How to See the British Museum in Four Visits

How to See the British Museum
in Four Visits

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by W. Blanchard Jerrold
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Title: How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Author: W. Blanchard Jerrold
Release Date: October 15, 2004 [eBook #13755]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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HOW TO SEE THE BRITISH MUSEUM IN FOUR VISITS
by
W. BLANCHARD JERROLD
London
1852

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
VISIT THE FIRST
SOUTHERN ZOOLOGICAL ROOM.--Hoofed Animals:--Giraffe;
Walrus; Rhinoceros; Buffalo; Antelope.
SOUTHERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY.--Hoofed Animals:--Wild
Ox; Hippopotamus; Elephant; Llama; Bison; Armadillo; Deer.
MAMMALIA SALOON.--Bears; Monkeys; Cat Tribe; Dog Family;
Bear Tribe; Mole Tribe; Marsupial Animals; Seal Tribe; Corals
EASTERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY.--Birds of Prey; Perching
Birds; Scraping Birds; Wading Birds; Web-footed Birds.
NORTHERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY.--Bats; Reptiles; Serpents;
Tortoises; Crocodiles; Frogs.
BRITISH ZOOLOGICAL ROOM.--Carnivorous Beasts; Glirine Beasts;
Hoofed Beasts; Insectivorous Beasts; British Reptiles; British Fish.
NORTHERN ZOOLOGICAL
GALLERY--_(continued)_.--Spiny-finned Fishes; Soft-finned Fishes;
Cartilaginous Fishes; Sponges; Shell-fish; The Beetle Tribe; Butterflies
and Moths.
EASTERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY.--Star-fish; Sea-eggs; Shells.
VISIT THE SECOND
NORTHERN MINERAL AND FOSSIL GALLERY.--Fossil
Vegetables; Minerals; Fossil Animals; Fossil Fishes; Fossil Mammalia.
THE EGYPTIAN ROOM.--Human Mummies; Animal Mummies;
Sepulchral Ornaments; Egyptian Deities; Sacred Animals; Household
Objects; Tools; Musical Instruments; Toys; Textile Fabrics.
THE BRONZE ROOM.--Greek and Roman Bronzes.
ETRUSCAN ROOM.--Etruscan Vases
ETHNOGRAPHICAL ROOM.--Chinese Curiosities; Indian Curiosities;
African Curiosities; American Curiosities
VISIT THE THIRD
EGYPTIAN SALOON.--Egyptian Sculpture; Egyptian Coffins;
Egyptian Tombstones; Sepulchral Vases; Human Statues; Egyptian
Sphinxes; Egyptian Frescoes.
THE LYCIAN ROOM.--Lycian Tombs; Lycian Sculpture.
THE NIMROUD ROOM.--Assyrian Sculpture.
VISIT THE FOURTH
Townley Sculpture; Antiquities of Britain.

PHIGALEIAN SALOON.--Battle with the Amazons.
ELGIN SALOON.--Elgin Marbles; Metopes of the Parthenon; Eastern
Frieze; Northern Frieze; Western Frieze; Southern Frieze; Eastern
Pediment; Western Pediment; Temple of the Erectheum; Temple of
Theseus; Lantern of Demosthenes.
CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION.
The money to found a British Museum was raised by a lottery in the
middle of the last century. Sir Hans Sloane having offered his books
and museum of natural history to Parliament, for less than half its value
(20,000£.), it was purchased, together with the famous Harleian and
Cottonian MSS., and deposited in Montague House, Bloomsbury,
which had been bought of the Earl of Halifax, for the sum of 10,250£.
Of the present British Museum this beginning forms a very
insignificant part. The nucleus was established however; and soon
eminent men, who valued their literary and scientific collections as
storehouses that should be accessible to all classes of students, began to
turn their attention to the collections in Montague House. Foremost
among the donors George the Second should be mentioned, as having
made over to the nation the royal library, together with the right of
demanding a copy of every book entered at Stationers' Hall.
Successively, the libraries of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Birch, Sir John
Hawkins, Dr. Burney and Garrick, and the Royal, Arundel, Lansdowne,
Bridgewater, and other MSS. were added to the great store. Captain
Cook returned home with additions to the museum of natural history;
Sir William Hamilton's collection of vases was purchased in 1772; the
spoils of Abercrombie's Egyptian campaign enriched the museum with
some fine Egyptian antiquities; grants of money secured the Townley
marbles, the Phigalian sculptures, and at last the Elgin marbles; and of
late, the accessions to the vast collection, including Layard's treasures,
the Xanthian marbles, fossils, birds, curiosities, from the frozen seas,
China, the solitudes of Central Africa, and other remote places, where
scientific men have been of late prosecuting their studies have been
received. In 1823 it was allowed by Parliament that the collection had
grown too large for the house in which it was crammed; and
accordingly in this year it was resolved to destroy the old residence of

the Earl of Halifax, and build a new structure on its site. Sir Robert
Smirke, the architect of the present structure, has certainly had good
cause to complain of the niggardly supplies voted from time to time for
the building, which has been twenty-eight years in progress. The
regulations for the admission of the public have fairly kept pace with
the progress of those liberal ideas to which the collection is greatly
indebted, and of which it is a monument. It will be interesting for the
visitor of to-day, to contrast the rules by which he is admitted, with
those that fettered his ancestors of the eighteenth century. In the year
1759,