARD - - Swift, Jonathan, 214 _seqq._ - - - T. - - Tattam, Henry, Researches in the Nitrian Monasteries of, 613 - - Theyer, Charles and John, 168 - - Thomason, George, 331 - - Thoresby, John, Visit to Courten’s Museum of, 270 - - Tischendorf’s Visit to the Nitrian Monasteries, 618 - - Towneley, Charles, Birth and Ancestry of, 369; - his Continental Education and Travels, 370; - History of his Collection of Ancient Sculpture, 372 _seqq._; - his return to Italy and further enlargement of his Gallery, 377 - _seqq._; - its testamentary disposal, and subsequent acquisition by Parliament, - 379 - - Tradescant’s Museum, 259 - - Tyrwhitt, Thomas, Benefactions of, 417 - - - U. - - Utica, Archæological Researches at, 666 _seqq._ - - - V. - - Vase Collections, Notices of the growth and extent of the, 351, 386 - _seqq._ - - Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham, 68, 73, 84, 85, 86, 91, 99, 100, - 116 - - Vincent, Augustine, 87 - - Vossius, Gerard John, 235 - - - W. - - Wake, Sir Isaac, 195 - - Walker, Sir Edward, 176 - - Walpole, Horace, Earl of Orford, 309, 310, 322, 405, 415, 426, 429 - - Wanley, Humphrey, 143, 235, 236, 238, 240, 241, 427 - - Warburton, John, 240, 435 - - Warburton, William, Bishop of Gloucester, 457 - - Ward, Dr. John, 336, 347, 519 - - Watts, Thomas, Notice of the Literary Life and Public Services of, 554 - _seqq._; - his remarks on the new buildings of the Museum, 585 _seqq._; - his account of the specimens of Bookbinding in the Slade Collection, - 716; - and of the Japanese Library of P. F. von Siebold, 719 - - Watson-Wentworth, Charles, Marquis of Rockingham, 429 - - Webb, Philip Carteret, 426 - - Wedgwood, Josiah, 358 - - Wendeborn, Frederick, 338, 485 - - Wentworth, Thomas, Earl of Strafford, 111, 186 - - Wesenham Family, 49 - - West, James, 427, 476 - - Whitaker, Lawrence, 117 - - Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 168 - - Wilbraham, Roger, 409 - - Williams, John, Archbishop of York, 87, 124 - - Witt, George, 696 - - Wood, Antiquarian explorations at Ephesus of Mr. Consul, 669 - - Woodhouse, James, Museum of Antiquities formed at Corfu by, 702; - its bequest to the Public, and the circumstances attendant thereon, - 703 _seqq._ - - Woodward, Dr. John, 259, 286 - - Wotton, Sir Henry, 179, 181 - - - X. - - Xanthus and its sculptured monuments, Discovery by Sir C. Fellows of, - 645 _seqq._ - - - Y. - - Yelverton, Sir Henry, 178 - - Young, Arthur, 480 - - Young, Patrick, 167 - - Young, Thomas, 367 - - - PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - “Or must I, as a wit, with learned air - Like Doctor Dibdin, to Tom Payne’s repair, - Meet Cyril Jackson and mild Cracherode there? - ‘Hold!’ cries Tom Payne, ‘that margin let me measure, - And rate the separate value of the treasure’ - Eager they gaze. ‘Well, Sirs, the feat is done. - Cracherode’s _Poetæ Principes_ have won!’” - Mathias, _Pursuits of Literature_. - -Footnote 2: - - Loakes had been purchased from the last owner of the Archdall family - by Henry, Earl of Shelburne. Earl William (first Marquess of - Lansdowne) eventually sold it to the ancestor of the present Lord - Carrington. - -Footnote 3: - - See, hereafter, in life of T. Grenville, Book III, c. 2. - -Footnote 4: - - This famous speech was delivered on the 5th of March, 1778. ‘_Then_,’ - said Lord Shelburne, after denouncing measures which would sever the - Colonies from the Kingdom, ‘the sun of Great Britain is set. We shall - be no more a powerful or even a respectable people.’—_Parliamentary - Debates_, vol. xix, col. 850. - -Footnote 5: - - More than one of Burney’s scholars was accustomed to speak feelingly - on the topic of ancient school ‘discipline’ when any passing incident - led the talk in that direction in after life. - -Footnote 6: - - This small fact in classical bibliography is remarkable enough to call - for some particular exemplifications, beyond those given in the text, - on a former page. Of the three greatest Greek dramatists, Burney had - 315 editions against 75 in the Library of the British Museum. Of Homer - he had 87 against 45; of Aristophanes, 74 against 23; of Demosthenes, - 50 against 18; and of the _Anthologia_, 30 against 19. - -Footnote 7: - - It was also from the Edwards fund that the whole costs of the Oriental - MSS. of Halhed, and of the Minerals of Hatchett, together with those - of several other early and important acquisitions, were defrayed. That - fund, in truth, was the mainstay of the Museum during the years of - parliamentary parsimony. - -Footnote 8: - - Of these four thousand pounds, two thousand three hundred and - forty-five pounds seem to have been expended in Printed Books; the - remainder, probably, in Manuscripts. - -Footnote 9: - - To give but one example: Samuel Burder—the author of the excellent - work, so illustrative of Biblical literature, entitled _Oriental - Customs_—states, in his MS. correspondence now before me, that the - _only_ effective reward given to him, in the course of his long - labours, was given by Lord Bridgewater. The book above mentioned was - ‘successful,’ ‘but,’ he says, ‘the booksellers, as usual, reaped the - harvest,’ not the author. It is—shall I say?—an amusing comment on - this latter clause, to find that in one of his letters to Lord - Bridgewater, Burder states that the person who took the most kindly - notice of his literary labours, next after Lord Bridgewater himself, - was—the Emperor of Russia (Alexander I). - -Footnote 10: - - These form the Egerton MSS. 215 to 262 inclusive. - -Footnote 11: - - Horace Walpole, at this sale, purchased the fine MS., with drawings by - Julio Clovio, which was long an ornament of the villa at Strawberry - Hill, and also a choice cameo of Jupiter Serapis, for which he gave a - hundred and seventy-three pounds. He preferred, he said, either of - them to the vase. So, at least, he fancied when he found it - unattainable. ‘I am glad,’ he wrote to Conway (18 June, 1786), ‘that - Sir Joshua saw no more excellence in the _Jupiter_ than in the Clovio, - or the Duke, I suppose, would have purchased it as he did the Vase—for - £1000. I told Sir William and the late Duchess—when I never thought - that it would be mine—that I would rather have the head than the - vase.’ - -Footnote 12: - - Lord Harcourt resigned his office of Governor to the Prince at the - beginning of December, 1752. Scott, then the Prince’s tutor, was - recommended to his office by Bolingbroke. The Bishop of Peterborough’s - appointment as Preceptor was made in January, 1753. Among the books - complained of, the _Histoire de la Grande Bretagne_ of Father Orléans, - and the _Introduction à la vie du Roi Henri IV_ of another Jesuit, - Father Péréfixe, are said to have been included. Another and more - famous book, which was much in Prince George’s hands in his early - years, was also obnoxious to the Whigs—Bolingbroke’s _Idea of a - Patriot King_. But it would scarcely have been prudent in the - malcontents to have put a work which (whatever its faults) ranks, to - some extent, among our English classics, in the same expurgatory, or - prohibitory, index with the books of Orléans and of Péréfixe. If - George the Third got some harm out of Lord Bolingbroke’s book, he - probably obtained also some good. Pure Whiggism—pure but not - simple—has never been noted for any discriminating tolerance of - spirit. And, in 1752, it was furious at the prospect that the - continuance of its long domination was imperilled. - -Footnote 13: - - The mansion for which the Trustees of the British Museum had been - asked to give £30,000 was sold, five years afterwards, to the King for - £20,000. It was purchased for the Queen as a jointure-house in lieu of - her proper mansion, Somerset House, then devoted to public purposes. - All the royal princes and princesses were born in Buckingham House, - except George IV, and one, perhaps, of the younger children. - -Footnote 14: - - The story, I observe, has been endorsed in Mr. Blades’ excellent _Life - of Caxton_ (see part 2, p. 268), but it is undoubtedly a distortion or - exaggeration of some chance occurrence. No such series could have been - formed otherwise than, in the main, by systematic research. - -Footnote 15: - - _Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, Feb. 1820. The article is reprinted in - _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, Edition of 1841, vol. ii, p. 184. - -Footnote 16: - - ‘Ralph Robinson’ is the name signed to the communications to the - _Annals of Agriculture_, but they are dated from Windsor. (See - _Annals_, vol. vii, 1787.) - -Footnote 17: - - Curiously enough, three volumes of the Georgian MSS. had belonged to - Sir Hans Sloane, and had, in some unexplained way, come to be - separated from the bulk of his Collection. They now rejoined their old - companions in Great Russell Street. - -Footnote 18: - - See, before, p. 339. - -Footnote 19: - - John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1729–1792). - -Footnote 20: - - Solander, who was afterwards to be so intimately connected with the - Banksian Collections, had been for some years in this country when he - was selected by Banks to be one of his companions in the voyage of - _The Endeavour_. He was born in Sweden, in the year 1736. He came to - England in July, 1760. He succeeded Dr. Maty, as Under-Librarian of - the British Museum, in 1773, when Maty was made Principal-Librarian. - At that date he had already served the Trustees for many years as one - of their Assistant-Librarians. - -Footnote 21: - - See Book I, c. 6. - -Footnote 22: - - Bishop Horsley certainly forgot the ever-memorable words which he had - so often read—Matt. v, 44—when he, a prelate, signed himself - ‘Misogallus.’ - -Footnote 23: - - Morton died at eighty-three; Planta, at eighty-four; Ellis, at - ninety-two. Morton, as we have seen, was known to Sir Hans Sloane. - Sloane was already a noted man in the days of Charles the Second; and - he also lived to be ninety-two. The joint lives of Sloane, Morton, and - Ellis extended over nearly two hundred and ten years. - -Footnote 24: - - I do not make this statement without ample warrant. When preparing, - under Lord Romilly’s direction, my humble contribution of the lost - _Liber de Hyda_ to the series of _Chronicles and Memorials_, I had - competent occasion to test the _Monasticon_ of 1813–1824, and found it - to teem with errors and oversights in that part of it which I had then - to do with. I had had other occasions to study it somewhat closely - twenty years before, and with like result. At the interval of twenty - years, one could hardly stumble twice upon exceptionally ill-edited - portions of such a book. For the new ‘Dugdale,’ thus truthfully - characterised, subscribers paid a hundred and thirty pounds for small - paper, two hundred and sixty pounds for large paper, copies; and the - number of subscribers was considerable. So much for the ‘We must - retrench’ of the publishers. - -Footnote 25: - - After stating that Mr. Ellis had made needless proclamation at Paris - of the object of his journey, Sir Harris Nicolas proceeds thus:—‘Not - contented with this injudicious and useless development of the objects - in view, the learned gentleman himself pompously announced wherever he - went that he was the “Chief Librarian of the British Museum,” sent - specially to treat for these manuscripts, thus making a public affair - of what should have been kept private. The effect of this folly may - easily be imagined. Long before the “Chief Librarian” reached Pomard, - the French newspapers expressed their indignation that historical - muniments should be sold to the British Government, inferring that - England must be anxious to possess the records in question, when the - purchase of them was made an official business. - - ‘The effect of all this parade upon the owner of the manuscripts was a - natural one; he fancied he had erred in his estimate of their value, - and that, as they seemed to be objects of national importance to - another Government, he resolved to make that Government pay at a much - higher rate, for what they manifested such extraordinary anxiety to - obtain, than a private individual. On the “Chief Librarian’s” arrival - at Pomard, he discovered that the Baron could speak little English; - and the Baron, as he has since asserted, discovered that the “Chief - Librarian” could speak less French; hence it was with great difficulty - that the latter could understand that the Baron had become so - enlightened about his treasures as to expect, not merely double the - price he originally asked for them, but as our Government had - interfered on the subject, he wished it to advance one step further, - by inducing his Most Christian Majesty to raise his Barony into a - Comté. Such terms were out of the question; and after spending two or - three hours only in examining the Collection, but which required at - least as many weeks, the “Chief Librarian” returned to England _re - infecta_, and made his report to the Trustees, who refused to purchase - the Collection, but offered to buy a few documents, which the owner, - of course, declined. Thus, highly valuable documents are lost to the - Museum and to the country, in consequence, solely and entirely, of the - absurd measures adopted for their acquisition.’—NICOLAS, _Observations - on the State of Historical Literature in England_, pp. 78–80. My long - and observant acquaintance with Sir H. Nicolas justifies me in adding - to this extract—in which there are such obvious exaggerations of - statement—that I am convinced he was writing from insufficient and - inaccurate information. He was incapable of wilful misstatement. - -Footnote 26: - - I was myself present at an interview (in Lambeth), when the most - urgent influence was used with Mr. Hawes to induce him to attack Mr. - Panizzi’s original appointment as an ‘Assistant-Librarian’; and I - heard him express a strong approval of it, on the ground of the - obvious qualifications and abilities of the individual officer—though - himself sharing the opinion that in such appointments Englishmen - should have the preference. - -Footnote 27: - - It was in the old rooms in the Court-yard of Montagu House that - Charles Lamb enjoyed the last, I think, of his ‘dinings-out.’ A few - days after his final visit (November, 1834) the hand of Death was - already upon him. Cary, before writing the well-known epitaph, wrote - some other graceful and touching lines on his old friend. They were - occasioned by finding, in a volume lent to Lamb by Cary, Lamb’s - bookmark, against a page which told of the death of Sydney. They begin - thus:— - - ‘So should it be, my gentle friend, - Thy leaf last closed at Sydney’s end; - Thou too, like Sydney, wouldst have given - The water, thirsting, and near Heaven.’ - -Footnote 28: - - It is necessary that I should state, with precision, the sources of - the information conveyed in the text. I rely, chiefly, on three - several sources, one of which is publicly accessible. My main - knowledge of the matter rests (first) upon the _Minutes of Evidence_ - taken by Lord Ellesmere’s Commission of 1848–1850; (secondly) upon - conversations with the late Mr. Edward Hawkins, held in July and - August, 1837, not long after the appearance of Mr. Cary’s letter in - _The Times_; (thirdly) upon a conversation, on the same subject, with - which I was honoured by Sir Henry Ellis in 1839. - -Footnote 29: - - I believe that his earliest contribution consisted of some articles - entitled ‘Notes of a Reader,’ published in 1830, in a periodical (long - since defunct) called _The Spirit of Literature_. These were written - and printed long before Mr. Watts became a correspondent of the - _Mechanics’ Magazine_, as mentioned in the text. - -Footnote 30: - - In _Minutes of Evidence_ (page 596) printed erroneously - ‘_reasonable_.’ To the brief extract, for which alone I can here - afford space, were appended, in the original Report, many pertinent - amplifications and illustrations. Some of these are given in the - _Minutes of Evidence_ above referred to. - -Footnote 31: - - The ‘successor’ referred to is Mr. Winter Jones, then Keeper of - Printed Books, now Principal-Librarian of the British Museum. - -Footnote 32: - - Birch, _Ancient Pottery_, vol. i, pp. 209, 210. - -Footnote 33: - - If the question of mere hints and analogies in construction were to be - followed out to its issues, the result, I feel assured, would in no - degree tend to strengthen the contention of Mr. Hosking’s pamphlet. - Something like a first germ of the mere ground-plan of the new - Reading-Room may, perhaps, be found in M. Benjamin Delessert’s _Projet - d’une Bibliothèque circulaire_, printed, at Paris, as far back as the - year 1835, when the question of reconstructing the then ‘Royal,’ now - ‘Imperial Library,’ was under discussion in the French Chambers. ‘I - propose,’ says Delessert, ‘to place the officers and the readers in - the centre of a vast rotunda, whence branch off eight principal - galleries, the walls of which form diverging radii ... and _have - book-cases on both sides_,’ &c. His plan may be thus shown, in small. - The differences, it will be seen, between this sketch and Mr. - Panizzi’s sketch of 1854, are greater than are the resemblances. - -[Illustration] - -Footnote 34: - - Namely, two millions five hundred and twenty-seven thousand two - hundred and sixteen visits, which _included_ seventy-eight thousand - two hundred and eleven visits to the Reading-Room for study. - -Footnote 35: - - In—unless a memory more than thirty years old deceive me—that noble - masterpiece of English prose, the ‘_Citation of Shakespeare for - Deer-stealing_’ (1835). - -Footnote 36: - - The Oriental Translation Fund. - -Footnote 37: - - Comp. ‘Asshur builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and - _Calah_.’—_Gen._ x, 11. Mr. Layard quotes this passage, in _Nineveh - and its Remains_ (vol. i, p. 4, edit. 1849), and seems to identify - ‘Kalah Sherghat’ as retaining its ancient name. - -Footnote 38: - - Nor was there any petty or unworthy jealousy in the distinguished - French explorer. ‘During the entire period of his excavations,’ writes - Mr. Layard, ‘M. Botta regularly sent me, not only his [own] - descriptions, but copies of the inscriptions, without exacting any - promise as to the use I might make of them. That there are few who - would have acted thus liberally, those who have been engaged in a - search after Antiquities in the East will not be inclined to - deny.’—_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i, p. 14. - -Footnote 39: - - It is a slight blemish in Mr. Layard’s otherwise admirable books that - they are loose in the handling of dates. It is sometimes necessary to - turn over hundreds of pages in order to be sure of the year in which a - particular excavation was made, or in which an interesting incident - occurred. Sometimes, again, there is an actual conflict of dates, _e. - g._ _Discoveries in the Ruins_, &c. (1853), p. 3, ‘After my departure - from Mósul in 1847,’ and again, p. 66, ‘On my return to Europe in - 1847;’ but at p. 162, we read: ‘Having been carefully covered up with - earth, previous to my departure in 1848, they [the lions] had been - preserved,’ &c. I mention this simply because it is possible that - error may thus, once or twice, have crept into the marginal dates - given above, though pains has been taken about these. - -Footnote 40: - - The Berodach-Baladan of 2 Kings, xx, 12, who ‘sent letters and a - present unto Hezekiah, when he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.’ - -Footnote 41: - - And in which not a few readers will be sure to feel all the more - interest, because of its sacred associations, when they call to mind - those first-century travels of certain famous travellers who, ‘after - they had passed throughout Pisidia, came to Pamphylia, and ... when - they had gone through Phrygia, ... and were come to Mysia, assayed to - go into Bythinia, but the Spirit suffered them not;’—having work for - them to do in another quarter. - -Footnote 42: - - I shall not, I trust, be suspected of a want of gratitude for the - eminent and most praiseworthy efforts of Mr. Davis—one of the many - Americans who have returned, with liberal profuseness, the reciprocal - obligations which _all_ Americans owe to Britain (for their ancestry, - and also for the noble interchange of benefits between parent and - offspring, prior to 1776; if for nought else), if I venture to remark - that the above-written passage in the text has been inserted somewhat - hesitatingly, as far as it concerns the _date_ of the Carthaginian - explorations. No index; no summary; no marginal dates; conflicting and - obscure dates, when any dates appear anywhere; no introduction, which - introduces anything; scarcely any divarication of personal knowledge - and experiences, from borrowed knowledge and experiences; such are - some of the difficulties which await the student of _Carthage and her - Remains_. Yet the book is full of deep interest; its author is, none - the less, a benefactor to Britain, and to the world. - -Footnote 43: - - These were given to the Museum by Lord Russell, as Secretary of State - for Foreign Affairs. Lord Russell was one of the earliest of the - Foreign Secretaries who began a new epoch, in this department of - public duty, by setting new official precedents of regard and - forethought for the augmentation of the national collections. - -Footnote 44: - - Meaning Lord Shelburne. See, heretofore, pp. 431–433. - -Footnote 45: - - ‘_A Handy-Book of the British Museum, for Every-day Readers._’ 1870 - (Cassell and Co.). - -Footnote 46: - - See the notice, hereafter, of the Christy Museum. - -Footnote 47: - - This, I think, has been clearly shown by the correspondence laid - before Parliament. The reader is referred to the papers of the session - of 1867, entitled _Correspondence as to the Woodhouse Collection of - Antiquities_, printed by order of Lord Derby, as Foreign Secretary. - -Footnote 48: - - In the accompanying Plan (of the Parliamentary Report, 1860), - pilasters of unnecessary size have been inadvertently introduced into - this gallery, reducing both the extent of the wall-cases, and the - breadth of the gangway, in a manner never intended. - -Footnote 49: - - Printed by oversight ‘general’ in the _Minutes of Evidence_. - -Footnote 50: - - Printed ‘object’ in _Minutes of Evidence_, as above. - -Footnote 51: - - It is to this Report of 1862 that the accompanying lithographic - fac-similes of the original illustrative plans belong. Two of them - show the then existing arrangements of the principal floors; the other - two show the then proposed alterations and re-arrangements. - -Footnote 52: - - Parliamentary Return, No. 456, of the Session 1858. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. The Table of Contents is in Part I. - 2. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in - spelling. - 3. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. - 4. 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