This was scanned in from an old document which has caused numerous misreadings of words. As time moves on, this will be improved.
MAGDALEN HOSPITAL,
ST. GEORGE’S FIELDS, for the relief and reformation of unfortunate women andpeni-tent prostitutes, was projected by Robert Dingley, Jonas Hanway, and a few others,
in 1758 j* and opened at a house in Prescot-street, Goodman’s-fields, when eight unhappy objects were admitted; and from thence to Feb. 26, 1761, there were received into “Magdalen-house” 281: of a hundred inmates, not a seventh were 15 years old.
Among the names of the earliest benefactors occurs that of Omychund, the black merchant of Calcutta. He bequeathed between this and the Foundling Hospital 37,500 current rupees, to be equally divided. Unfortunately, however, ” a portion only of this munificent legacy could be extracted from the grasp of Hurzorimal, his executor, notwithstanding the zealous interference of the Governor-general Warren Hastings) and other eminent functionaries.”— Brownlow.
Another early promoter was the Rev. William Dodd, ” the unfortunate,” who, in 1759, preached a sermon for the benefit of the charity; and again in 1760, before Prince Edward, Duke of York: both sermons are eloquent compositions, were printed, and large editions sold.f The Magdalens wore a grey uniform dress, high in the neck, long black mittens, mob-cap, and a broad black chip hat. In the list of contributors we find ” A Lady unknown, a Lottery. Ticket, No. 34987, in the Lottery 1758, a Prize of 5002.;” Lord Chesterfield, 212. per annum; ” Will’s Coffee-house, Lincoln’s Inn, 162. 16*.;” the ” Charity Boxes,” in one year, received 4582. 10*.; and the women’s needlework produced 2822. 11*. 3d.: there being about 100 in the house.
Among their employments was making their own clothes, spinning the thread and making the cloth; to knit their stockings : to make bone-lace, black lace, artificial flowers, children’s toys, winding silk, embroidery, millinery, making women’s and children’s shoes, mantuas, stays, coats, cauls for wigs, weaving hair for perukes, making leathern and silken gloves and garters, drawing patterns, making soldiers’ clothes and seamen’s slops, making carpets after the Turkey manner, &c.
In 1769, the charity was incorporated and the institution declared extra-parochial: the present Hospital was commenced, 6| acres of St. George’s common fields having been purchased by the governors. Attached to the Hospital is a chapel, rendered attractive by the singing of the Magdalens, screened from the congregation; and the donations at the chapel doors are very productive to the Hospital funds: formerly, the admission on Sunday evenings was by ticket. Queen Charlotte patronized this charity 56 years. Queen Victoria became patroness in 1841.
Fit objects for the Magdalen charity are admitted without any recommendation, on their own application and petition, on the first Thursday in every month. More than 8000 have been received since the Hospital was establioral was eshed; more than two-thirds have been permanently reclaimed, and many have married and become respectable members of society: all who have behaved well are discharged with some provision for their future maintenance.
MANSION HOUSE, THE,
OF the Lord Mayor, and his residence during his year of office, occupies the site of Stocks’-market, nearly facing the area of the Royal Exchange. The foundation of the Mansion-house was laid in 1739 by Lord Mayor Perry; but the building was not finished until 1753, in the mayoralty of Sir Crisp Gascoigne, the first Lord Mayor who resided in it. The architect was the elder Mr. Dance j the style is that of Palladio; and the building, which is entirely insulated, is of Portland-stone, and resembles a massive Italian palace. The principal front has a very fine Corinthian portico, with six fluted columns, supporting a pediment, in the tympanum of which is a group of allegorical sculpture by Sir Robert Taylor. In the centre is a female impersonation of the City of London, trampling on her enemies; on her right is the Roman lictor, and a boy bearing the cap of liberty; and beyond them is Neptune and nautical insignia. To the left of the centre is another female attended by two boys, and bearing an olive-branch and cornucopia; the extreme angles being filled with casks, bales, and other emblems of commerce. On each side a flight of steps, balustraded, ascends to the entrance beneath the portico; and in the rusticated basement is the entrance to the offices. On the west side is a Roman-Doric porch. A long narrow attic, called the Mare’s (Mayor’s) Nest, has been removed from the roof.
The interior of the block of buildings was an open court of elaborate character,
* A plan of the kind was suggested in the Gentleman’s Magazine for April 1751; and the Rambler, No. 107.
t Account of the Magdalen Charity; with the above Sermons, Advice to the Magdalens, Prayers, Eules, &e. Printed in 1761.
similar to that part of an Italian palace; but the central area is now filled with the saloon, which is of wood. This grand banquet-room was designed by the Earl of Burlington, and is called the Egyptian Hall, from its accordance with the Egyptian Hall described by Vitruvius. It has two side screens of lofty columns, supporting a vaulted roof, and lit by a large western window; it can dine 400 guests, and here the Lord Mayor gives his State-banquets. In the side walls are sixteen niches, filled with sculptured groups or figures. (See Statues.)
There are other dining-rooms; as the Venetian Parlour, Wilkes’s Parlour, &c. The drawing-rooms and ball-room are superbly decorated; above the latter is the Justice-room (constructed in 1849), where the Lord Mayor sits daily. In a contiguous apart ment was the State Bed. There are a few gallery portraits and other pictures. The kitchen is a large hall, provided with ranges, each of them large enough to roast an entire ox. Tiie vessels for boiling meat and vegetables are not pots but tanks. The stewing range is a long broad iron pavement laid down over a series of furnaces; the gpits are huge cages formed of iron bars, and turned by machinery.
At one time the Household of the Lord Mayor was about twene”,as abouty-four in number, who held their offices by purchase, and with a power of alienation. At the head of them were the four esquires of the Lord Mayor, of whom the Swordbearer was the senior; and among the rank and file were the Lord Mayor’s Clerk, the Common Crier, the Common Hunt, three Serjeant Carvers, three Serjeants of the Chamber, the Serjeant of the Channel, the two Marshals, the Attorneys of the Mayor’s Court (four in number), the Water Bailiff, and several more. When on duty they had all the right to dine at the Swordbearer’s table, and as the services of many of them were in daily requisition, a dinner was provided daily throughout the year at the cost of the Chief Magistrate for the time being. About the year 1822 the household dinners were limited, by a resolution of the Court of Common Council, to thirteen in the year, on so many civic state occasions; and in still more modern times the number has been gradually curtailed, until the entertainment given annually on Plough Monday is the only one that survives. On the abolition of the daily table many of the household compounded for the lost privilege by the receipt of 100Z. a year each, for the rest of their lives, upon the basis of 7». 6i. a day; and the official income of the Lord Mayor was diminished by 1000Z. a year in consideration of his being relieved from the obligation of providing it. All the members of the household now hold their offices by election, and no longer by purchase.
MANSIONS.
APSLEY HOUSE (Duke of Wellington), Hyde-park-corner, Piccadilly, and happily called by a foreigner ” No. 1, London,” was built about 1785-6, by the Adams, | for Charles Bathurst Baron Apsley, Earl Bathurst and Lord Chancellor, who died in 1794. Here resided the Marquis Wellesley, elder brother of the great Duke of 1 Wellington, who purchased the house in 1820. It was then a plain brick mansion, but was cased with Bath-stone in 1828, by B. Wyatt, who designed the tetrastyle Corinthian —’ -‘ portico and pediment upon a rusticated entrance arcade; built a gallery and suite of rooms on the west or Hyde-park side, and enlarged the garden by a strip of ground from the Park. These additions and repairs are stated to have cost 130,000Z.
The bullet-proof iron Venetian blinds (the first of the kind) were put up by the late Duke of Wellington, after his windows had been broken by the Reform Bill mobs; and these blinds were not removed during the Duke’s life-time. “They shall stay where they are,” was his remark, ” as a monument of the gullibility of a mob, and the worthlessness of that sort of popularity for which they who give it can assign no good reason. 1 don’t blame the men that broke my windows; they only did what they were instigated to do by others who ought to have known better. But if any one be disposed to grow giddy ¦with popular applause, I think that a glance towards these iron shutters will soon sober him.” The blinds have long been removed.
The court-yard is enclosed by richly bronzed metal gates (in which the Grecian honeysuckle is finely cast); and the stone piers have curious chapiters. The hall-door and knocker belong to the original house. In the waiting-room is Steell’s bust of ” the Duke ;” Castlereagh, by Chantrey ; Pitt, by Nollekens j and a reduced copy of ltauch’s statue of Blucher; busts of Mr. Perceval, Colonel Gurwood, Mr. Ponsonby, &c. At the foot of the grand staircase is Canova’s colossal marble statue of Napoleon, holding a bronze figure of Victory in his right hand : it is Canova’s noblest and most antique-looking work j it is 11 feet high, and, except the left arm, was cut from one block of marble.
The pictures in the first Drawing-room include the Card-players, by Caravaggio, fine in expression, and marvellous in colour, light, and shade; the great Duke of Marlborough on horseback (from White Knights),probably by Vandermeulenj “Chelsea Pensioner reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo,” a commission to Wilkie from the
Duke, for which he paid 1200 guineas in hank notes; and the companion-picture, ” Greenwich Pensioners,” hy Burnet, and bought from him by the Duke for 500 guineas; Van Amburg in the Den with Lions and Tigers, painted by Sir E. Landseer, R.A., after the instructions of the Duke, who with the Bible in his hand, pointed out the passage (Gen. i. 26) in which dominion is given to Adam over the earth and animals: ” he caused the text to be inscribed on the frame as an authority which conferred on him a privilege of power, and gave to himself ‘ the great commission ‘ which he carried out on the fields of battle and chase.” {Quarterly Review, No. clxxxiv.) Next are large copies by Bonnemaison, after the four celebrated pictures by Raphael at Madrid; the Melton Hunt, by Grant, R.A.; Napoleon studying the map of Europe, a small full-length; Mr. Pitt, by Hoppner; the Highland Whisky-still, by Landseer, R.A.; and portraits of Marshal Soult, Lord Beresford, Lord Lynedoch, and Lord Anglesey, by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; Lord Nelson, by Sir William Beechey; Sir George Murray, Sir Thomas Picton; and Sarah, the first Lady Lyndhurst, by Wilkie: the canvas was pierced by a stone during a Reform Bill riot, but it has been cleverly repaired. Here are portraits of the Emperor Nicholas, of the Wellesley family, and, by Winterhalter, of the Duke’s godson, Prince Arthur. Here also are George IV. and William IV. (whole-lengths), by Sir D. Wilkie. There are at least six portraits of Napoleon; and full-lengths of the Emperor Alexander; and Kings of Prussia, France, and the Netherlands. Still, there is no faithful or worthy representation of the Duke in the collection; nor of statesmen of his-generation—not even Peel. There is but one battle-scene— Waterloo, taken from Napoleon’s head-quarters by Sir W. Allan; of this picture the Duke observed, ” Good, very good—not too much smoke.”
Among the furniture are two magnificent Roman mosaic tables; a splendid pair of Sevres vases, the gift of Louis XVIII.; a malachite vase, from Alexander Emperor of Russia ; a service of Sevres china, from Louis XVIIL, &c.
In the Picture-gallery, in the western wing, the Waterloo Banquet was held annually on June 18, until 1852. Over the fireplace hangs a copy of the ” Windsor ” Charles I. on horseback. Here is the gem of the collection, ” Christ on the Mount of Olives,” by Correggio, on panel, the most celebrated specimen of the master in this country : the light proceeds from the Saviour. This picture was captured in Spain, in the carriage of Joseph Bonaparte, and restored by the captor to Ferdinand VIL, but was presented to the Duke by that Sovereign. Next in excellence are the examples of Velasquez, chiefly portraits, and “the Water-seller;” a Female holding a wreath, by Titian; specimens of Claude, Teniers, and Jan Steen; the Signing of the Peace of Westphalia, by Terburg, from the Talleyrand collection. Here is also a repetition of the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael, by Giulio Romano; and a marble bust of Pauline Bonaparte,by Canova. In the centre are two majestic candelabra of Russian porphyry, 12 feet high, presented by Alexander Emperor of Russia; and two fine vases of Swedish porphyry, from the King of Sweden. The Gallery and the Waterloo Banquet are well seen in Salter’s large picture, engraved by Guntengravereatbatch; and the Duke receiving his Guests has been painted by J. P. Knight, R.A.
In the China-room, on the ground-floor, are a magnificent Dresden dessert-service, presented by the King of Saxony, painted with the Duke’s victories in India, the Peninsula, and at Waterloo; other services of china presented by the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and Louis XVIII.: the silver plateau, 30 feet long and 30 feet wide, and lighted by 106 wax tapers, the gift of the King of Portugal; three silver-gilt candelabra (a foot-soldier, life-size), presented by the Corporation of London: the superb Waterloo Vase, from the City merchants and bankers; and the Wellington Shield, designed by T. Stothard, R.A., and in general treatment resembling Flaxman’s Shield of Achilles. It is silver-gilt, circular, about 3 ft. 8 in. diameter. In the centre is the Duke of Wellington on horseback, the head of his charger forming the boss of the shield: around him are his illustrious officers; above is Fame crowning the Duke with a wreath of laurel: and at his feet are prostrate figures of Anarchy, Discord, and Tyranny. The wonder of this central group is the management of the horses within the circle (of oak-branches), the evolutions of the chargers emanating from the centre,—in itself a most original conception. The border of the shield is in ten compartments, each bearing a bas-relief of the principal events in the Duke’s military life, to the Peace of 1814, and are as follows: Assaye, Vimiera, the Douro, Torres Vedras, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Toulouse, and the Duke receiving his coronet from the Prince Regent. Stothard’s designs are large drawings in sepia: he made his own models for the chaser, etched the designs the same size as the originals, and received his own demands, 150 guineas. The columns, by Smirke, stand one on each side of the shield, about 4 ft. 3 in. high, surmounted with figures of Fame and Victory: each column consists of a palm-tree, with a capital of leaves; around the base are emblematic figures, and military trophies and weapons at the angles. The cost of this superb national gift, completed in 1822, was 700W.
In the China-rooni, also, are bronze busts, of great spirit and finish, of Henri Quatre, the Prince of Conde, Louis XIV., Marshal Turenne, and the Marquis Wellesley. Beyond is the Secretary’s-room, the Great Duke’s private room, and lastly |( his bed-room, which, early in 1853, the public were permitted to inspect, precisely arranged as they were last used by his Grace, in September, 1852: the library he consulted, the books he kept beside him for reference, the mass of papers, maps, and documents, even to the latest magazine, were undisturbed. The Duke’s room was lined with bookcases and despatch-boxes, and had a red morocco reading-chair, a second chair, a desk to stand and write at; a circular-topped writing-table; two engravings of the Duke, one when young, the other (by Count D’Orsay) when old; a small drawing of the Countess of Jersey, by Cosway, between medallions of the present Duchess of Wellington and Jenny Lind. In the Secretary’s-room was a rough un-painted box, which accompanied the Duke through all his wars; in which be stowed away his private documents, and whereon he wrote many of his despatches, and traced the orders for military manoeuvres.
A short passage to the east leads to ” the Duke’s bed-room,” which is narrow, |i shapeless, and ill-lighted; the bedstead small, provided with only a mattress and ‘ bolster, and scantily curtained with green silk; the only ornaments of the room being an unfinished sketch of the present Duchess of Wellington, two cheap prints of military men, and a small portrait in oil. Yet here slept the Great Duke, whose ” drauke, wheightieth year was by.” In the grounds and shrubbery he took d a dy walking exercise ; where, with the garden-engine, he was wont to enjoy exertion.* Lastly, ” in fine afternoons, the sun casts the shadow of the Duke’s equestrian statue full upon Apsley House, and the sombre image may be seen gliding spirit-like over the front.” (Quarterly Review, No. clxxxiv.) The house and pictures can only be seen by special permission. A Catalogue raisonnee is published by Mitchell, Old Bond-street.
Part of the site of Apsley House was a piece of ground given by George II. to an old soldier, Allen, whom the king recognised as having served in the battle of Dettingen. Upon this spot Allen built a Email tenement, in place of the apple-stall kept by his wife; and on the erection of Apsley House, in 1784, the ground was sold for a considerable sum by Allen’s successors to Apsley, Lord Bathurst. The apple-stall is shown in a print dated 1766.
Argyll House, Argyll-street, centre of the east side, was a plain mansion, with a \ . front court-yard, and was formerly the residence of the Duke of Argyll, by whom it \ i^ 14 was sold, about 1820, to the Earl of Aberdeen : here ” the Aberdeen Ministry ” was formed in 1852. “*f
Soon after the succession of the present Earl to the title, in 1864, his lordship had part of the firJJ1 * premises fitted up as an industrial school for about sixty boys; there were a class-room, in which the ‘ boys were instructed; a dining or mess room; work rooms, in which useful trades, such as shoemaking, tailoring, &c, were taught; and a lecture-room, in which lectures were given to the poor of the neighbourhood. The coach-house, in Marlborough-mews, was changed into baths and lavatories, and accommodation for some of the boys to sleep on the premises. The whole were carried out on a similar principle to the schools of Dr. Guthrie in Edinburgh. The boys were also clothed and fed by the noble earl; the most destitute in the neighbourhood were admitted.
The mansion was sold July 5, 1862, for 18,500?., and was taken down: it com-prised a paved hall, 30 feet by 21 feet; a great drawing-room, 27 feet by 21 feet; a banqueting-room, 43 feet by 31 feet; a library, 24 feet by 19 feet, &c, all fitted with statuary, &c. The rooms were stately, but sombre. On August 24th was sold here the late Earl’s valuable parliamentary and miscellaneous library, together with English and foreign works in connexion with architecture and the fine arts; a collection of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Greek, and Latin, on vellum, and illuminated in gold and colours. The site is now occupied by a new Bazaar.. \fcu^ {Vt**.y^*-*
Baeing, Mr. T., No. 41, Upper Grosvenor-street, has a fine collection of pictures; Dutch and Flemish, from the cabinet of the Baron Verstolk, at the Hague; Italian, formerly Sir Thomas Baring’s; English pictures, mostly from the exhibitions of the Boyal Academy. Among the Spanish pictures are four specimens by Murillo, including the Madonna on the Crescent. Here, also, is St. Jerome in his Study, an authentic picture by J. Van Eyck; with works of N. and G. Poussin, Parmegiano,
* Jan. 2,1820. General Bonaparte was “amusing himself with the pipe of the fire-engine, spouting water on the trees and flowers in his favourite garden.”— Journal of Capt. Nicholls: Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena; Sir Hudson Lowe’s Letters and Journals, 1853.
Bath House (Lord Ashburton), No. 82, Piccadilly, built by the first Lord Ash-burton upon the site of the old mansion of Sir William Pulteney, Bart. The entranco is from Bolton-street: the hall occupies the centre of the’ mansion to the roof, of embossed glass; and the principal apartments open into its gallery, which has a richly-gilt balustrade. This hall has a parqueted oak floor, and the walls are painted with Pompeian subjects: here are antique busts and modern statues; including Thor-waldsen’s Hebe, and Mercury as the Slayer of Argus. The principal apartments command a view over the Green Park and St. James’s Park, with Buckingham Palace; Piccadilly being masked by the terrace-wall: the floors are oak, and doors mahogany.
The Ashburton collection is pre-eminent for its Dutch and Flemish pictures, from the cabinet of Talleyrand. Here are: Portraits of Jansen, and the writing-master Lieven van Coppenhol, by Rembrandt : Moses before the Burning Bush, Domenichino; Alehouse, and Playing at Nine Pins, Jan Steen; La Ferme au Colombier, Wouvermans; Rape of the Sabines, and Reconciliation of Romans and Sabines, small, but cost 1000?.; St. Thomas of Villaneuva dividing his Cloak with Beggar-boys, and the Virgin attended by Angels, Murillo; Water-mill, Karl du Jardin; fine specimens of Cuyp, Wouvermans, Teniers, Ostade, and Paul Potter; Hay-harvest, A. Vandervelde; Lobster-catchers, and Le Fagot, N. Berghem; the Infant Christ asleep in the arms of the Virgin, an Angel lifting the Quilt, Leonardo da Vinci (belonged to the Prior of the Escurial): St. Peter, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalene, and Andrew of Padua, Correggio; Daughter of Herodias with the head of St. John, Titian; Christ on the Mount of Olives, P.Veronese; Stag-hunt, Velasquez; Wolf-hunt, Rubens; Virgin and Child, and Charles I. and Henrietta-Maria (full-lengths), Vandyke; Hermit Praying, G. Douw; Boy blowing Bubbles, Netscher; Street in Utrecht (sunshine), De Hooghe; Head of Ariadne, Sir Joshua Reynolds; Head, Holbein; works of Wynants, Ruysdael, Hobbema, &c.
In the dining-room of Bath House were wont to meet Thomas Moore, J. W. Croker, Sydney Smith, and J. G. Lockhart; Dr. Coplestone, Bishop of Llandaff; Rogers, Hallam, Chantrey, Wilkie, and Theodore Hook.
Bedford, Duke of, No. 6, Belgrave-square : the mansion contains a small but very choice collection of Dutch pictures, &c.
Here are: Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist, by Giorgione; study of Two Dogs, by Titian; Twelfth Night, by Jan Steen; Interior, by Bassen and Bolemberg; the Nativity, by A. Werf; Travellers by I. Ostade; Landscape, by Ruysdael; Moses treading on Pharaoh’s Crown, by N. Poussin; Gulliver amongst the Houyhnhnms, by Gilpin; Four Cuyps, small but excellent; Dutch Courtship, by A. Brouwer; Little Girl, by Rembrandt; the Pont Neuf at Paris, by P. Wouvermans ; Pair of Landscapes, by Salvator Rosa; the Death of Hippolytus, study by Rubens; River View, by Van der Capella; Sabine Mountain City, by G. Poussin; the Tribute Money, by Sir G. Hayter; Village Fete, by Teniers (portraits) ; Going out Hawking, and Landscape and Cattle, by Paul Potter; Landscape, by A. and S. Both; Heads in grUaille, by Vandyke; Dead Chrypeyke; Deist, by Guercino; Sunset, Claude.
Beenal, Ralph, Esq., No. 93, Eaton-square. Here Mr. Bernal assembled his rare-collection of Works of Art, including ancient Jewellery, Armour and Arms, Seals and Rings, Medals, Bronzes, Carvings, Clocks and Watches, Enamels, Pottery and Porcelain, Glass, Pictures, Plate and Furniture, the sale of which by auction at the house occupied 32 days, and realized 61,964/. 11*. 3d. The books and prints, seven days, 6587/. 2s. 6d. Thirty-nine days, 68,551Z. 13*. 9d.
Beedgewater House (Earl of Ellesmere), on the east side of the Green Park, adjoins Spencer House, and has its south or entrance front in Cleveland-row, named from that ” beautiful fury,” Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, to whom Charles II. presented Berkshire House, which formerly stood here. The new mansion, designed by Sir Charles Barry, R.A., is almost a square: south front 142 feet 6 inches; west 122 feet. The elevations and details are mostly from palaces of Rome and Venice; the chimney-shafts form architectural features; the main cornice is richly carved with flowers, and the second-floor string-course, a folded ribbon, is very picturesque. The fenestration is very characteristic: the principal windows have arched pediments, each filled with arabesque foliage, and a shield with the monogram of E E entwined, dos-a-dos; in the panel beneath is the Bridgewater motto ” Sic donee f the first-floor window-dressings have elegant festoons of fruit and foliage; and the balustrade is surmounted with sculpture. The entrance-porch on the south is inscribed, ” Restauratum 1849;” and the keystone of the arched doorway bears a lion rampant, the crest of the Earl of Ellesmere. The picture-gallery, on the north side, is the height of the two floors, 110 feet long, and has a separate entrance for the public : it is lighted by glazed panels in the coved ceiling, at night, from burners outside.
This renowned Collection was formed principally from the gallery of the Duke of Orleans, by the Duke of Bridgewater; whence it is called the L’ridgewater Gallery; and being left by the duke to his nephew, the Marquis of Stafford, it is likewise frequently called the Stafford Gallery. It was much enlarged by the next possessor, the Marquis’s second son, Francis, Karl of Ellesmere. It is the finest private collection in England: from the time of Raphael, the series is unequalled; and in the Caracci school it is without rival. Among the 305 pictures are 4 by Raphael, 6 Titian, 7 A. Caracci, 5 L. Caracci, 5 Domenichino, 4 Claude, 8 N. Poussin, 8 Teniers, 5 Berghem, 6 Cuyp, 6 A. Ostade, 5 Rembrandt, 7 Vandervelde, 2 Paul Veronese, 3 Velasquez, 2 Guido, 3 Rubens, 1 Vandyke, 3 G. Douw, 3 Hob-bema, &c. The great Assumption of the Virgin, by Guido, has the chief honour of the gallery.; the Vierge au Palmier is one of the purest Raphaels iu England; the Seven Sacraments of N. Poussin, and Moses striking the Rock, are very fine; Cuyp’s Landing of Prince Mauriue looks as if the painter had dipped his pencil in sunlight. Here, also, are Turner’s Gale at Sea, nearly equal to the finest Vandervelde in the collection; De la Roche’s large picture of Charles I. in the Guard-room; a Wilson equal to Niobe; and the Chandos Portrait of Shakspeare, purchased by Lord Ellesmere at Stowe, in 1848, for 355 guineas: it is presumed to have been painted by Burbage, the actor; was left by Taylor, the Poet’s Hamlet, to Sir W. Davenant; was possessed by Betterton the actor, and Mrs. Barry the actress: and must be regarded as the most authentic likeness of Shakspeare. The collection is valued at nearly 250,0002.: it vies with the Esterhazy and Lichteustein galleries, at Vienna; the Manfrini gallery, at Venice; the Zambeccari collection, at Bologna: and the BorN. : and tghese, Colonna, Sciarra, and Doria collections, at Rome.
Buckingham House, Pall Mall, built by Soane, R.A., for the Duke of Buckingham, , it4 *^\ has been purchased by the Government for the office of the Minister-at-War, thus placing i ^X the War-office very near to the Ordnance-office. Q*\ ** i
Burlington House, No. 49, Piccadilly, was originally built for Richard Boyle, IA^ second Earl of Burlington, by Sir John Denham, Surveyor of the Works to Charles II. Horace Walpole has given currency to the story that Lord Burlington, ” when asked why he built his house so far out of town, replied, because he was determined to have no building beyond him.” A similar anecdote, however, is told of Peterborough House, Alilbank; Northumberland House; and of other houses on the verge of the spreading town; and it could not have been said with truth of Burlington House, because Clarendon House and Berkeley House were being built to the west of it at the very same time. The three houses just named are thus mentioned by Pepys:—
20th Feb. 1664-5.—Next that (Lord Clarendon’s) is my Lord Barkeley beginning another on one side, and Sir J. Denham on the other.
23th Sept. 1668.—Thence to my Lord Burlington’s house, the first time I ever was there, it being the house built by Sir John Denham, next to Clarendon-house.
The site was previously occupied by a farmstead. The house built by Denham was plain and well-proportioned, without any architectural display. A print by Kipp shows this house in the year 1700, with its quaint gardens, and beyond them the country, now covered by Regent-street and Portland-place; the court-yard is enclosed by a wall of moderate height, in front of which are planted large trees; and the carriage entrance is through two plain piers. Lord Burlington, the architect, added a new Portland stone front to the mansion; and a grand colonnade, borrowed from a palace by Palladio, at Vicenza. In the centre of the wall was built, in place of Denham’s plain gateway, an archway of triumphal design; and there are two semicircular side entrances. Horace Walpole was in Italy when these embellishments were completed, and he thus tells their impression upon him after his return:—” As we have few samples of architecture more antique and imposing than that colonnade, I cannot help mentioning the effect it had upoH myself. I had not only never seen it, but had never heard of it, at least with any attention, when soon after my return from Italy, I was invited to a ball at Burlington-house. As I passed under the gate by night, it could not strike me. At daybreak, looking out of the window to see the sun rise, I was surprised with the vision of the colonnade that fronted me. It seemed one of those edifices in fairy tales that are raised by genii in a night-time.”
The Doric colonnade and gateway are attributed to Colin Campbell, an architect of some skill, employed by Lord Burlington, who, when the designs were made, was but twenty-three years of age: still they were claimed for his Lordship, though he is not known to have urged his own right. Later in life he designed many architectural works which render the eulogy of Pope in his fourth ” Moral Essay “—the Epistle on the Use of Ricbes—which he had addressed to the Earl of Burlington, by no means exaggerated:—
” You, too, proceed! make on roceed!falling arts your care;
Erect new wonders, and the old repair;
Jones and Palladio to themselves restore,
And be whate’er Vitruvius was beLre.”
In Burlington House the Earl delighted to assemble the leading artists and men of taste of his time; poets and philosophers—the learned, the witty, and the wise. Kent, the architect and landscape-gardener, had apartments in the mansion, where he remained until his death, in 1748. Here Handel resided with the Earl for three years; and here Pope, Arbuthnot, and Gay, often met. The latter poet, in his Trivia, after lamenting the disappearance of the famed structures and stately piles in the Strand, thus refers to the Piccadilly mansion :—
” Yet Burlington’s fair palace still remains: Beauty within, without proportion reigns. Beneath his eye declining art revives, The wall with animated pictures lives; Here Handel strikes the string—the melting strain Transports the soul, and thrills through every vein; There oft I enter (but with cleaner shoes), For Burlington’s beloved by every Muse.”
Sir William Chambers has described the mansion as one of the finest pieces of architecture in Europe, ” behind an old brick wall in Piccadilly.”
” The interior,” says Pennant, ” built on the models of Palladio, and adapted more to the climate of Lombardy, and to the banks of the Adige or the Brenta, than to the Thames, is gloomy and destitute of gaiety and cheerfulness.” Lord Burlington converted ” Ten-Acres Field,” at the back of his gardens, into a little town, bounded by Bond-street and Swallow-street; and in 1719 he sold a piece of ground in Boyle-street for a school-house, which he designed for the trustees.
Lord Burlington died in 1753, when the title became extinct, and Burlington House passed to the Duke of Devonshire. Several alterations were made in the interior by Ware. The Duke of Portland, Prime Minister to George III., died in this mansion in 1809, a few days after he had resigned the seals of office. In the western wing were tetnporarily deposited the Elgin Marbles, before they were removed to the British Museum. In 1814, White’s Club gave here to the Allied Sovereigns, then in England, a grand ball, which cost 9849Z.
The lease expired in 1809, and there was some talk of taking the mansion down, when a renewal was obtained by Lord George Cavendish (afterwards Earl of Burlington), son of William, fourth Duke of Devonshire, and grandson of the architect. Lord George Cavendish repaired all those portions of the edifice erected by Lord Burlington,- and by raising the Venetian windows of the south front, completed the Earl’s design for this facade. Lord George Cavendish converted the riding-house and stables on the east side of the court-yard into a dwelling, as an appendage to the mansion, and built other stables behind the screen-wall. His Lordship also restored the terrace and terrace-steps in the garden; and converted a narrow slip of ground on the west side of the house and garden into the ” Burlington Arcade,” built by Ware, in 1819: from the rental of which the Cavendish family are said to have derived but 4d tderived000J. a year, although the actual produce (from sub-leases) is stated to amount to 8640/. On the east side of the gardens is the high range of buildings called ” The Albany j” but all its windows are shut out from view of the gardens.
The state apartments of Burlington House are on the first floor. Proceeding east-
0*f\ ward from the great staircase, they form a suite of six rooms, richly ornamented and | gilt. The ceiling of the saloon was painted by Sir James Thornhill. The great staircase was painted for the Earl of Burlington by Marco Rico and his uncle Sebastian; V\ • the same artists painted the ceilings of the state dining-room, and the south-east ante-{ room to the great drawing-room. Altogether, Burlington House merited much of the *^ praise applied to it in 1826—that it was ” the only town residence really fit for a r \ ‘ British nobleman j” but since that period some costly additions have been made to the mansions of the metropolis. The edifice and grounds are said to occupy about eight acres. The south front of the house is 130 feet in extent, and the height is 48 feet. A ground-plan is given in Britton’s Public Buildings of London.
The entrance archway may be said to have considerable pretensions to grandeur. It has a lofty pediment, flanked by the supporters of the Burlington arms, and supported by four rusticated columns, coupled. It is commemorated by Hogarth in a caricatura print (1731), inscribed ” The Man of Taste,” containing a view of Burlington Gate:
on the summit is Kent (served by Lord Burlington as a labourer), flourishing his palette and pencils over Michael Angelo and Raphael: lower down is Pope whitewashing the front, and bespattering the Duke of Chandos in the street. Ralph refers to the front as ” the most expensive wall in England: the height wonderfully proportioned to the length, and the decorations both simple and magnificent: the grand entrance is elegant and beautiful: and, by covering the house entirely from the eye, gives pleasure and surprise, at the opening of the whole front with the area before it at once.” Any passenger who has seen the mansion through the great gateway from the footpath may appreciate the above effect.
Burlington House, with its gardens, was purchased by Government, in 1854, for 140,000?. The extent of the grounds is about 3| acres. The building is now occupied by the Royal Society, the Senate of the University of London, the Geographical Society, the Linnean Society, and the Chemical Society. No income is derived from the property ; the annual outgoings and cost of maintaining it average 470£.
On the north side of the gardens was commenced in 1866, a building for the University of London, with an entrance from the street we call Burlington Gardens.
Cambeidge House, 94, Piccadilly—the site once occupied by an inn—has been known by the names of Egremont, Cholmondeley, and Cambridge House, from the names of its various tenants. Here died July 8th, 1850, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, youngest son of George III., born 1774. During the Cambridge occupation, Her Majesty was leaving the house, when she was assaulted by the last of the imbeciles who hoped to become celebrated by such a guilty proceeding.
One of its early noble tenants used to take his chop and spend his evening at ” the Glo’ster Coffee House,” when his lady had a rout. ” He didn’t care for such things,” he said, ” and liked to be quiet.” The third Earl Cholmondeley acquired Houghton by marrying Sir Robert Walpole’s only legitimate daughter. The son of the first Marquis Cholmondeley (Lord Malpas) embraced the Roman Catholic faith, was converted from his conversion by the mother of the lady whom he afterwards married, and subsequently left the Established Church for the Wesleyan connexion.— AthentEitm.
After the death of the Duke of Cambridge, this mansion was the town residence of Viscount Palmerston; from hence his Lordship was buried in Westminster Abbey, October 27, 1865. Cambridge House is now the Naval and Military Club House.
Chesterfield House (the Earl of Chesterfield), South Audley-street, was built by Ware, 1749, for Philip, fourth Earl, who describes the boudoir as ” the gayest and most cheerful room in England,” and the library “the finest room in London f and they remain unsurpassed. The columns of the screen facing the court-yard, and the superb marble staircase (each step a single block twenty feet long), are from Canons (Duke of Chandos’s); and the gilt hall-lantern, for eighteen candles, from Houghton (Sir Robert Walpole’s). In the library, above the bookcases, are portraits cf eminent authors contemporary with the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, who wrote here his celebrated Letters to his Son. Under the cornice of the room, extending all round in capitals twelve inches high, are these lines from Horace :
NUNC VKTBEtIM LIBBIS , injirC S0MH’O , KT IlfEKTIBtIS HOBIS. DUCEBB SOI,ICII^’JnCrirDA.*OBLlVIA”VII2B.
Throughout the room are busts of ancient orators, besides vases and bronzes and modern statuettes. The windows look upon the finest private garden in London, and in the lofty trees are a few rooks.
In that very pleasant table-book, Host and Ouest, by Mr. Kirwan, we are reminded that the great Lord Chesterfield was the first nobleman who made the most strenuous efforts to introduce French cookery. He engaged as his cook La Chapelle, a descendant of the famous cook of Louis XIV. La Chapclle published, in 1733, a treatise on Cookery, in three volumes, which is now rarely met with, like Alexis Soyer’s books, La Chapelle’s Modern Cook was printed for the author: it was sold by Nicholas Prevost, a Frenchman, over against Southampton-street, in the Strand. About this period Chesterfield was Lord Steward of the Household to George II. His dinners and suppers were deemed perfection ; and these entertainments were among the few items in which his expenditure was liberal. Lord Chesterfield lived till 1773; and, says Mr. Kirwan, ” I more than once heard the late Earl of Essex say, more than thirty years ago, at Brooks’s Club, that he remembered, as a boy of fourteen or fifteen, seeing the Earl seated on a rustic seat outside the courtyard of his house in May Fair. Chesterfield House was, ninety-one years ago, at the very extremity of London, and all beyond it was an expanse of green fields.”
Clarence House, on the east side of Stable-yard, St. James’s Palace, was built for the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV.: it has a handsome portico in two ‘ stories, the lower Doric, and the upper Corinthian. Here resided the Duchess of Kent. The mansion is now the town residence of Prince Alfred.
De Grey, Earl, No. 4, St. James’s-square, possesses a choice gallery of pictures, including portraits, mostly whole-lengths, by Vandyke ; ” Titian’s Daughter ” holding a casket ; a pair of landscapes by Claude; a fine picture by Salvator Rosa; and a few examples of the Dutch school.
Devonshire House (Duke of Devonshire), Piccadilly, occupies the site of Berkeley House, formerly ” Hay Hill Farm:” it was built by William Kent for the third Duke of Devonshire, at the cost of 20,000Z., including 1000Z. for the design. It was also called Stratton House.
Berkeley House was built about 1665 for John, Lord Berkeley and Stratton, and is stated by Evelyn to have cost ” neere 30,0002.:” it was remarkable for its great number of chimneys, noble state-rooms, cedar staircase, the walls painted by Laguerre, and gardens ” incomparable by reason of the inequalities of the ground, and a pretty piscina,” and holly-hedges on the terrace, advised by Evelyn. The Princess Anne, afterwards Queen Anne, resided here, from her leaving Whitehall, until 1697: in the Postman, No. 94 (1695), is advertised a silver cistern, valued at 7501., stolen out of Berkeley House. The first Duke of Devonshire purchased the mansion in 1697; and March 31, he entertained King William HI. at dinner there. The duke died here in 1701: it was destroyed, October 16,1733, by fire, through the boiling over of a glue-pot while the workmen were at breakfast; the house was entirely consumed, but the library, pictures, medals, and other curiosities were saved.
” Lord Pembroke (Shakspeare’s Lord Pembroke), Donne, Waller, Denham, and Dryden read their verses here. Devonshire House, towards the close of the last century, was famous as the head-quarters of Whig politics, and for the fascinations of its beautiful Duchess, whose verses on William Tell produced a burst of admiration from Coleridge:—
‘Oh, lady, nurs’d in pomp and pleasure, Where learnt you that heroic measure ?* She learnt it from her race (the Spencers); from their family tutor, Sir William Jones; and from her own cordial nature.”— Leigh Sunt.
Devonshire House has an unpretending exterior, with an ill-matched portico: the old entrance, by a double flight of steps, was removed in 1840 j and in the rear of the house has been erected a state staircase, with white scagliola walls, marble stair, gilt-brass balustrades, and glass hand-rail. The whole interior was re-decorated for William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, except a small room, blue and silver, designed by the celebrated Duchess. The Grand Saloon, originally the vestibule, is superbly decorated and painted in the rich style of Le Brun, and hung with Lyons brocade-silk; portraits over the doors, &c. The Ball-room, white and gold, is hung with French silk brocatelle, blue and gold, and a few magnificent pictures. In this superb room took place the first amateur performance of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton’s comedy of Not so Bad as we SRomo Bad aeem, for the benefit of the Guild of Literature and Art, before Her Majesty and Prince Albert, May 16, 1851. The grounds of Devonshire House are a fine specimen of town landscape-gardening. Upon the gate-piers in Piccadilly are garlanded vases, gracefully sculptured. Among the pictures are Dobson’s portrait of Sir Thomas Browne; Lord Burlington, the architect, by Kneller; and Lord Richard Cavendish, by Reynolds. In a glass-case are ” the Devonshire Gems,” 564 cut stones and medals. Here is the renowned Libro di Verita, in which Claude Lorraine made drawings of all the pictures he ever executed: they number about 200, and on the back of each is Claude’s monogram, the place for which the picture was painted, usually the person ordering it, and the year, the ” Claudio fecit” never wanting. By reference to this volume, the authenticity of reputed Claudes may be tested; hence it is called ” the Book of Truth;” it is well known by Earlom’s engravings. Upon the back of the first drawing is inscribed, in Claude’s own handwriting.
” Audi 10 dagosto 1677. Ce livre Aupartien a moy que je faict durant rria vie. Claudio Gillee, dit le Loraine. A Roma ce 23 Aos. 1680.”
Among the bibliographical rarities are “the Kemble Plays,” and other old English plays, the richest collection in the world, annotated by the Duke of Devonshire; also, a large collection of playbills; early editions of Shakspeare; designs, by Inigo Jones, for buildings, sketches from pictures, costumes for characters in masques, scenery, &c. Tho exquisite taste and knowledge displayed by the late Duke of Devonshire in collecting these valuable treasures in art and literature have been respected by the present Duke in preserving so valuable a collection intact.
Dorchester House (Mr. R. S. Holford), Park-lane, built by Lewis Vulliamy, 1851—3 : a parallelogram, nearly as large as Bridgewater House, faced with Portland-stone ; the principal cornice and frieze richly carved by C. H. Smith; the chief projecting stones are each 8 feet 4 inches square; the external walls are 3 feet 10 inches thick. The grand staircase is of marble. The mansion occupies the site of old Dorchester House, in which died the Marquis of Hertford, 1842.
While this mansion was building, Mr. Holford’s fine collection of pictures was temporarily placed in the house No. fc’5 (formerly Sir Thomas Lawrence’s), in Russell-square. The collection includes portraits by Velasquez, Vandyke, Dosso Dossi, Bellini, S. del Piombo, Titian, and Tintoretto; two of the famous Caracci series (by Agostino and Ludovico), from the Giustiniani Palace; among the Dutch pictures is a long view of Dort, and a large Hobbema; here are exquisite small pictures by Murillo, Greuze, and others; and fine works by Teniers, Wouvermans, Paul Potter, C. du Jardin, VV. Vandervelde; Giorgione, Bonifazio, Fra Bartolomeo; Holy Family and Saints, by Andrea del Sarto; Holy Family and St. John, by Gaudenzio di Ferrara; Evening, by Claude; Rubens’ masterly sketches of his Entry of Henry IV. (Luxembourg); and the Assumption of the Virgin (Antwerp). The collection may be seen by recommendation of known artists or amateurs.
Dover House (Lady Clifden), Whitehall, opposite the Banqueting House, has a very tasteful and classical facade, and was built by Payne for Sir Matthew Feather-stonhaugh. It was subsequently sold to Viscount Melbourne, who sold it to the Duke of York, for whom Holland added a picturesque Ionic portico and the domed circular hall ; which, and Carlton House, the residence of the Prince of Wales, being distinguished for its screen of columns, gave rise to a witticism thus told by Southey in Espriella’s Letters. The buildings being described to Lorziocribed d North after he had become blind, in the latter part of his life, he remarked, ” Then the Duke of York, it should seem, has been sent to the Round House, and the Prince of Wales is put in the pillory.”
Dudley House (Earl of Dudley), Park-lane, contains a fine collection of 130 pictures, tracing the Italian and Flemish schools to their source.
Here are the Crucifixion, one of Raphael’s earliest works, and the Last Judgment, by Fiesole, both from Cardinal Fesch’s Gallery; small figures of Saints, by Raphael, in tempera; the Virgin and Child, and the Virgin, Infant Christ, and Joseph, by Franeia; Sta. Caterina, by Lo Spagna; two figures of Saints, in pen-and-ink and tempera, byPerugino; Virgin and Child, enthroned, byA.Dasisi; altar-piece of Saints and Infant Christ, by Pierino del Vaga; altar-piece, Adoration of the Shepherds, by B. Peruzzi; the Death of Abel, by Guido; Head of the Magdalen, by Carlo Dolce; four Illuminations by Andrea Hantegna; Christ bearing his Cross, by L. Caracci; a seated Cardinal, by Guercino; curious specimens of the Venetian School, by Carlo Crivelli; two Colossal Heads, by Correggio, and a reputed replica of his Magdalen ; the three Marys, and Dead Christ, by Albert Durer; Celebration of the Mass, by Van Eyck; St. Peter, by Spagnoletto ; the Burgomaster, by Rembrandt (half-length), frori the Stowe Collection; the Mocking of Christ, by Teniers; Landscape, by Gaspar Poussin; Venetian ^ew, very fine, by Cana-letti; Shipwreck, by Vernet, &c. Here are also several pieces of antique Sculpum; and a seated Venus, by Canova; and a duplicate of the Greek Slave, by Hiram Powers.
Gloucester House (Duke of Cambridge), Piccadilly, corner of Park-lane, was previously the Earl of Elgin’s. Here were deposited the Elgin Marble3. Lord Byron sarcastically called Elgin House ” a stone-shop,” and ” General mart For all the mutilated blocks of art.”— “English Bard* and Scotch Reviewer/.
The Marbles were next removed to Burlington House, and to the British Museum in 1816. Gloucester House was purchased by the late Duke of Gloucester, on his marriage with the Princess Mary. In the state drawing-room is a needlework carpet, presented to the Duchess of Gloucester upon her birth-day, by 84 ladies of the aristocracy, each having worked a compartment. The Duchess died here April 30, 1857, having bequeathed to her nephew, the Duke of Cambridge, the unexpired lease of Gloucester House.
Grosve>”OR House (Marquis of Westminster), Upper Grosvenor-street, has a magnificent open stone colonnade or screen, Roman-Doric: it is 110 feet long, and has two carriage-ways, with pediments sculptured with the Grosvenor arms, and panels of the four Seasons above the foot-entrances; between the columns are massive candelabra, which, with the metal gates, are composed of demi-figures, rich foliage, fruit and flowers, and armorial designs. The whole screen is picturesque and elegant, and was completed in 1842 by T. Cundy, the architect of the western wing of the mansion (the Picture-gallery) in Park-lane: the latter consists of a Corinthian colonnade, with six statues and an attic, after the manner of Trajan’s Forum at Rome; on the acroteria are vases and a balustrade, and between the columns are rich festoons of fruit and flowers;
the whole is grand and architectural. Here isic:ural. H the celebrated ” Grosvenor Gallery,” commenced by Richard, first Earl Grosvenor, by the purchase of Mr. A gar’s pictures for 30,000 guineas; increased by his son, and grandson, the present noble owner, to 200 paintings, including:
Raphael, 5; Murillo, 3; Velasquez, 2; Titian, 3; Paul Veronese, 3; Guido, 5; Salvator Rosa, 4; Claude, JO; N. and G. Poussin, 7; Rembrandt, 7; Rubens, 11; Vandyke, 2; Hobbema, 2; Cuyp, 4; Snyders, 2; Teniers, 3; West, 5; Hogarth, 3; Gainsborough, 3; with specimens of Lebrun, Paul Potter, Gerard Douw, Van Huysum, Vandervelde, Wouvermans, Sir Joshua Keynolds, and Wilson; Perugino, Bellini, Giulio Romano, and Sasso Ferrato: Correggio, Parmegiano, L. da Vinci, &c.
Among the most celebrated are the four colossal pictures by Rubens, painted in Spain in 1629,—the Israelites gathering Manna, Abraham and Melchisedek, the Four Evangelists, and the Fathers of the Church,—from the convent of Loeches, near Madrid, purchased for 10,000?.; Cattle and Landscape, by Paul Potter, a miracle of art: Gentleman holding a Hawk, and Lady with Fan, by Rembrandt, two of the finest portraits ever painted; Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, Sir Joshua Heynolds’s masterpiece, cost 1760?. In the ante-room is a very large painting, by Canaletti, of a grand Bull-fight in St. Mark’s Place, Venice, in 1740, with many thousand figures.
Among the rarities is a triptych panel-picture by Memmelinck, 15th century: the central compartment contains our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and St. John the Evangelist; the volets, St. John the Baptist, and Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, with the pot of ointment: of most elaborate execution; bought by the Marquis of Westminster in 1845.
No private gallery in this country exceeds the Grosvenor Gallery in point of variety. The number of pictures in the Bridgewater collection is more than double, the series more complete, and some of them exceed any here in value and variety; but the fascination of the Claudes, the imposing splendour of the Rubenses, and the interest attached to a number of the English pictures (‘ Mrs. Siddons,’ ‘the Blue Boy,’ and ‘ General Wolfe,’ for instance), long contributed to render the Grosvenor Gallery quite as popular as a resort for the mere amateur, and not less attractive and improving to the student and enthusiast.—Mrs. Jameson’s Private Qallerie* of Art.
Among the sculpture is Susanna, life-size, by Pozzi; Cupid and Psyche, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A.; a Faun (antique); and busts of Mercury, Apollo, Homer, Paris and Helen, Charles I. and Cromwell, &c. The vases are fine; and the superb plate includes antique salvers, and a profusion of race-cups, won by the Marquis of Westminster’s celebrated stud. The pictures are to be seen only, on a specific day, by admissions obtainable by personal acquaintances of, or introduction to, the Marquis of Westminster.
Haecouet House (Duke of Portland), on the west side of Cavendish-square, originally built for Benson, Lord Bingley, and altered from Archer’s design, is described by Ralph, in 1734, as ‘•’ one of the most singular pieces of architecture about town; rather like a convent than the residence of a man of quality,” resembling a copy of some of Poussin’s landscape ornaments: and so it remains to this day. It was originally called Bingley House. The handsome offices in the rear were designed by Ware.
Hertford House (Marquis of Hertford), No. 105, Piccadilly, was formerly the Pulteney Hotel, where Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and his sister the Duchess of Oldenburg, sojourned in 1814, and where the Duchess of Oldenburg (the Emperor Alexander’s sister) introduced Prince Leopold to the Princess Charlotte. The original facade, rich Italian, was by Novosielski, with a Grecian-Doric porch added by Sir Robert Smirke. The mansion was designed for the Earl of Barrymore, but was unfinished at his death; was first let as an hotel, and then to the late Marquis of Hertford, It was taken down and rebuilt mostly with the same Portland stone, in 1851, when the house was heightened from 57 to 71 feet. The drawing-rooms have a vista of 114 feet, and the picture-gallery 50 feet, but the mansion remained some years untenanted after its rebuilding.
The Hertford collection contains chef-d’ceuvres from the gallery of the King of Holland: Water-mill, Hobbema; Holy Family, Rubens (cost 2478?.); Alchemist, Teniers; la Vierge de Pade, A. del Sarto; Vandyke, by himself; Oxen in a Meadow, Paul Potter; several pictures by Cuyp; the Annunciation, by Murillo; Landscape with Herdsman, Claude; his own Portrait, by Rembrandt; Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter, Rubens: and, from the Stowe collection, the Sibyl, by Domenichino; and the Unmerciful Servant, by Rembrandt (sold for 2300?.) The Marquis also possesses a fine collection of china, and costly objects of art and vertu.
Holdeenesse House (Marquis of Londonderry), No. 16 Park-lane, contains a magnificent Sculpture-gallery, wherein are several works by Canova and other great sculptors; Theseus and the Minotaur, from the Fries Gallery at Florence; the Kneeling Cupid, &c.; full-length portraits of British and Foreign Monarchs of the present century, by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; life-size model of Thomas’s Statue of Lord Castle-reagh, the celebrated minister, placed in Westminster Abbey.
Hope House (Mrs. Hope), south-east corner of Down-street, Piccadilly, was built in 1S49, for the late H. T. Hope, Esq., under the joint superintendence of M. Dusillion, a French artist, and Professor Donaldson. The fronts are Caen stone, and have panels of decorative marbles in the piers between the windows; the arrangement of which is novel, especially in the attic-story. The total height from the street-level to the balustrade (surmounted with superbly-carved vases) is 62 feet. The entrance-porch in Down-street is very rich; in the principal window-pediments are sculptured the armorial bearings of Mr. Hope, repeated with the initial H in the very handsome iron railing, cast by Andre in Paris. The details throughout show very careful and elegant drawing; and the carving, wholly by French artists, is beautifully executed. The grand staircase and hall occupy the centre of the building; the upper hall is paved with coloured marbles in patterns. The walls are plaster-of-Paris polished, scagliola panels, and marble plinths; the floors, fire-proof, are of cast-iron girdonaast-iroers and tile arches. The ceilings are panelled and enriched; the principal doors are of oak, carved with the initial H in shields; some of the chimney-pieces are of pierre-de-tonnerre, panelled with French marbles; others are of bronzed metal, with caryatid figures. The stables (for 12 horses) and coach-houses are in the rear of the mansion. W. Cubitt and Co., builders; ornamental work (wainscot doors, ceilings, stone carvings, mahogany casements) by French artists; cost about 30,000?. There are few pictures here, the collections having been removed to Deepdene, in Surrey. Among the antiques is Sir William Hamilton’s second collection, made at Naples. The mansion may be seen by cards obtainable by introduction to the owner.
The collection was formed at the celebrated mansion in Duchess-street, Portland-place, in the decoration of which Mr. Hope, the author of Anastasius, exemplified the classic principles illustrated in his large work on Household Furniture and Internal Decorations, 1805. Thus the suite of apartments included the Egyptian or Slack Room, with ornaments from scrolls of papyrus and mummy-cases; the furniture and ornaments were pale yellow and bluish-green, relieved by masses of black and gold. The Blue or Indian Boom, in costly Oriental style. The Star Boom: emblems of Night below: and above, Aurora visiting Cephalus on Mount Ida, by Flaxman; furniture, wreathed figures of the Hours. The Closet or Boudoir, hung with tent-like drapery; the mantel-piece an Egyptian portico; Egyptian, Hindoo, and Chinese idols and curiosities. Picture Oallery: Ionic columns, entablature, and pediment from the Temple of Erectheus at Athens; car of Apollo, classic tables, pedestals, &c. In four separate apartments were arranged 200 Greek vases, including two copies of the Barberini or Portland Vase; the furniture partly from Pompeian models. The New Gallery, for 100 pictures of the Flemish school, antique bronzes and vases; furniture of elegant Grecian design. Mr. Hope died at Duchess-street in 1831: he will ever be remembered for his taste and munificence as the early patron of Chantrey, Flax-man, Canova, and Thorwaldsen.
Lansdowne House (Marquis of Lansdowne), which, with its garden, occupies the south side of Berkeley-square, was commenced by Robert Adam for the Marquis of Bute, but was sold unfinished to Lord Shelburne, created Marquis of Lansdowne in 1784. The purchase-money was 22,000Z., but the mansion cost Lord Bute 25,000?.
The Marquis, in 1804, acknowledged the possession of the secret of the authorship of Junius’s Letters, which he promised to publish; but his lordship died in the following week. The ” Letters” are believed by some to have been the joint production of Lord Shelburne, Colonel Barr£, and Dunning, Lord Ash-burton; and their three portraits, painted in one picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1784-5, have been regarded as evidence of the joint authorship. Possibly, therefore, Junius’s Letters were written in Lansdowne, then Shelburne, House. It is better established, that oxygen was discovered here, Aug. 1, \T!i, by Dr. Priestley, then librarian to Lord Shelburne.
The reception-room contains a fine collection of sculpture, including about fifty statues, as many busts, besides bassi relievi: it was commenced by Gavin Hamilton, who first excavated the site of Adrian’s Villa. At the foot of the staircase is a noble statue of Diana launching an arrow; in the great dining-room are nine antique statues in niches, including Germanicus, Claudius, Trajan, and Cicero; also the Sleeping Nymph, the last work of Canova; in the front drawing-room his Venus quitting the Bath; and a stated h; and ue by Rauch, of Berlin, of a Child holding an alms-dish. In the gallery, 100 feet in length, at the east end are life-size statues of Hercules, Marcus Aurelius, Mercury, Diomede, Theseus, Juno, an Amazon, Juno standing, Hercules when a youth, Jason, &c.; and here are two Egyptian black marble statues, found at Tivoli. On the sides of the gallery are the busts, reliefs, &c.
The collection of pictures, formed by Henry, third Marquis of Lansdowne, since 1809, is famed for its portraits, including Kembrandt holding a palette, by himself; a Lady (1642), Rembrandt; Velasquez, by himself; Pope Innocent X., Velasquez; A. del Sarto, by himself; a Gentleman, by Titian; Count Frederigo Bozzola, by Seb. del Piombo; Queen Henrietta-Maria, by Vandyke; Sansovino, the Venetian architect, by Giorgione; a Cardinal and Andrea Doria, by Tintoretto; a Burgomaster and Lady in a Ruff, by Rembrandt; Charles V. in his cradle, by Velasquez; Kitty Fisher and Laurence Sterne, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Alexander Pope, by Jervas; Dr. Franklin, by Gainsborough; Sir Humphry Davy, by Linnell; Francis Horner, by Raeburn; the Marquis of Lansdowne, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; Ladies Ilchester, Mary Cole, and Elizabeth Feilding, by Reynolds; Peg Wofflngton, by Hogarth; Flaxman the sculptor, by John Jackson; Sir Robert Walpole and his first Wife, Catherine Shorter, by Eckhart, (elaborate black and gold frame by Gibbons), from the blue bedchamber of Strawberry Hill. Also, here are twelve pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, including the Strawberry Girl and the Sleeping Girl.
Lansdowne House was long the political meeting-place of the great Whig party: the first Cabinet Council of Lord Grey’s administration was held in this house; and here, at the same meeting, it was resolved that Brougham should be Lord Chancellor. Lord Lansdowne, the acknowledged head of the party, died at his seat, Bowood, Jan. 31, 1863 : he was distinguished by his friendship for artists and men of letters.
Lyndhurst (Lord), Nos. 25 and 26, George-street, Hanover-square, was the residence of John Singleton Copley, R.A., and was for more than three-quarters of a century the dwelling-house of his son, Lord Lyndhurst, who retired from the Chancellorship in 1846. His Lordship died in the house No. 25, Oct. 12, 1863, aged 91. Here were most of fhe important works of his father, including—
Portrait of Admiral Viscount Duncan; Sketch of the Princesses Mary, Sophia, and Amelia; Samuel and Eli; portrait of Lord Mansfield; the Boy with a Squirrel, painted in 1760; the celebrated original picture, exhibited anonymously at the Royal Academy, and which was the cause of Mr. Copley’s coming to England in 1764; he went to Rome in the same year. Portraits of John Singleton Copley, R.A., with his wile caressing the infant (the future Lord Lyndhurst), and his three other infant children. Portrait of Archbishop Laud in his robes; and portrait of Lady Middleton in ablack dress lined with pink satin, pearl necklace and earrings, holding flowers, by Vandyke; Death of Major Peirson, the celebrated chef-d’eeuvre of the artist, engraved by Heath—painted originally for Alderman Boydell, and afterwards repurchased by Mr. Copley.
Lord Lyndhurst’s pictures realized 51472.; the two freehold houses, sold for ] 8,0(XM., have been taken down, and a club-house is built upon the site.
Manchester Hotjse, Manchester-square, was commenced for the Duke of Manchester in 1776essester i, but was not completed until 1788. At the Duke’s death the house became the residence of the Spanish Ambassador, who built the Roman Catholic chapel in Spanish-place. Manchester House was next the town mansion of the Marquis of Hertford, a bon-vivant companion of the Prince Regent. The French Embassy was next located here; with Talleyrand, Guizot, and Sebastiani, successive representatives.
Marlborough House, Pall Mall, was built by Wren, in 1709-10, for the great Duke of Marlborough, upon part of the site of the pheasantry of St. James’s Palace, and of the garden of Mr. Secretary Boyle, the latter taken out of St. James’s Park. The ground was leased by Queen Anne to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, who states the Duke to have paid for the building between 40,OOOZ. and 50,000Z., ” though many people have been made to believe otherwise.” The house is a fine specimen of red brickwork, Wren being employed as architect, to mortify Vanbrugh. The great Duke died here in 1722. The Duchess loved to talk of ” neighbour George,” the King, at St. James’s Palace; and here, Jan. 1, 1741, she received the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, to thank her for a present of venison: ” she received us,” says Sheriff Hoare, ” in her usual manner, sitting up in her bed j . . . . and after an hour’s conversation upon indifferent matters, we retired.” The Duchess intended to have improved the entrance to the court-yard: an archway was opened in the wall, but was blocked up ; for her Grace was frustrated by Sir Robert Walpole, who, to annoy her, bought the requisite houses in Pall Mall. The court-yard is dull, but the front towards St. James’s Park has a cheerful aspect, and a garden. In 1817, Marlborough House was purchased by the Crown for the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold; it was the Prince’s town-house for several years: and after the death of William IV. the residence of the Dowager-Queen Adelaide, whose personal effects were disposed of here, at the price affixed to each article. In 1850, the mansion was settled upon the Prince of Wales, on his attaining his eighteenth year. In the meantime, the Vernon collection of pictures, and others of the English school, were removed to the lower apartments of Marlborough House : and the upper rooms were granted to the Department of Practical Art, for a library, museum of manufactures, the ornamental casts of the School of
Design, a lecture-room, &c. Here was designed, in 1852, the Duke of Wellington’s Funeral Car, which was subsequently exhibited to the public in a temporary building in the court-yard, 1853 : it is now in the Crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
George IV. (while Regent) proposed to connect Carlton House with Marlborough House and St. James’s Palace by a gallery of the Portraits of the Sovereigns and other historic personages of England ; but, unfortunately, Mr. Nash’s speculation of buying Carlton House and Gardens, and overlaying St! James’s Park with terraces, prevailed, and the design of a truly National Gallery was abandoned: although the Crown of England possesses materials for an Historical Collection which would be infinitely superior to that of Versailles.
Marlborough House has been enlarged and re-embellished to adapt it for the town residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
An entrance-hall has been added to the north front of the house; the old entrance-hall has been converted into a noble saloon about 40 ft. in length by 30 ft. in width, two stories in height. On the ceiling and upper part of the walls, on three of the sideston of the, are large oil paintings of the great victories of Marlborough, the battles of Hochstet and Blenheim, and the taking of Marshal Tallard prisoner; upon the ceiling are allegories of the Arts and Sciences. These paintings, the work of Laguerre, had been hidden for many years beneath successive layers of whitewash and colour, and were boarded and canvassed over. They have been restored, and in several of them may be recognised the originals of some old engravings of the battles of Eamillies and Blenheim, in which Marlborough on horseback, leading on the troops, is a very prominent figure. On the lower part of the hall is hung tapestry, apparently of the date of Louis Quatorze, the subjects represented being the adventures of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. In the centre of the principal side is magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the ” Destruction of the Mamelukes.” The sofas and settees are covered with tapestry of the date of Louis Quatorze; and the furniture includes a magnificent ebony and gold cabinet, and ebony and ormolu terras for busts. The library is on the west side of the mansion. In the furnishing and decoration of the State apartments of Marlborough House, English art and English manufactures have been duly patronized: Spitalfields and Manchester have supplied the silk and damask, and Wilton the Axmiuster carpets, while the furniture has been made entirely in London workshops.
One of the rooms on the first floor of Marlborough House has been converted into a characteristic representation of a Turkish mandar’ah or reception-room. The room is hung round with souvenirs of the Prince’s travels: one of the most interesting articles is a fragment of Egyptian hieroglyphic. Here*, also, are amber mouthpieces, embroidered tobacco-bags, a coat of chain armour and a helmet, daggers, swords, &c, artistically arranged; also, specimens of Eastern dress—waist scarfs, abbas, keffiehs; and in the centre, over the deewan, is another group of Eastern weapons—daggers and swords of rare temper, armour and helmets.
The new stables have the form of a block with two wings. In the centre of the block is the Royal entrance, leading into the garden skirting the Mall of St. James’s Park. On either side of the Royal entrance are two coach-houses: the quadrangle in front, together with the Royal entrance, is covered by an enormous skylight, supported by light iron columns; while the quadrangle itself is lighted with gas, provided with clock, manure-pits, water-tanks, and trapped drains. The stables include forty-five stalls and twelve loose boxes.
Montague House (Duke of Buccleuch), Whitehall, was built for Ralph, third Lord Montague, created in 1689 Duke of Montague and Viscount Monthermer. It had a spacious marble floored and pillared hall; and a large collection of full-length portraits of the Montagues and their connexions, by Vandyke, Lely, and Reynolds; sketches en grisaille by Vandyke; a fine assemblage of English Miniatures; and View of Whitehall, by Canaletti. The furniture was in the old French style, richly carved and gilt; and cabinets in buhl or ebony; tables of marble, mosaic, or inlaid wood; hangings of dark velvet, damask, or satin. In the dining-room and library were portraits of the British school; a few Gainsboroughs and Wilsons in the boudoir; and both drawing-rooms were hung with fine old tapestry, representing hunting scenes in the forest of Fontainebleau. The mansion was screened from the street by trees and a garden; and between it and the Thames was a terraced garden, with venerable trees, fountains, and statues, and an open pavilion cd aen paviommanding a fine view of the river.
Montague House was one of the mansions built after the Court had abandoned Whitehall, when various noble families obtained leases of parts of the Privy Gardens. The Dukes of Richmond for a hundred years occupied here a stately mansion surrounded with pleasure-grounds, on part of which is built Richmond-terrace. Pembroke House was erected under like circumstances; between which and the site of Richmond House stood the mansion inherited from the Montague family by the Duke of Buccleuch.
The lease of the site of old Montague House was renewed by the Government, thus securing to the Duke of Buccleuch an acre and a quarter of land, with a river
frontage for ninety-nine years, from 1856. The old mansion was then taken down, and a new house erected in the French style, with lofty Mansard roofs. All the old materials were ground down and made into a sort of concrete to form the foundation of the new building, and every possible precaution taken to make the new mansion water-tight in its lower floors. The new house is substantially fire-proof. Iron has been substituted for wood in all the most important parts of the construction, and every possible precaution has been taken to prevent fire spreading beyond the apartment in which it should arise. In front of the Crown property on the bank of the river, the operation of the Thames Embankment Bill will reclaim no less than five acres and a half of land which would have been admirably adapted for the erection of public offices, had not the lease of Montague House been renewed. These circumstances led to much discussion; but the mansion was completed for the Duke of Buccleuch, and is now His Grace’s town residence.
Montague House, the elegant detached mansion at the north-west angle of Portman-square, was built for the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Montague, who resided here many years; and who annually, on the 1st of May, on the front lawn, regaled the chimney-sweepers of the metropolis, ” so that they might enjoy one happy day in the year.”* The house is now the residence of Lord Rokeby.
Horace Walpole tells us that in February, 1782, he ” dined at Mrs. Montague’s new palace, and was much surprised. Instead of vagaries, it is a noble, simple edifice.” ” When I came home,” he auds, ” I recollected that although I thought it so magnificent a house, there was not a morsel ot gilding. It is grand, not tawdry, nor larded and embroidered and pomponned with shreds and remnants, and clinquant like all the harlequinades of Adam, which never let the eye repose for a moment.”
Norfolk House (Duke of Norfolk), No. 21, St. James’s-square, occupies the site Of the residence cf Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans (temp. Charles II.); the first tenant of the Norfolk family being the seventh Duke, who died here 1701. The old mansion extended to the site of Waterloo-place eastward. In old Norfolk House George III. was born, May 24, 1738 (0. S.); and Edward Augustus Duke of York, March 24, 1739: the room remains, with a ceiling painted by Sir James Thornhill ; the state-bed is preserved at Worksop. The present Norfolk House was commenced by Bret-tingham, in 1742, for Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and completed for his brother Edward in 1762: the portico was added in 1842. The rooms are gorgeously carved and gilt in the Queen Anne style, and contain a collection of pictures of the Italian, Spanish, and Flemish schools; and cotinhools; nspicuous among the plate displayed at state-banquets, are the coronation-cups received in various reigns by the Dukes of Norfolk as hereditary Earls Marshal: here Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were sumptuously entertained, June 19, 1849.
In the old mansion are deposited the records of the Howard, Fitzalan, and Mowbray families. Among the pictures is a portrait of the first Duke of Norfolk, by Holbein; shield presented to the chivalrous soldier-poet, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, at a tournament in 1537; portraits of the family of Thomas Earl of Arundel, who collected the ” Marbles;” portrait of his wife, by Rubens.
Here expired, Dec. 16,1815, Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk: a few hours before he died, by his desire, a servant was sent to a bookseller’s in Pall Mall to procure Drelincourt’s Book of Consolation* against the Fear of Death, wliich was read to the penitent Duke in his last moments.
Noemanton, Lobd, No. 3, Seamore-place, May Fair: here are some important pictures by Holbein; Holy Family, by Parmegiano; and works of the English school.
Noethtjmbeeland Hotjse (Duke of Northumberland), Strand, occupies the site of the Hospital of St. Mary Eounceval, founded temp. Henry III. j its large conventual chapel reaching to the Thames in the Sutherland View of London, 1543. The present mansion was built, about 1605, for Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, son of the poet, Lord Surrey. The architects were Bernard Jansen and Gerard Christmas; and it was then called Northampton Souse. The Earl of Northampton died here in 1614, having bequeathed the mansion to his nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, when the name was changed to Suffolk Souse: a drawing by Hollar shows it to have been quadrangular in plan, with a lofty dome-crowned tower at each angle, in the Dutch style. It originally bad three sides, the fourth remaining open to the gardens and the Thames; when the quadrangle was completed by the addition of the state-rooms,
There was a fourth Montague House—viz. the mansion built by Viscount Montague, or his son, upon part of the site of the priory of St. Mary Overey, in Southwark close, 15±5; the precinct being named Montague Close attributed, but erroneously, to Inigo Jones. After tbe marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, with Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, in 1642, the mansion was called Northumberland Souse. In 1660 General Monk was invited to this house by Earl Algernon; and here, with other leading men of the nation, he proposed and planned the restoration of Charles II. On the death of Joscelyne Percy, the son of Algernon, in 1670, without male issue, his only daughter, Elizabeth, became heiress of the Percy estates. She married, in 1682, Charles Seymour, ” the proud Duke of Somerset,” who resided at Northumberland House in great state. On the death of the Duke in 1748, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Algernon Earl of Hertford, and seventh Duke of Somerset, created Earl of Northumberland in 1749, with remainder, failing issue male, to his son-in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, who assumed the name and arms of Percy, and was created Duke of Northumberland in ] 766: he was the grandfather of the fourth Duke, and the immediate predecessor of his cousin, the Earl of Beverley, the late Duke. Of the as Duke. Oold mansion, little more than the central stone gateway, facing the Strand, remains; this being part of the original work of Gerard Christmas, and, with its characteristic sculpture, a curious example of the Jacobean style. It is surmounted by a lion passant, the crest of the Percys, cast in lead: it is inscribed with the family motto, ” Esperance en Dieu.” Along the facade was a border of capital letters, in place of the present ugly parapet: One of these letters (S) fell down at the funeral of Anne of Denmark, 1619, and killed a spectator. The date 1749 denotes a year of repairs, and the initials A. S. P. N., Algernon Somerset, Princeps Northumbrian. In 1766, great part of the northern front was rebuilt; as also after the fire in 1780, which consumed most of the upper rooms. The court-yard is of plain Italian character; and the living apartments are the southern or garden side of the quadrangle. The boast of the interior is the double state-staircase, with marble steps ; rich ormolu balustrade, chandelier, and lamps; and carved marble podium. The principal drawing-room has medallions by Angelica Kaufimann, and a Raphaelesque ceiling. Beyond is a small room hung with tapestry, designed by Zuccarelli, and worked in Soho-square, in 1758. The state-gallery, or ball-room, is 106 feet long, and 27 wide; it is gorgeously gilt with groups in relief, of eagles, boys, and foliage, and is decorated in compartments with paintings after the Roman school; the chimney-pieces are supported by Phrygian captives in marble: this noble room will accommodate 800 guests. Upon the walls are admirable copies, original size, of the School of Athens, of Raphael, by Mengs; the Presentation, and Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, both also after Raphael, by Pompeio Battoni; and copies of A. Caracci’s Bacchus and Ariadne, by Constansi; and Guido’s Aurora, by Masaccio. Here are two cabinets of marbles and gems, once the property of Louis XIV., and valued at lOOOJ. each. In the centre is a Sevres china vase, nine feet high, exquisitely painted with Diana and her Nymphs disarming Cupid: this was presented by Charles X. to Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland, when Ambassador to France,
The most important original picture in the Northumberland collection (principally at Alnwick Castle), is the portrait-group of the ” Cornaro Family ” (Evelyn called it ” ye Venetian Senators “), by Titian, which was bought by Algernon Earl of Northumberland, temp. Charles I. from Vandyke, for 100O guineas. Among the other pictures are San Sebastian, bound on the ground, and two angels in the air, by Guercino, with figures life-size; a small ” Adoration of the Shepherds,” by G. Bassano; “a pretty Girl with a Candle, before which she holds her hands, by G. Schalcken, of remarkable clearness, and good impasto” (Waagen) ; Alnwick Castle, and Westminster Bridge, building and completed, by Cana-letti; a curious portrait of Edward VI., with a long inscription, by Mabuse; a Fox-hunt and Deer-hunt by F. Snyders; Christ crowned with Thorns, by Caravaggio; portrait of Napoleon when First Consul, by Phillips (a fine likeness); several family portraits, including Percy Ear] of Northumberland, one of Vandyke’s finest portraits. Also, carvings in ivory, after pictures by Teniers and others; and sumptuous* ormolu articles. The mansion can only be seen by special permission.
In the Strand front, west of the central gateway, by an ingenious contrivance, a portion of the wall is opened for the egress of carriages upon state occasions.
Hugh, third duke, who died at Alnwick Castle, was interred from Northumberland House, with great state, in Westminster Abbey, Feb. 22,1847; the funeral pageant reaching from Charing Cross to the western door of the Abbey : and his successo li his sur, Algernon, 4th Duke, who also died at Alnwick Castle, was interred from Northumberland House, with like state, Feb. 25,1865.
Oveestone, Loed, No. 22, Norfolk-street, Park-lane: a valuable collection of Italian, Flemish, and Dutch masters, the latter including examples from the cabinet of Baron Verstolk, at the Hague.
Peel, Sib Robebt, Baet., M.P., No. 4, Privy Gardens, Whitehall: the mansion
contains a portion of the choice collection of pictures formed hy the late Sir Robert Peel; including Rubens’s celebrated Chapeau de Paille, for which Sir Robert gave 3500 guineas: also, 3 by Cuyp; 4 Coast-scenes, by Collins; the Poulterer’s Shop, by G. Douw; 4 by Hobbema; 2 by Isaac Ostade ; Landscape and Cattle, by Paul Potter, 1654; 2 by Ruysdael; 7 by D. Teniers; Genoese Senator and his Wife, by Vandyke; 4 by A. Vandervelde; 7 by W. Vandervelde; 6 by Wouvermans; 2 by Wynants. The Portraits, by Reynolds and Lawrence, have been removed to Drayton Manor. In the dining-room of the above mansion Sir Robert Peel was placed immediately after his fatal accident; and in this room he expired, July 2, 1850. Between the doors hangs Wilkie’s fine picture of John Knox preaching.
Rothschild’s, Baron, Mansion, 147, Piccadilly, occupies a site of 67ft. frontage by 90ft. in depth, and is built on a bed of concrete extending over the whole surface of the basement story. The front walls are of Portland stone. The principal staircase is of marble : its centre flight, opposite the entrance-hall door, is 8ft. wide. The main landing, as well as the stairs, is of marble, and connects the two ante-rooms, which are divided from the staircase by marble screens of columns and arches. These ante-rooms communicate with the first-floor reception-rooms, one of which occupies the whole of the Piccadilly front.
Rutland House, No. 16, Arlington-street, Piccadilly: here, January 5th, 1827, died the Duke of York, second son of George III.
Sibthoep, Colonel, 46, Eaton-square.—Here was assembled the rare and costly collection of articles of vertu : Oriental curiosities, ancient ornamental silver, carvings in ivory and wood, bronzes, Oriental and Limoges enamel, Raphael and Palissy ware; ornamental glass, German, Bohemian, and Venetian; Dresden, Sevres, old Worcester, and Chelsea porcelain, silver, silver-gilt, and plated articles.
Spencee House (Earl Spencer), St. James’s-place, was built by Vardy, a pupil of Kent, for the first Earl Spencer, father of the collector of the Bibliotheca Spenceriana. The mansion fronts the Green Park, and has a pediment, upon which are three graceful figures by Spong, a Danish sculptor.
Stafford House (Duke of Sutherland), on the west side of Stable-yard, St. James’s Palace, occupies part of the site of the Queen’s Library, built by Kent for Caroline, consort of George II.: in Pennant’s time it was a lumber-room. The Stafford mansion was commenced in 1825, by B. Wyatt, for the Duke of York, second son of George III. In 1827, it was proposed to appropriate part of the mansion to the use of the Royal Society; the offer was accepted subject to future arrangements, but was not taken advantage of, on account of the increased expenditure which the change would have involve fa have id; whilst the apartments were unsuitable for the purposes of the Society. The Duke of York died before the building was completed. The Crown lease was then sold to the first Duke of Sutherland, for 72,0002., subject to an annual ground-rent of 758Z. The mansion is entirely of hewn stone; the north front in Stable-yard has a Corinthian portico of eight columns, beneath which is the entrance. The garden-fence is curiously made of slate.
The interior was planned by Barry, by whom were added the second and third stories, the latter concealed by a balustrade. The grandest feature is the hall, or tribune, and state-staircase, opening through all the stories, and lighted by a lantern filled with engraved glass, and supported by eighteen palm-trees; the ceiling contains Guercino’s celebrated apotheosis of St. Grisogno; and beside the fireplace are Murillo’s Prodigal Son’s Return, and Abraham and the Angels, from the Soult Gallery. The walls are imitative Giallo antico, divided by white marble Corinthian columns and pilasters; and in compartments are copies, by Lorenzi, of Paul Veronese’s colossal pictures. The whole interior strikingly reminded Dr. Waageu of many of the palaces of Genoa: it is a square of 80 feet, rising in the centre to 120, the roof richly painted and gilt, the floor a sea of red and white marble; and when lighted by scores of candelabra, the effect is truly gorgeous. On the first landing is a marble statue of a Sibyl, by Ronaldi. Thence two flights of stairs diverge upwards to a corridor, decorated with
marble columns and balustrades, round three sides of tbe hall; the fourth being the gallery, 120 feet long, with a fretted gold roof, and lighted by Roman candelabra in gilt-bronze; the walls are hung with paintings of the Italian, Flemish, Spanish, and modern English schools.
Among the pictures in the gallery are, Vandyke’s portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel; Morone’s portrait of a Jesuit (Titian’s Schoolmaster); Correggio’s Mule-driver, reputed to have been painted for a tavern-sign; Christ before Pilate, Honthorst’s finest work, from the Lucca collection; Christ at Emmaus, by Paul Veronese; Christ bearing his Cross, by Raphael; Don Francis Borgia entering the Jesuits’ College, several life-size figures, by Velasquez; and three works of Zurbaran, from the Soult collection; Lord Strafford on his way to the Scaffold receiving Laud’s blessing, by Delaroche; and Winterhalter’s portrait of the Duchess Dowager of Sutherland.
The other three sides consist of eight state-rooms: three towards the Green Park are drawing-rooms hung with Gobelins tapestry, designed by Delaroche. Northward is the great dining-room, 70 feet by 30 feet, where is a statue of Ganymede, by Thorwaldsen; and on the third side are two saloons hung with a long series of paintings of the old Italian schools above the bookshelves.
In the dining-room, on the ground-floor, are assembled all the portraits of the Orleans Gallery; the royal and historical personages during the reign of Louis XIV., the Orleans regency, the reign of Louis XV., and the happy part of the life of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. The adjoining rooms are dedicated solely to modern British art; including chef-d’osuvres of Reynolds, Lawrence, Opie, Wilkie, Turner, Landseer, Callcott, &c. j busts by Chantrey, and elegant groups by Westmacott, senior and junior; and in her Grace’s drawing-room the chimney-piece supports are statues of her two lovely daughters, exquisitely sculptured by the younger Westmacott. Other marble aloOther mchimney-pieces are adorned with small bronzes and elegant vessels, after the antique; busts, and bas-relief.
Among the pictures on the ground-floor are, Winterhalter’s Scene from the Decameron; a Eiver Scene, by J. Van Goyen, his finest work; St. Justina and St. Kufina, half-lengths, by Murillo, very fine; the Marriage of St. Catherine, by Rubens; Festival before the Flood (17 figures), by W. Etty, R.A.; Scene from the Spectator, by T. Stothard, R.A.; the Breakfast Table, by Wilkie, R.A.; Cassandra foretelling Hector’s Death, by B. R. Haydon; the Passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, by F. Danby, A.R.A.; the Assuaging of the Waters, by John Martin; Death of the Virgin, by Albert Durer; Head of a Young Man, by Parmegiano: Lady Gower (now Duchess Dowager of Sutherland) and her Daughter (now Duchess of Argyle), by Sir Thomas Lawrence; the Day after the Battle of Chevy Chase, by E. Bird, R.A. Also a drawing, by Prince Albert, of his son, the Prince of Wales; and a life-size bronze statue of the Marquis of Stafford, by Feucheres. Among the historic memorials is a bronze cast taken from the face of Napoleon, after death.
The collection of pictures can only be seen by special invitation or permission of the family.
Tomldte’s (Mr. G.), No. 1, Carlton House-terrace, contains a few first-class pictures; including the Pool of Bethesda, or Christ healing the Paralytic, by Murillo, purchased by Mr. Tomline from the Soult collection for 75O0Z. Here also is the picture of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, by Annibal Caracci; and the identical portrait of Charles V., to paint which Titian journeyed to Bologna.
Uxbbidge House (Marquis of Anglesey), Burlington Gardens, built by Joseph Bonomi, in 1792, occupies the site of Queensbury House (Leoni, architect, 1726), where died the poet Gay, December 4, 1732.
MARKETS.
FEW of the Market-buildings of the metropolis are of tasteful design, such as we are accustomed to admire in the ancient and modern market-places of the Continent. Tbe early history and location of the London Markets, are, however, curious.
” Shall the large mutton smoke upon your boards ? Such Newgate’s copious market best affords. Wouldst thou wish mighty beet augment thy meal ? See”. Leadenhall; St. James’s sends thee veal; Thames-street gives cheeses Covent Garden fruits; Moorfields old books, and Monmouth-street old suits.”
Gay’s Trivia, book ii.
Billingsgate is described at pp. 54 and 55. It was once a landing-place for other merchandise than fish : ” 1550.—There came a sheppe ot egges and shurtes and smockes out ot France to Byllyngesgatte.” {Grey Friars’ Ckron.)
Borough Market, Southwark, for provisions, occupies the site of a mansion of the see of Rochester; and the ground is held of the Sishop by the parish of St. Saviour, at an annual rent of 14Z. 13s. 6d.
Clare Market, at the south-west angle of Lincoln’s-inn-fields, for butcher’s-meat, fish, and vegetables, was built by William Holies, Baron Houghton and Earl of Clare, in Clement’s-inn-fields, about the year 1660, and was first called New Market.
The City and Lord Clare had a long lawsuit concerning this estate: the City yielded; “and from the success of this noble lord, they have got several charters for the erecting of several other markets since the year 1660: as that of St. James, by the Earl of St. Albans; Bloomsbury, by the Earl of Southampton; Brook Market, by the Lord Brook; Hungerford Market; Newport Market; besides the Hay-market, New Charing Cross, and that at Petty France at Westminster, with their Mayfair in the fields behind Piccadilly.”— Sari. MS. 5900.
Here was a chapel for the use of the butchers, whither Orator Henley removed from Newport Market, and preached in a tub covered with velvet and gold; the altar being inscribed ” The Primitive Eucharist.” Henley, ” preacher at once, and zany of the age,” lectured ” at the Oratory ” upon theology, ” skits of the fashions,” ” the beau monde from before Noah’s flood,” and “bobs at the times;” but straying into sedition, he was cited before the Privy Council, who dismissed him as an impudent fellow. He lectured here for nearly 20 years; the admission was 1*., and he had medals struck as tickets. In Gibbon’s-court, Clare Market, was a theatre, where Killigrew’s company performed some time. ” Nov. 20, 1660.—Mr. Sbepley and I to the new playhouse near Lincoln’s-inn-fields (which was formerly Gibbon’s Tennis-court) where the play of * Beggar’s Bush’ was newly begun : . . it is the finest playhouse, I believe, that ever was in England.” (Pepys.) Its remains were long used as a carpenter’s shop, slaughter-houses, &c. Clare Market lying between the two great theatres, its butchers were the arbiters of the galleries, the leaders of theatrical rows, the musicians at actresses’ marriages, the chief mourners at players’ funerals. In and around the Market were the signs of the Sun; Bull and Butcher, afterwards Spiller’s Head; The Grange; The Bull’s Head, where met the ” Shepherd and his Flock Club,” and where Dr. Radcliffe was carousing when he received the news of the loss of his 5000Z. venture. Hogarth, when an apprentice, was here an early boon companion of Joe Miller. Next is the Black Jack, in Portsmouth-street, the haunt of Joe Miller, the comedian, and where he uttered his time-honoured “jests;” the house remains, but the sign has disappeared. Miller died in 1738, and was buried in St. Clement’s upper ground, in Portugal-street, where his grave-stone was inscribed with the following epitaph, written by Stephen Duck : ” Here lie the remains of honest Joe Miller, who was a tender husband, a sincere friend, a facetious companion, and an excellent comedian. He departed this fife, the 15th day of August, 1738, aged 54 years.
“If humour, wit, and honesty could Bave The humourous, witty, honest, from the grave, This grave had not so soon its tenant found, With honesty, and wit, and humour crown’d. Or could esteem and love preserve our health, And guard us longer from the stroke of Death, The stroke of Death on him had later fell, Whom all mankind esteem’d and loved so well.”
The’ stone was restored by the parish grave-digger at the close of the last century; and in 1816 a new stone was set up by Mr. Jarvis Buck, churchwarden, who added ” S. Duck” to the epitaph. At the Black Jack (also called the Jump), a club known as “the Honourable Society of J ackers” met until 1816. .
Clare Market, which had long been one of the poorest and most squalid neighbourhoods in the metropolis, has of late years been greatly improved by the establishment of a Mission, with a chapel in the centre; also, an orphan refuge, a needlewoman’s home, a working man’s club, soup-kitchen, Bible-class, &c., to all which the recipients themselves contribute.
Colombia Market, Bethnal Green (Darbishire, architect), has been built at the cost of Miss Burdett Coutts, for providing good supplies, with great attention to cleanliness and sanitary regulation; the shops surrounding the market to be let for various trades. The design is old English, and the plan quadrangular, of fine brick and stone, and terra-cotta; in a lofty central tower is the machinery for the water supply. Altogether this is the most picturesque market-place in the metropolis.
Corn Market, Mark-lane. (See Corn Exchange, p. 329.)
Covent-Garden Market was established towards the end of Charles II.’s reign (see p. 293), on the site of the garden of the Convent at Westminster; and in Chamberlayne’s Notitia, 1726, it is printed Cowvent Garden. Strype describes it, in 1698, as held for fruits, herbs, roots, and flowers, ” beneath a small grotto of trees,” on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the present market-days. In 1704, when Tavi-stock-row was built, the market-people were compelled to assemble in the square, and here their stalls increased to dwellings.
Steele (Tatter, No. 454, Aug. 11,1712), in his boat-voyage from Richmond, “soon fell in with a fleet of gardeners, bound for the several market-ports of London. … It was very easy to observe by their sailing, and the countenances of the ruddy virgins who were supercargoes, the part of the town to which they were bound. There was an air in the purveyors for Covent Garden, who frequently converse with morning rakes, very unlike the seeming sobriety of those bound for Stocks Market. . . . I landed, with ten sail of apricot boats, at Strand Bridge, after having put in at Nine Elms and taken in melons, consigned by Mr. Cuffe, of that place, to Sarah Sewell and Co., at their stall in Covent Garden.”
Still the market was a strange assemblage of shed and penthouse, rude stall, and crazy tenement, coffee-house and gin-shop, intersected by narrow and ill-lit footways, until the site was cleared for a new market in 1829. The present market-buildings were designed by Fowler, and are perfectly fitted for their various uses ; evince considerable architectural skill, and are so characteristic of the purpose for which the market has been erected, that it cannot be mistaken for anything else but what it is; unless the inscription, ” John Duke of Bedford, erected mdcccxxx.,” over the east end, lead posterity to regard this as a patriotic act; whereas the Bedford family derive a large rental from the market, stated at 5000Z. per annum. The area is 3 acres. The rent of some of the shops is from 400Z. to 500Z. per annum.
The plan consists of a quadrangle, with two exterior colonnades on the north and south sides, in front of shops; and in the central building an avenue open to the roof, with shops on each side for forced articles, the choice fruits, vegetables, &c. At tvar &che east end is a quadruple colonnade, with a terrace over, and two large conservatories, a roofed fountain of Devonshire marble, and an emblematical group of figures on the pediment of a screen between the conservatories. At the west end is a colonnade, and below is the iron-roofed Flower Market. There are store-cellars almost throughout the area; and water is supplied from an Artesian well sunk beneath the central path, 280 feet deep, and affording 1600 gallons per hour, distributed throughout the market by a steam-engine.
The supplies of fruit and vegetables sent to this market, in variety, excellence, and quantity, surpass those of all other countries. There is more certainty of being able to purchase a pine-apple here, every day in the year, than in Jamaica and Calcutta, where pines are indigenous. Forced asparagus, potatoes, sea-kale, rhubarb-stalks, mushrooms, French beans, and early cucumbers, are to be had in January and February; in March, forced cherries, strawberries, and spring spinach; in April, grapes, peaches, and melons, with early peas; in May, all forced articles in abundance. The supply of forced flowers, of greenhouse plants, and in summer of hardy flowers and shrubs, is equally varied and abundant; and of curious herbs for domestic medicines, distilleries, &c., upwards of 500 species may be procured at the shop of one herbalist.
From distant counties are sent up the products of acres of turnip-tops, cabbages, and peas; while hundreds of acres in Cornwall and Devon grow early potatoes, broccoli, peas, &c., which reach London by railway. Green peas have been sold here at Christmas at 21. the quart, and asparagus and rhubarb at 15*. the bundle. Peaches are sold at 60*. a dozen, and cherries at 40*. a pound.
The foreign green-fruit trade of Covent Garden is very extensive in pine-apples,
melons, cherries, apples and pears. The cheap West India pine-apple trade dates from
1844, when pines were first cried in the streets ” a penny a slice.”
Farringdon Market, between the west end of Shoe-lane and Farringdon-street, covers l£ acres of ground, and was built by William Montague, the City architect; it was opened in 1829, on the removal of Fleet Market. It is well placed for drainage, parallel with Holborn-hill; the site and buildings (including a clock-tower of Italian design) cost about 250,000^.; but the Market is little frequented.
Hungerford Market, West Strand, occupied the site of a market-place built in 1680 by Sir Edward Hungerford, from his town-house and grounds, extending to the
Thames. In 1685, Sir Stephen Fox and Sir Christopher Wren were proprietors of the market-estate; in the centre was a lofty hall, with a oust of one of the Hunger-fords, and an inscription stating the market-place to have heen erected ” utilitati publicm;” hut Strype, in 1720, describes it as ” baulk’d at first,” and turned to little account. The old hall and a colonnade remained until 1830, when premises adapted from a Roman market, were commenced for a company by Fowler, architect of Covent Garden Market. The lower quadrangle was the fish-market, and the upper for vegetables, fruit, meat, &c. The market was publicly opened July 2, 1833; but of2, 1833proved alike unprofitable with the original Hungerford scheme. The market-place has been removed for the Charing Cross Eailway Terminus and Hotel.
Leadenhall Maeket, Gracechurch-street, is the great poultry and game market, where 4,000,000 birds, &c., have been sold in one year. Tn 1533 the beef sold here was not to exceed a halfpenny a pound, and mutton a halfpenny half-farthing.
In severe winters here are large supplies of wild ducks, principally from Holland; woodcocks, &c.; snipes from Ireland ; pigeons from France; rabbits from Ostend; blackcocks from Scotland. ” Sometimes, after a grand battue, there is a glut of hares and pheasants in Leadenhall Market.” (M acculloch.) The returns for poultry, game, and rabbits in one year equal half a million of money. A few years since Ostend rabbits were hardly saleable in London; now, from 50 to 100 tons are imported weekly by steamers, and 1000 persons are employed in this rabbit trade. On Christmas Eve here are displayed 100,000 geese and turkeys, including importations from France, Belgium, Holland, and Ireland. Here, also, is a market for live animals,—fancy dogs and rabbits, cage-birds, &c.
Meteopolitan Cattle Maeket, the, erected to supply the place of Smithfield, where the last market was held June 11, 1855, occupies 75 acres of ground. The Market-place is an irregular quadrangle, with a lofty clock-tower in the centre, and four taverns at the four corners ; the open area being set off into divisions for the different kinds of live stock. No less than 400,000£. have been expended upon the land and buildings. In the parts of the market appropriated for the reception of the different cattle, each central rail is decorated with characteristic casts of heads of oxen, sheep, pigs, &c.: these were designed and modelled by Bell, the sculptor. The open space of the market will accommodate at one time about 7000 cattle and 42,000 sheep, with a proportionate number of calves and pigs. The calf and pig-markets are covered, the roofs being supported by iron columns, which act at the same time a3 water-drains. In the centre of the whole area is a twelve-sided structure, called ” Bank Buildings,” surmounted by an elegant campanile, or bell-tower. The twelve sides give entrance to twelve sets of offices occupied by bankers, salesmen, railway companies, and electric telegraph companies.
In one year, 1862, the returns have been 304,741 bullocks, 1,498,500 sheep, 27,951 calves, and 29,470 pigs. The great Christmas sale in the closing year of old Smithfield ranged from 6000 to 7000 bullocks, and between 20,000 and 25,000 sheep. On December 15, 1862, the bullocks were 8340, being a greater number than ever before known at any metropolitan market. The market-days for cattle, sheep, and pigs are Mondays and Thursdays; there is a miscellaneous market for horses, asses, and goats on Fridays.
Newgate Maeket, between Paternoster-row and Newgate-street, was formerly kept in the latter street, and was a market for meal. ” 1548. This yere before Alhalloutyd was sett up the bowse for the markyt folke in Newgate Market for to waye melle in.” {Grey Friars’ Chron.) It is now the great Meat Market. Upon the site of the old College of Physicians, Warwick-lane, is held another meat market.
Butcher-Hall-lane (now King Edward-street), Newgate-street, was originally named from the gTeat number of butchers living here; and there is extant a petit, axtant aion to Parliament, dated 1380, praying that they might be restrained from throwing the blood and entrails of slaughtered animals into the river Fleet, and that they might be compelled to ” kill” at ” Knyghtsbrigg,” or elsewhere out of London; and this seems to have been done for several reigns.
The City poulterers were strictly prohibited from standing for sale at the Carfeux of Leadenhall, a place with ” four faces,” which was expressly reserved for foreigners; and were compelled, under pain of forfeiture, to stand towards the west of the church of St. Michael, on Comhill. Similar regulations were in force at Newgate Market, the object being to prevent ” denizens” from meddling with the foreigners in sale or purchase. Foreigners were prohibited from carrying their poultry to the houses of denizen poulterers, or lodging in their houses, and were liable to forfeiture and imprisonment if they did not go direct to the market. Any poulterer who sold above the price fixed by the regulations was liable to penalties; and any person who bought above the price was liable to forfeit what he so bcught, and to be further punished by the local authorities.
Newport Market, Soho, named from the town-house of the Earl of Newport in the neighbourhood, is a meat-market, with its butchers, slaughtermen, and drovers. Here Orator Henley held his mock preaching. The father of John Home Tooke was a poulterer in Newport market,—as he told his schoolfellows, ” a Turkey merchant.”
Oxford Market, north of Oxford-street, was built for Edward, Earl of Oxford, in 1731. Barry, the painter, who lived in Castle-street, describes it ironically as “the most classic London market—that of Oxford.”
Smithfield, or West Smithfield (so called to distinguish it from East Smithfield, east of Tower-hill), was the only ” live” market, and the oldest in the metropolis. The name signifies a smooth plain; ” smith” being corrupted from the Saxon tmeth, smooth. Fitzstephen calls it ” a certain plain, field {planus campus), both in reality and name, situated without one of the • City gates, even in the very suburbs :” horses and cattle were sold here in 1150, horse-racing was common, and the horse-market was to our day called ” Smithfield races.” The original extent of Smithfield was about three acres; the niarket-place was paved, drained, and railed in, 1685; subsequently enlarged to 4^ acres, and since 1834 to Q\ acres. Yet this enlargement proved disproportionate to the requirements: in 1731 there were only 8304 head of cattle sold in Smithfield ; in 1846, 210,757 head of cattle, and 1,518,510 sheep. The old City laws for its regulation were called the ” Statutes of Smithfield.” Here might be shown 4000 beasts and about 30,000 sheep, the latter in 1509 pens: and there were 50 pens for pigs. Altogether Smithfield was the largest live market in the world, and its sales amounted to 7,000,OOOZ. annually. It is tbus sketched by Charles Dickens:—
*’ It was market morning. The ground was covered nearly ankle-deep with filth and mire; and a thick eteam perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above. All the pens in the centre of the large area, and as many temporary ones as could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep; and tied up to posts by the gutter-side were long lines of beasts and oxen three or four deep. Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were e w grade,mingled together in a dense mass: the whistling of drovers, the barking of dogs, the bellowing and plunging of beasts, the bleating of sheep, and grunting and squeaking of pigs; the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all sides, the ringing of bells, and the roar of voices that issued from every public-house; the crowding, pushing, driving,beating, whooping, and yelling: the hideous and discordant din that resounded from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and burstins in and out of the throng, rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene which quite confused the senses.”— Oliver Tatit.
The market, with its attendant nuisances of knackers’ yards, tainted-sausage makers, slaughter-houses, tripe-dressers, cat’s-meat boilers, catgut-spinners, bone-houses, and other noxious trades, in the very heart of London, was, however, in 1852, condemned by law to be removed into Copenhagen Fields, Islington.
The posts and rails of the old cattle pens were turned into printing materials, reglet chiefly. Upon the site of Smithfield and additional ground, is to be erected a Meat and Poultry Market, of elegant design.
Stocks Market, for fish and flesh, was established in 1282, on the site of the present Mansion House, and was named from a pair of stocks placed there for punishing offenders. In the reign of Edward II. it was decreed one of the City Flesh and Fish Markets. After the Great Fire it became a fine market for fruit, roots, and herbs, ” surpassing all the other fruit-markets in London ” (Strype) : ” where is such a garden in Europe as the Stocks Market ?” (Shadwell, 1689). At the north end was the Conduit; and the equestrian statue of John Sobieski, set up by Sir Robert Viner, with a new head, as Charles II. The market was removed for the Mansion House site in 1779. A few dealers in costly fruit kept shops hard by until our time.
MARK-LANE,
BETWEEN Fenchurch-street and Great Tower-street, is now the site of our great Metropolitan Corn Market, which originated as follows. There exists a token— ” Joseph Taylor, in Blanch Appleton-court, at the end of Marke-lane,”—referring us to a spot which now, amid modern alterations and improvements, is somewhat difficult to trace. There is no mention of it in the list of streets, courts, &c, in the city of London, published in 1722; nor is it in Maitland’s list or plans (edit. 1756), although it is mentioned in the text (p. 778) as being ” a large open square place with a passage for carts, and corruptly called Blind Chapel-court.” It appears from Stow that the north-east corner of Mark-lane (now occupied by the premises of Sharp and Son, tea-dealers), was, as far back as 13 Edward I., the site of a manor-house called Blanch Appleton; and that a lane at the back of it was granted by the king to be enclosed and shut up. Attached to the manor was the privilege of holding a market, or mart, but of which, Stow observes, ” nothing remaineth for memory but the name of Mart-lane, and that corruptly termed Marke-lane.” In the reign of Richard II. the manor was possessed by Sir Thomas Roos. Stow further informs us, that in 3 Edward IV., ” all basket-makers, wyer-drawers, and other forrainers, were permitted to have shops in this mannour erithis maof Blanch Appleton, and not elsewhere in this citie, or suburbs thereof.” In a communication to the Society of Antiquaries from Mr. T. Lott, relating to the arrangements made by the city of London for the funeral procession of the body of Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII., some curious particulars are given concerning this place, together with the amount in which the city assessed its inhabitants towards the expense of the procession, &c. Mr. Lott states that this district, which appears to have been a sort of sanctuary for non-freemen, is to this day called in the City Chamberlain’s books the ” Blanch Appleton lands.” Milton’s friend, Cyriac Skinner, was a merchant in this lane; and here Dr. Isaac Watts was minister of a Dissenters’ meeting house.
MARTIN’S (ST.), LANE,
EXTENDING northward from Charing Cross and the east side of Trafalgar-square, to the junction of Long Acre with Cranbourn-street, appears in Aggas’s plan (early in Elizabeth’s reign) as a green lane, with only a few houses beyond St. Martin’s Church, abutting into Covent Garden, which extended into Drury-lane. St. Martin’s-lane was mostly built about 1613, and was first named ” West Church-lane.” A few of the houses are spacious and have noble staircases, those on the west side being the largest; some exteriors on the east side are good specimens of brickwork. Among the early tenants was Sir Theodore Mayerne, phygieian to James I.; Daniel Mytens, the painter; Sir John Suckling, the poet. Sir Hugh Piatt, the most ingenious husbandman of his age, had a garden in St. Martin’s-lane in 1606. Howell sends a maiden copy of his poem ” to Sir Kenelm Digby, at his house in St. Martin’s-lane,” in 1641. (Familiar Letters, 5th edit. 1678, p. 393.) Here also lived the great Earl of Shaftesbury; Dr. Tenison, when vicar of St. Martin’s; and Ambrose Philips, the Whig poet. Here too dwelt, nearly opposite May’s-buildings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, when he first came to London; Sir James Thornhill, who, at the back of his house, established an artists’ school, from which arose the Royal Academy; Roubiliac, who commenced practice in St. Peter’s-court, a favourite haunt of artists; Fuseli, at No. 100 (first floor and staircase good). Old Slaughter’s Coffee-house was once the great evening resort of artists, and Hogarth was a constant visitor. At No. 101 was built and exhibited the Apollonicon. No. 112 was the picture premises of Mr. Samuel Woodburn, the eminent English dealer in art, who died in 1853, leaving a valuable collection of the Italian, German, and Flemish old masters : among the English pictures was Hogarth’s Midnight Modern Conversation, painted for Rich, of Covent Garden Theatre. No. 31 has a classically decorated exterior, in the style of Inigo Jones, and is engraved in Hakewell’s Architecture of the Seventeenth Century, 1853. The first floor has an enriched ceiling.
A labyrinth of courts and alleys about St. Martin’s church was removed in 1829 including the Bermudas, Caribbee or Cribbe Islands; and Porridge Island, noted for its cook-shops. Another knot, on the west side of St. Martin’s-lane, was cleared away for Trafalgar-square, including Duke’s-court. Hereabout Sir Christopher Wren, in conjunction with his friend, John Evelyn, in 1685, arranged the building of Archbishop Tenison’s Library.
MARTIN’S (ST.) LE GRAND.
A COLLEGE founded by Withred King of Kent, in 700, and rebuilt and endowed about 1056 by the Saxon brothers Ingelric and Girard, was dedicated to St. Martin, to which was added le Grand, from its privileges, granof vilegested by monarchs who
occasionally resided here. The church and collegiate buildings covered the insulated ground now occupied by the General Post-Office; and the Sutherland View, 1543, shows the lofty spire and tower, wherein curfew was rung. Among the deans was William of Wykeham, who rebuilt the church: the advowsons were given by Henry VI. to the Abbots of Westminster. St. Martin’s-le-Grand was a noted sanctuary; and after the demolition of the College, the site was built upon and occupied by non-freemen, to avoid the City jurisdiction. French, Germans, Dutch, and Scotch abounded here j their trades being shoemakers, tailors, makers of buttons and button-moulds, goldsmiths, &c.; and here are said to have first settled in England silk-throwsters. Among its counterfeit finery was the copper ” St. Martin’s-lace.” Each trade had its quarter j hence Mould-maker’s-row, removed in our time; and Shoemaker’s-row, now the west side of St. Martin’s-le-Grand; while Dean’s, Bell, and Angel alleys denote the old ecclesiastical locality. In 1828, when the site was cleared for the Post-Office, a crypt by William of Wykeham was destroyed. (See Cbypts, page 303.) Lower down were found remains of the Koman times: coins, beads, glass, and pottery; amphorae, Samian ware, funeral urns, lachrymatories, &c.: denoting this to have been an important site of Roman London. (See Kempe’s St. Martin’s-le-Grand.)
Anions the distinguished residents of Aldersgate-street, in a line with St. Martin’s-le-Grand, was Mr., afterwards Sir William, Watson; at whose house, in 1746, were exhibited the effects of the Leyden phials, then newly invented; and here the Duke of Cumberland, recently returned from Scotland, took the shock with the point of the sword with which he had fought the battle of Culloden.— The Gold-headed Cane, p. 115.
In St. Martin’s-le-Grand was the Taborer’s Inn, of the time of Edward II.; and the Crown Tavern, at the end of Duck-lane, which, in 1709, had a noble room painted with classical subjects. Between Aldersgate and St. Anne’s-lane end, was the Mourning Bush, the owner having painted black his carved sign (a bush), after the beheading of Charles I. ; its vaulted cellars, with regular courses of Roman brick, form the foundation of the present 2Ve» Post-office Coffee House. Adjoining these massive remains runs a portion of the City wall.
MARYLEBONE
A MANOR of the hundred of Ossulton, in Middlesex, and the largest parish of London (more than twice the extent of the City, and population greater), was, at the commencement of the last century^ small village about a mile N.W. from the nearest part of the metropolis. It was originally called Tyburn, or Tybourne, from its being on the bourne, or brook, which runs from Hampstead into the Thames; and its church being dedicated to St. Mary, the parish was named St. Mary-at-the-bourne, Mary-le-bone, or Marybone. In a record of Henry VIII. it is called Tyborne, alias Maryborne, alias Marybourne (Lysons). It extends northward to Primrose Hill, west to Kilburn turnpike, and south to Oxford-street, inclusive: it is 8y miles in circumference, and contains about 1700 acres of land; of which, till about 1760, two-thirds were chiefly pasture-fields.
The Manor of Tybourn, valued at 52 shillings in Domesday book, and in Kino-Edward’s time at 100 shillings, was exchanged by the then lord, in 1544, with Henry VIII. for certain church lands; it was leased by Queen Elizabeth, in 1583 and 1595, at the yearly rent of 16Z. lis. 8e7.; in 1611 it was sold by James I. (excepting the park) for 829Z. 3s. Ad.; in 1710 it was sold for 17,500Z., the rental being then 9001. per annum; and about 1813 the manor passed from the second Duke of Portland to the Crown, by an exchange of land valued at 40,000£. The manor-house, a large gabled building, not unpicturesque, was taken down in 1791.
Marylebone Park was a hunting-ground in the reign of Queen Elizabeth: in 160O the ambassadors from Russia and their retinue rode through the City to hunt in Marylebone Park; and here Sir Charles Blount (afterwards Earl of Devonshire), one of the challengers in the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, had a tilt with the Earl of Essex, and wounded him. The park, reserved by James I., was assigned by Charles I. as a security for debt; but was sold by Cromwell for 13,215J. 6*. 8d., including deer, and timber, except that marked for the navy. At the Restoration the park was re-assigned, till the debt was discharged. The site had been previously disparked, and was never afterwards stocked; but was let on leases, upon the expiry of which the ground was. relaid out, by Nash, and named Regent’s Park.
Bowling-greens were also among the celebrities of Marylebone; where, says the grave John Locke {Diary, 1679), a curious stranger ” may see several persons of quality bowling, two or three times a week, all the summer.” Tbe bowling-green of the Hose Tavern and gaming-house in High-street is referred to in Lady Mary Wortley Montague’s memorable line (see p. 8); and it is one of the scenes of Capt. Macheath’s debaucheries, in Gay’s Beggars’ Opera. This and an adjoining bowling-green were incorporated in Marylebone Gardens, open gratis to all classes ; but the company becoming more select, one shilling entrance-money was charged, an equivalent being allowed in viands. Here were given balls and concerts; Handel’s music was played, under Dr. Arne’s direction, followed by fireworks, and in 1772, a model picture of Mount Etna in eruption. Burlettas after Shakspeare were recited in the theatre here in 1774; and in 1776 was exhibited a representation of the Boulevards at Paris, Egyptian Pyramids, &c.: the gardens were suppressed in 1777-8, and the site built upon.
A deed of assignment made by Thomas Lowe, the singer, conveying’ his property in Marylebone Gardens, to trustees, for the benefit of his creditors, in 1769, was in the possession of the late Mr. Sampson Horigkinson, who was familiar with the parochial history of Marylebone. From this deed we learn that the premises of Eysbraeck, the statuary, were formerly part of the Great (Marylebone) Garden. (See Smith’s St. Marylebone, 1833.)
The orchestra of the Gardens stood upon the site of No. 17, Devonshire-place, nearly opposite the old church described at page 183.
Chattcrton wrote a burletta, entitled The Revenge, to be performed at Marylebone Gardens; and that fortunate collector, Mr. Upcott, then librarian of the ingarian oLondon Institution, found upon the counter of a cheesemonger’s shop in the City, the above drama, in the handwriting of Chatterton, with his receipt given to llenslow, the proprietor of the Gardens, for the copy-money paid for the piece. It was published by Tom King, the bookseller and book-auctioneer; but its authenticity was doubted.
Prize-fighting was a pastime of this period, and Marylebone a place at which ” to learn valour ” {Beggars’ Opera). Here was the boarded house of Figg, ” the Atlas of the Sword,” whose portrait is in the second plate of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress. Near Figg’s was Broughton’s Amphitheatre, often crowded with amateurs of high rank. In the Evening Post, March 16, 1715 we find: ” On Wednesday last, four gentlemen were robbed and stripped in the fields between London and Mary-le-bon.”
Between 1718 and 1729 was built the north side of Tyburn-road, now Oxford-street; and the squares and streets northward were then commenced: still, much of the ground between the new buildings and the village of Marylebone was pasture-fields; and Maitland, in his BZistory of London, 1739, states there to have been then only 577 houses in the parish, and 35 persons who kept coaches. In 1795 there were 6200 houses; in 1861, houses 16,370.
In 1841 the Vestry of St. Marylebone accepted tenders from certain contractors to the amount of 41502. for permission to cart away the ashes (breeze) from the several houses in this vast parish.
Marylebone is a parliamentary borough, containing the three parishes of St. Marylebone, Paddington, and St. Pancras. (See Chtjbches, St. Marylebone, p. 183.) In the Parish Register is the following entry : ” Georgiana Augusta Frederica Elliott, daughter of H.R.H. George, Prince of Wales, and Grace Elliott; born 30 March, and baptized 30 July, 1782.”
MAY FAIR,
^FHE district north of Piccadilly, and between Park-lane and Berkeley-square, was -*- originally Brookfield; but received its present name from a fair being held there by grant of James II., after the suppression of St. James’s Fair, to commence on May 1, and continue fifteen days; where multitudes of the booths were ” not for trade and merchandize, but for inusick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stage-plays, and drolls.” It was frequented “by all the nobility in town;” but was suppressed in 1708, when the downfall of May Fair quite sunk the price of Pinkethman’s tame elephant, and sent his ingenious company of strollers to Greenwich. (See Taller, Nos. 4 and 20). The Fair was, however, revived; and John Carter describes its “booths for jugglers; prize-fighters, both at cudgels and back-sword; boxing-matches, and wild beasts. The sports not under cover were mountebanks, fire-eaters, 2.ss-racing, sausage-tables, dice ditto, up-and-downs, merry-go-rounds, bull-baiting, grinning for a hat, running for a shift, hasty-pudding-eaters, eel-divers,” &e. The site of the Fair is now occupied by Hertford-street, Curzon-street, Shepherd’s Market, &c.j but the old wooden public-house, The Dog and Duck, with its willow-shaded pond for duck-hunting, is remembered : at fair-time, the second story of the market-house was let for the playhouse. The Fair was not finally abolished until late in the reign of George III. In Curzon-street was ” the Rev. Alexander Keith’s Chapesc Keith’el,” with an entrance like a country church-porch, where marriages at a minute’s notice were almost as notorious as at the Fleet—6000 in one year. Keith’s charge was one guinea, with a licence on a five-shilling stamp and certificate. The chapel was much frequented during May Fair : here the Duke of Kingston was married to Miss Chud-leigh; the Baroness Clinton to the Hon. Mr. Shirley; and James, fourth Duke of Hamilton, in 1752, to the youngest of the two beautiful Miss Gunnings, with a bed-curtain ring, half an hour after midnight. The registers of the May-Fair marriages, in three folio volumes, closely and clearly written, are kept with the parish-books of St. George’s, Hanover-square. A minute description of the above district, entitled, “The Fair of May Fair,” will be found in Walks and Talks about London; and in London Society, No. 24, with an engraving of the Fair one hundred years ago, from an original drawing.
MEWS, ROYAL.
UPON the site of the National Gallery, on the north side of Charing Cross, when falconry was a royal pastime, were kept the King’s hawks, in a building called the Mews. In 1319 (13 Edward II.) John De la Becke had the custody of the King’s Mews (“de mutis apud Charryng juxta Westmonasterium”). In the reign of Richard II., Sir Simon Burley was Keeper of the King’s Falcons; and Chaucer was Clerk of the King’s Works, and of the Mews at Charing. In 1534, the royal stables at Lomsbery (since Bloomsbury) were burnt; after which the hawks were removed from Charing Cross, and the premises rebuilt for the stabling of the King’s horses, in the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary; the building retaining the name of Meivs, and public stables assuming the same. Here Colonel Joyce was imprisoned by order of Oliver Cromwell j beipg carried away by musqueteers and put into the Dutch prison, and removed thence to another chamber in the Mews. It was a gamblers’ resort : Gay, in his Trivia, says of ” careful observers” :
” Untempted, they contemn the juggler’s feats, Pass by the Meuse, nor try the thimble’s cheats.”
In 1732 the facade was rebuilt from the design of Kent, with three stone cupolas. Mac Owen Swiney was made Keeper of the Mews; he had been manager of Drury Lane and the Queen’s Theatres, and died in 1754, leaving his fortune to Peg Wot-fington. At the Mews were kept the royal stud, the gilt state-coach, and the other royal carriages, until their removal to the new Mews at Pimlico, in 1824. The building at Charing Cross was occupied, in 1828, as the exhibition-rooms of the National Repository, and by Cross’ Menagerie from Exeter Change; and here was temporarily housed a portion of the Public Records. The premises were taken down in 1830, for the site of the National Gallery. The last of the original Mews was occupied as a barrack: it was built of red Tudor brick, with buttresses, and crenellated; stone window-cases and dressings.
At the Mews-gate lived for more than forty years “honest Tom Payne” (d. 1799), the bookseller; ¦whose little shop, in the shape of an L, was the first named a literary coffee-house, from its knot of literary frequenters.
The Queen’s Mews, at the rear of Buckingham Palace, Queen’s-row, Pimlico, was built in 1824, and consists of two quadrangles, entered by a Doric archway beneath a clock-tower. Visitors are admitted by a ticket from the Master of the Horse. In the first quadrangle are the coach-houses, and in the second the horses. Here are usually forty carriages, besides Her Majesty’s state-coach : the dress-carriages are fine specimens of coach-building. The horses include road-teams, saddle-horses, and backs; and the dun and black Hanoverian state-horses (generally from twelve to fourteen of each) for the state-coach j and here are usually kept the foreign horses presented to the sovereign. In the harness-room is the red morocco state-harness for eight horses, with massive silver-gilt furniture, the harness for each horse weighing 1 cwt. ; hesides the purple morocco state-harness made when George IV. was Regent.
The Mews dock has stone dials (6 feet 10 inches in diameter), with the figures sunk (as in the Egyptian monuments), and a sunk centre for the hour-hand to traverse, so as to bring the minute-hand close to the figures, and thus avoid nearly all error from parallax—an improvement by Vulliamy.
The Riding-House belonged to Buckingham House: here, in 1771, were publicly exhibited the Queen’s elephants, from one of which Lindley Murray, the grammarian, had a narrow escape.
Royal Mews, Prince’s-street, Westminster, was huilt hy Decimus Burton, for stables to the House of Commons, upon a space formerly occupied hy a nursery of 200 trees, planted upon the site of the markets and narrow streets on the north side of Westminster Ahhey, and removed between 1804 and 1808. Here was kept the Speaker’s State Coach (See State Coaches). In 1854, the Mews was taken down, and upon its foundations was built the present Stationery Office, by Pennethorne; the old office, Lord Milford’s house, being taken down, and the site added to Birdcage Walk, in 1855.
MINORIES, THE,
LEADING from Aldgate High-street to Tower-hill, is named from the ” Sorores Minores,” ” Minoresses,” or nuns of the order of St. Clare, founded 1293, whose convent stood in this street: upon its site on the east side, is built the church of the Holy Trinity. The parish was formerly the convent close, and is without the walls of London, although in the Liberty of the Tower of London; therefore its inhabitants have no vote in the Common Council. In Haydon-square is a spring of pure water, which was the convent fountain; and here lived Sir Isaac Newton when warden and master-worker of the Mint: the house was taken down in 1852. On May 24, 1853, during excavations on the west side of Haydon-square, was found a stone sarcophagus of the late Roman period, sculptured with a basket of fruit, a medallic bust, and foliage, and containing a leaden coffin with the remains of a chilADIins of d: the sarcophagus is now in the British Museum. In the Minories neighbourhood have been found sculptured sepulchral stones and urns, and a third brass coin of Valens. In the churchyard are deposited some bones taken from the field of Culloden in 1745 j and in the church is preserved a head, though from what body is unknown.
The parish of Holy Trinity is minutely described in the Archceologia, in 1803, by the Rev. Dr. Fly, F.S.A., 63 years incumbent of the parish; and the account was reprinted in 1851 (with additions), by the Rev. T. Hill, incumbent. After the dissolution of the convent, there were built here ” storehouses for armour and habiliments of war, with divers workhouses serving to the same purpose ” (Stow) : • The Mulcibers who in the Minories sweat.”— Congreve. The street has been noted for its gunsmiths to our time: and in 1816 their shops were plundered by the Spa Fields rioters on their way to ” summon the Tower \” From the Minories station the Blackwall Railway crosses the street by an unsightly enclosed viaduct.
MINT, THE ROYAL,
LONDON, has been the chief seat of the Mint from the remotest period. Some of the Roman emperors are presumed to have coined money here; but “the silver penny of Alfred,” says Ruding, “is the first authentic coin yet discovered which can with certainty be appropriated to the London Mint.” The Mint in the Tower dates from the erection of that fortress; and it has been worked in almost every reign from the Conquest to our own times. The Mint buildings—” houses, mills, and engines “— used for coining were between the outer and inner ward or ballium, thence named Mint-street.
The Roman Mint of London has heen ably illustrated in a paper read by Mr. De Salis to the Archaeological Institute, ” on the coins issued from a.b. 287 to a.d. 330.” He commenced with a description of the early coins of Carausius, which are of inferior workmanship and without mint-marks. These were succeeded during the later part of his reign and that of Aliectus, by coins of better fabric, bearing the mint-marks of London and Camulodunum, copper only being found of the latter. The coins of Carausius and Aliectus were struck between 287 and 296, and all the remaining coins with the mint-marks l, ln, or lon belong to the reign of Constantine. After the restoration in 296, we have, instead of the copper denarius issued by the two usurpers, a larger coin called the follit, which gradually decreases in size from, say a penny, to a farthing. No gold was issued in London during this period, but there are billon coins with the exergual mark, put, of Constantine and his sons. Having described the
coins in issue from 296 to 333, Mr. De Salis remarked that the suppression of the Mint of London was one of the many administrative changes which attended the transfer to the east of the imperial residence. It had become an establishment of little importance, not having coined anything but copper and billon since the downfall of Allectus. A temporary revival of this Mint took place under Magnus Maximus, who rebelled in Britain in 383. There are very rare gold solidi with the mint-mark avgob, which are much more likely to belong to Londinium Augusta than to Augusta Trevirorum, of which we have similar coins of the same usurper, marked tbob and smtb. No coins with the mint-mark avgob have been found of the successors of Magnus Maximus, and it is probable that the Mint of London, which he was obliged to revive after his successful rebellion, was agaiu closomaas agaied when he found himself in possession of the Western Empire after the overthrow of Gratian.
In the 35th Henry III. the Mint warden’s salary was 2s. a day. The constitution of superior officers established in the reign of Edward II., continued with few alterations until 1815. In 1287, 600 Jews were confined within the Tower at one time for clipping and adulterating the coin of the realm. In 1546, one William Foxley, a pot-maker for the Mint, fell asleep in the Tower, and could not be waked for fourteen days and fifteen nights. Some of the Mint officers are buried in the church of St. Peter in the Tower, the chaplain and rector of which, by grant of Edward III., received 10*. from the clerk of the Mint, 13*. 4d. from the master of the Mint, and Id. per week from the wages of each workman and teller of coins.
Lully, the alchemist, worked ” in the chamber of St. Katherine” in the Tower, and was believed to supply the Mint with gold; and Edward*III., Henry VI., and Edward IV. had faith in being able by alchemy to furnish the Mint with cheap gold and silver. In the reign of Edward III., the masters of the Mint were empowered by letters patent to take goldsmiths, smiths, and others, for the works of the Mint in the Tower; and to imprison any rebellious within the said Tower, until the King should determine their punishment; and this power was not discontinued in the reign of Elizabeth. Before the Reformation, ecclesiastics were sometimes comptrollers: * Should we,” says Latimer, ” have ministers of the Church to be comptrollers of the Mint ? …. I would fain know who comptrolleth the devil at home at his parish, while he comptrolleth the Mint ?” (Sermon, 1548.) During the re-casting of the corrupt coin in the reign of Elizabeth, the queen publicly coined at the Tower several pieces with her own hand, and distributed them among her suite.
In 1695, Mr., afterwards Sir Isaac Newton, was appointed warden of the Mint; and in 1699 he was promoted to the mastership, which post he held till his death: his mathematical and chemical knowledge was of great service in this office; he wrote an official Report on the coinage, and drew up a table of assays of foreign coins. Newton lived some time in Haydon-square, Minories. In 1851 were sold several Mint Curiosities, once possessed by Stanesby Alchorne, king’s assay-master: including the standard troy pound, determined by the Mint officers in 1758; also Crocker’s Register-book of Drawings for Medals, certified by officers of the Mint, and containing thirty autographs of Sir Isaac Newton,—purchased by the British Museum.
The old Royal Mint—disused after the year 1810—occupied but a very small space within the walls of the Tower of London, and was situated at the north-east corner of the fortress. ” The whole of the mechanical appliances—which were of the rudest character—and apparatus for executing the coinage of the realm filled but one room, and that not a particularly large one. The melting department was ridiculously small, and the crucibles used therein were easily moved by hand-power, even when charged with metal. The rolling-mills, of comparatively miniature size, were driven by four horses, ever going their ‘ weary rounds.’ The cutting-out presses, of the most primitive kind, and some of which are retained in the new Royal Mint as curiosities, were worked by means of levers and by hand. An implement of a peculiar description called from its shape a ‘ cow,’ was used for raising the protecting edges on the coins, whilst the stamping-presses were put in motion by the muscular strength of gangs of brawny labourers. In the year 1810 the New Mint superseded ” Tt superthe Tower Money Factory, and to-day an area of ground as large as that covered by the entire Tower of London itself—within its moat boundary—is occupied by the workshops, coining-rooms, and offices of the British Mint.”— Abridged from the Mechanics’ Magazine.
The establishment formerly consisted of a master and worker, deputy-master, comptroller, king’s assay master, king’s clerk, and superintendent of machinery and dies; the master assayer, probationer assayer, weigher and teller, surveyor of meltings, surveyor ofmoney-pressers, chief and second engraver, medallist, &c.; besides the company of moneyers, who had coined the public money from a very early
period, with exclusive corporate rights. The office of Warden was abolished in 1S17. A new constitution was introduced in 1815, and was changed in 1851: it is now vested in the master and his deputy, subject to the Treasury. The mastership was formerly a political office: it was last so filled by Richard Lalor Sheil; in 1851 was appointed a Master and Worker, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., the astronomer, a worthy successor to the office once filled by the illustrious Newton. The operative branch of the Mint consists of the assayer, the melter, and refiner. The moneyers have been abolished, and Government now coins for the public on its own account; the Master being the executive head of the establishment. The present Master is Professor Graham, F.E.S., the eminent chemist.
The present Mint, upon Little Tower-hill, is a handsome stone structure of mixed Grecian and Roman architecture, commenced hy Mr. Johnson, and completed by Sir Robert Smirke, between 1806 and 1811: the cost, including the machinery, was a quarter of a million of money. It was formerly supplied with water through a tunnel from the Tower ditch; and it was one of the earliest public offices lighted with gas. Upon the site was “sometime a monastery, called New Abbey, founded by King Edward III. in 1359.” (Stow.) After the Suppression, was built here the Victualling Office, subsequently tobacco-warehouses.
At the Mint is executed the coinage of the three kingdoms, and of many of our colonies; and such is the completeness of the steam machinery by Boulton and Watt, Maudslay and Co., and John and George Rennie, that fifty thousand pounds worth of gold received one morning in bullion may be returned the next in coin, strangely contrasting with the old method of striking every piece by hand, and carrying on the whole process in a single room. The present stupendous machinery is unequalled in the mint of any other country. The furnaces have long been supplied with smoke-consuming apparatus. The gold and silver being alloyed, are cast into small bars, are passed through powerful rollers, and by the draw-bench brought to the exact thickness required. The circular disks or blanks are then punched out of the sheets of metal by other machines; and are then separately weighed, sounded, have the protecting rim raised, and are blanched and annealed. The blanks are then taken to the coining-room, and placed in the screw-presses, each of which by the same stroke stamps on both sides, and mills at the edge, thus making a perfect coin: each press will coin between four and five thousand pieces per hour, and feeds itself with the blanks. For the dies a matrix is cut by the Mint engraver in soft steel, which, being hardened, furnishes many dies. In the coining-room are eight presses, which, by the force of a blow of 40 tons weight, impress the face of the Queen, the reverse of the coin, and, at the same time, mill the edge of the coin in the way previously described. From each pressch om each, the perfect sovereigns are thrown off at the rate of sixty-four per minute. At this rate, supposing that all the presses could be kept working, a stream of 30,720 sovereigns would run out in an hour. The newly-coined money is now ready for the Trial of the Pix, when one of each coin is placed in a pix or casket, sealed with three seals, and secured with three locks; and the coins are then compared with the trial-plates at Westminster by a jury from the Goldsmiths’ Company, the Lord Chancellor, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer, presiding. The early matrices, and the collection of coins and medals, at the Mint, are among its Curiosities.
The following are the best Mint engravers from the reign of Charles I. to the present time : Briot, Simon, Rawlins, Roettier (3), Croker or Crocker, Tanner, Dassier, Yeo, Natter, Pingo (2), Pistrucci, and the Wyons (3).
Applications to view the Mint must be made in writing to the Master or Deputy-master; the party of visitors not to exceed six, for whom the applicant is responsible; the order available only for the day specified, and not transferable.
MINT (THE), SOUTHWARK,
A LARGE section of the parish of St. George the Martyr, and so called from ” a mint of coinage” having been kept here by Henry VIII. It was originally named Suffolk Manor; and opposite St. George’s church, upon the site of the premises of Messrs. Pigeon, the distillers, was Suffolk Place, the magnificent mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, brother-in-law of Henry VIII. This house the Duke gave to the King in exchange for a palace of the Bishop of Norwich in the parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields: it was then called Southwark Place and Duke’s Place. In the Sutherland View of London, 1543, it is shown as “ye Mint.”
In the fourth year of Edward VI. (1550) Sir Edward Peckham, Knight was appointed high-treasurer
and Sir John Yorke under-treasurer, of this Mint; and in 1551 were issued crowns, half-crowns, shilling’s, and sixpences, with the mint-mark Y for Sir John Yorke.
In 1549 Edward VI. came from Hampton Court to visit the Mint, when it was spoken of as ” the capital messuage, gardens, and park in Southwark.” Southwark had also its Saxon and Norman Mint, a.d. 978 to 1135; and coins of Ethelred II., Canute, Harold, Edward the Confessor, William I. and II., Henry I. and Stephen, with the Southwark mint-mark, are known to collectors. The old Saxon spelling of Southwark was ZVDLIDEEE, Suthgwere ; and on Saxon coins we find it abbreviated ZVD, ZVDE, ZVDLE, ZVDEEU). With the reign of Stephen ceased the power of coining money, granted by the Tower Mint to smaller mints near London, as Southwark, Stepney, &c. The precise site of the original Mint in Southwaik is unknown ; but it was, probably, within the ancient town of Southwark (now the Guildable Manor) which extended only from St. Mary Overie’s Dock, by St. Saviour’s Church, to Hay’s-lane, and southward to the back of the modern Town Hall. It is conjectured that the Saxon Mint may have been attached to the original Town Hall, nearly opposite the church of St. Olave; or, the Southwark Mint may have been under the direction of the early Bishops of Winchester, at or near their manor of the Clink, and who may have been moneyers here, as well as at the Winchester Mint. Of Henry, Bishop of Winton, andSutf Winto the illegitimate brother of King Stephen, there exists a silver penny (the only specimen known), which was bought at the Pembroke sale for 2M. 10*., and is now in the British Museum. We cannot suppose the original Southwark Mint to have occupied the site of the Mint in St. George’s parish, which was not within the ancient town, and was not ” the King’s Manor” until after Henry VIII. had obtained it from Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Queen Mary gave the Mint property to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, in recompense for York House, Whitehall, which had been taken from Cardinal Wolsey by Henry VIII. Archbishop Heath sold the Mint in 1557, when a great number of mean dwellings were erected upon the estate; but the mansion was not entirely taken down, or it must have been rebuilt, before 1637, when Aldeiman Bromfield, Lord Mayor of London, resided at Suffolk Place, which he possessed until 1650.
The Mint is described by Strype as consisting of several streets and alleys; the chief entrance being from opposite St. George’s church by Mint-street, ” running into Lombart-street, thence into Suffolk-street, and so into George-street;” .each entrance having its gate. It became early an asylum fcr debtors, coiners, and vagabonds ; and of the ” traitors, felons, fugitives, outlaws, condemned persons, convict persons, felons defamed, those put in exigent of outlawry, felons of themselves, and such as refuse the law of the land,” who in the time of Edward VI. herded in St. George’s parish. The Mint at length became such a pest, that statutes 8 & 9 William III., and 9 & 11 Geo. L, ordered the abolition of its privileges. One of these statutes (9 Geo. I., 1723) relieved all those debtors under 50Z. who had taken sanctuary in the Mint from their creditors : and the Weekly Journal of Saturday, July 20, 1723, thus describes their exodus:
“On Tuesday last, some thousands of the Minlers went out of the land of bondage, alias the Mint, to bo cleared at the quarter session’* at Guildford, accord!jg to the late Act of Parliament. The road was covered with them, insomuch that they looked like one of the Jewish tribes going out of Egypt; the cavalcade consisting of caravans, carts, and wagons, besides numbers on horses, asses, and on foot. The drawer of the Two Fighting-cocks was seen to lead an ass loaded with geneva, to support the spirits of the ladies upon the journey. ‘Tis said that several heathen bailiffs lay in ambuscade in ditches upon the road, to surprise some of them, if possible, on their march, if they should straggle from the main body; but they proceeded with so much order and discipline, that they did not lose a man upon this expedition.”
The Mint was the retreat of poor poets:
” Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme.”— Pope. And one of the offences with which Pope reproached his needy antagonists was their ” habitation in the Mint.” ” Poor Nahum Tate” (once poet laureate) died in the Mint in 1716, where he had sought shelter from his rapacious creditors. The place is a scene of Gay’s Beggars’ Opera; and “Mat of the Mint” figures in Macheath’s gang. It was also one of the haunts of Jack Sheppard; and Jonathan Wild kept his horses at the Duke’s Head in Red-Cross-street, within the precincts of the Mint. Ulicit marriages were also performed here, as in the Fleet Prison, May Fair Chapel, &c
Officers of justice sent here to serve processes were commtinses weronly pumped upon almost to suffocation, and even thrown into “the Black Ditch” of mud and filth. Here is said to have occurred the first case of Asiatic cholera in London in 1832. Much of the district still consists of streets and alleys, of wretched tenements inhabited by an indigent and profligate population; also “lodgings for travellers;” but very few of the old houses remain.
MONUMENT, THE,
ON the east side of Fish-street-hill, occupies part of the site of St. Margaret’s Church, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. It was erected by Sir Christopher Wren, between 1671 and 1677 (pursuant to 19 Charles II. c. 3, s. 29), to commemorate the Great Fire and rebuilding of the City : the expense was about 14,500£., defrayed out of the Orphans’ Fund. The Monument is of the Italo-Vitruvian-Doric order, and is of Portland stone, of which it contains 21,126 solid feet. It consists of a pedestal about 21 feet square, with a plinth 27 feet, and a fluted shaft 15 feet at the base ; on the abacus is a balcony encompassing a moulded cylinder, which supports a flaming vase of gilt bronze, indicative of its commemoration of the Great Fire; though some repudiating Roman Catholics assert this termination to be intended for the civic cap of maintenance! Defoe quaintly describes the Monument as ” built in the form of a candle,” the top making ” handsome gilt flame like that of a candle.” Its entire height is 202 feet, stated in one of the inscriptions to be equal to its distance eastward from the house where the fire broke out, at the king’s baker’s, in Pudding-lane.
On the front of the house, on the east side of Pudding-lane, was a stone with this inscription: “Here, by the permission of Heaven, Hell broke loose upon this Protestant City, from the malicious Hearts of barbarous Papists by the Hand of their agent Hubert, who confessed, and on the Ruins of this Place declared the Fact, for which he was hanged, viz. That here begun that dreadful Fire which is described and perpetuated on and by the Neighbouring Pillar. Erected Anno 1681, in the Mayoralty of Sir Patience Ward, Kt.”— Hatton, 1708.
The Monument is loftier than the pillars of Trajan and Antoninus at Rome, or that of Theodosius at Constantinople; and it is not only the loftiest, but also the finest isolated column in the world. Within is a staircase of 345 black marble steps, opening to the balcony, whence the view of the metropolis, especially of its Port, is very interesting. It was at first used by the members of the Royal Society for astronomical purposes, but was abandoned on account of its vibration being too great for the nicety required in their observations. Hence the report that the Monument is unsafe, which has been revived in our time; ” but,” says Elmes, ” its scientific construction may bid defiance to the attacks of all but earthquakes for centuries to come.” Wren proposed a more characteristic pillar, with flames blazing from the loopholes of the shaft, and figured in brass-work gilt; a phoenix was on the top rising from her ashes, in brass-gilt likewise. This, however, was rejected; and Wren then designed a statue of Charles II., 15 feet high ;* but the king preferred a large ball of metal, gilt; and the present vase of flames, 42 feet high, was adopted: when last triple regilt, it cost 1201. On June 15th, 1825, the Monument was illuminated with portable gas, in commemoration of the laying of the first stone of London Bridge: a lamp was placed at each of the loopholes of the column, to give the idea of its being wreathed with flame; whilst two other series were placed on the edges of the gallery, to which the public were admitted dunste admitring the evening. The west face or front of the pedestal is rudely sculptured by Caius Gabriel Cibber, in alto and bas-relief: Charles II., be-wigged and be-Romanised, is attended by Liberty, Genius, and Science; in the background are labourers at work and newly-built houses: and at the King’s feet is Envy peering from an arched cell, and blowing flames to rekindle the mischief. The scaffolding, ladders, and hodmen are more admired for their fidelity than the monarch and his architect. The north and south sides bear Latin
* A large print of the Monument represents the statue of Charles so placed, for comparative effect, beside a sectional view of the apex, as constructed. Wren’s autograph report on the designs for the summit was added to the mss. in the British Museum in 1852. A model, scale £ inch to the foot, of the scaffolding used in building the Monument, is preserved. It formerly belonged to Sir William Chambers, and was presented by Heathcote Russell, C.E., to the late Sir Isambard Brunei, who left it to his son, Mr. I. K. Brunei: the ladders were cf the rude construction of Wren’s time, two uprights, with nailed treads or rounds on the face.
inscriptions by Dr. Thomas Gale, afterwards Dean of York; that on the north recording the desolation of the city; the south its restoration and improvement, and the means employed; while the east is inscribed with the years in which it was begun and finished, and the names of the Lord Mayors during its erection. Around the base of the pedestal was also the following inscription, beginning at the west:—
(W.) ” THIS PILLAR WAS SET VP IN PERPETVAL REMEMBRANCE OF THAT MOST DREADFUL BURNING OF THIS PROTESTANT (S.) CITY, BEGUN AND CARRYED ON BY YE TREACHERY AND MALICE OF YE POPISH FACTIO, IN YE BEGINNING OF SEPTEM IN YE YEAR OF (E ) OUR LORD 1666, IN ORDER TO YE CARRYING ON THEIR HORRID PLOTT FOR EXTIRPATING (N.) THE PROTESTANT RELIGION AND OLD ENGLISH LIBERTY, AND THE INTRODUCING POPERY AND SLAVERY.”
And the north inscription concluded with :
” SED FUROR PAPISTICUS QVI TAMDIU PATRAVIT NONDUM RESTINGVITVR.”
These offensive legends are not mentioned by Wren, but were added in 1681, by order of the Court of Aldermen, amid the horror of the Papists spread by the Titus Oates plot. They were obliterated in the reign of James II., but recut deeper still in the reign of William III., and excited Pope’s indignant couplet:
” Where London’s column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.”
The legends were ultimately erased (by an Act of Common Council) Jan. 26, 1831. On the cap of the pedestal, at the angles, are four dragons, the supporters of the City arms: these cost 200L, and were the work of Edward Pierce, jun. Six persons have committed suicide by throwing themselves from the Monument gallery: 1. John Cradock, a baker, July 7, 1788; 2. Lyon Levi, a Jew diamond-merchant, Jan. 18, 1810; 3. same year, Leander, a baker; 4. Margaret Moyes, daughter of a baker in Hemming’s-row, Sept. 11, 1839; 5. Hawes, a boy, Oct. 18, 1839; 6. Jane Cooper, a servant-girl, Aug. 19, 1842. To prevent similar deaths, the gallery has been encaged with iron-work, as we now see it. William Green, a weaver, is erroneouies, is ersly recorded as a suicide, June 25, 1750; for, on reaching over the railing, to look at a live eagle kept there in a wooden cage, he accidentally lost his balance, and fell over against the top of the pedestal, thence into the street, and was dashed to pieces. The fall is exactly 175 feet. In 1732, a sailor slid down a rope from the gallery to the Three-Tuns Tavern, Gracechurch-street; as did also, next day, a waterman’s boy. In the Times newspaper of August 22, 1827, there appeared the following burlesque advertisement:
” Incredible as it may appear, a person will attend at the Monument, and will, for the sum of 2500?., undertake to jump clear off the said Monument, and in coming down will drink some beer and eat a cake, act some trades, shorten and make sail, and bring ship safe to anchor. As soon as the sum stated is collected, the performance will take place; and if not performed, the money subscribed to be returned to the subscribers.”
Admittance to the gallery of the Monument from 9 till dusk; charge reduced, in 1851, from 6d. to 3d. each person. In the reign of George I. the charge was 2d. The office of Keeper of the Monument is in the gift of the Corporation of London.
MOORFIELDS
IS first mentioned by Fitzstephen (temp. Henry II.) as ” the great fen or moor which watereth the walls of the City on the north side,” and stretched ” from the wall betwixt Bishopsgate and Cripplegate to Fensbury and to Holywell” (Stoic). When the Moor was frozen, Fitzstephen tells us the young Londoners, by placing the leg-bones of animals under their feet, and tying them round their ankles, by aid of an iron-shod pole, pushed themselves with great velocity along the ice; and one of these bone-skates, found in digging Moorfields, was in the Museum of Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., 5, Liverpool-street. In the reign of Edward II., Moorfields was let for four marks a year; in 1415, the Mayor made a breach in the wall, and built the Moorgate postern. Bricks are stated to have been made here, before any other part of London, in the 17th Edward IV., for repairing the City wall between Aldgate and Aldersgate; when *’ Moorfields was searched for clay, and bricks were made and burnt there.” Facing the wall was a black ditch; hence ” the melancholy of Moorditch,” (Shakspeare, Henri/
IV. Part 1.) In 1497, the gardens in Moorfields were made plain; the Moor was drained in 1527, and laid out in walks and planted in 1606.
Moorfields and Finsbury were the great places for recreative walks; while all beyond was open ground, stretching right and left to the nearest villages. Moorfields, in the ancient maps, is covered with linen; and in Thomas Deloney’s Crown Garland of Golden Roses, may be seen the ballad history of ” the two ladies of Finsbury that gave Moorfields to the City, for the maidens of London to dry clothes in,” and where he says:
” Now are made most pleasant walks That great contentment yield:”
while Finsbury fields was the great school of archery, from the time when every man was enjoined by law to ” draw a good bow and shoot a good shot,” until the entire decay of the science.
There is a curious tract on Moorfields, published by Henry Gosson, in 1607, entitled ” The Pleasant Walks of Moorfields: being the gift of two sisters, now beautified to the continuing fame of this worthy city,” and is the work of Richard Johnson, author of ” Look on me, London.” The laying out and planting the fields are here minutely described. This tract has been reprinted by Mr. Payne Collier.
Evelyn, recording the Great Fire, says the houseless people took refuge about Moorfields, under tents and miserable huts and hovels; and Pepys found Moorfields full of people, and ” poor wretches carrying their goods there;” next year the fields were built upon and paved. On the south side was erected -Bethlehem Hospital in 1675—6 (see pp. 51-54), whichhas disappeared in our time, with the long fine of furniture-dealers’ shops from the north side.
” Through fam’d Moorfields extends a spacious seat, Where mortals of exalted wit retreat; Where, wrapp’d in contemplation and in straw, The wiser few from the mad world withdraw.”
Gay to Mr. Thomas Snow, Goldsmith, near Temple Bar.
Under Bethlehem wall, in 1753-4, Elizabeth Canning, by her own testimony, was seized, robbed, and gagged; thence dragged to Mother Wells’s at Enfield Wash, and there nearly starved to death; but the whole story was a hoax.
The Moor reached from London Wall to Hoxton; and a thousand cartloads of human bones brought from St. Paul’s charnel-house in 1549, and soon after covered with street-dirt, became so elevated, that three windmills were built upon it. (Aggas’s plan shows three windmills on the site of Finsbury-square: hence Windmill-hill, now street.) The ground on the south side being also much raised, it was named Upper Moorfields. On the north of the fields stood the Dogge-house, where the Lord Mayor’s hounds were kept by the Common Hunt: hence ” Dog-house Bar,” City-road. Eastward the Moor was bounded by the ancient hospital and priory of Bethlehem, separated by a deep ditch, now covered by Blomfield-street. The lower part of the fields was paled into four squares, each planted with elm-trees, round a grass-plat, and intersected by broad gravel-walks; a favourite promenade in evenings and fine weather, and called ” the City Mall;” where beaux wore their hats diagonally over their left or right eye, hence called ” the Moorfields cock.” Here was the Foundry at which, previous to the year 1706, the brass ordnance for the British Government was cast. Near the Foundry Whitefield built his Tabernacle (see p. 223). It was roofed with pan-tiles.
Moorfields was, till near Pennant’s time, the haunt of low gamblers, the great gymnasium of our capital, the resort of wrestlers, boxers, and football players. Here mountebanks erected their stages, and dispensed infallible medicines to the gaping gulls. Here, too, field-preachers set up their itinerant pulpits, beneath the shade of the trees; and here the pious, well-meaning Whitefield preached so winningly, as to gain from a neighbouring charlatan the greater number of his admirers.
Moorgate was erected opposite the site of Albion Chapel, at the sotith-west angle of the fields, and was rebuilt in 1672; the central gateway higher than usual, for the City Trained Bands to march through it with their pikes erected. The fields are now covered by Finsb”, ered byury-square and Circus, and adjoining streets: the name survives in ” Little Moorfields,” and it has been revived in Moorgate-street. Until comparatively modern times, Moorfields was an open space, uniting with the Artillery-ground (see p. 21) and Bunhill-fields (see p. 75).
In Finsbury-plaee was ” the Temple of the Muses,” built by James Lackington, the celebrated bookseller, who came to London in 1773 with only half-a-crown in his pocket. In 1792 he cleared 50001. by his business; and in 1798 retired with a large fortune, amassed by dealing in old books, and reprinting them at a cheap rate. He was succeeded by his cousin George Lackington, Allen, Hughes, Mavor (a son of the Rev. Dr. Mavor), Harding, and Co.; and next by Jones and Co., the publishers of London in the Nineteenth Century. Lackington’s ” Temple,” which was a vast building, was destroyed by fire in 1841.
Moorfields has a sort of ideal association with the notorious ” Calves’-Head Club.”
In a blind alley about Moorfields met the Calves’-Head Club, where an axe hung up in the Club-room, and was reverenced as a principal symbol in this diabolical sacrament. Their great feast of Calves’ heads was held the 30th of January (the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I.), the Club being erected ” by an impudent set of people, in derision of the day, and defiance of monarchy.” Their bill of fare was a large dish of calves’ heads, dressed several ways; a large pike, with a small one in his mouth, as an emblem of tyranny; and a large cod’s head, to represent the person of the King (Charles I.) singly, as by the calves’ heads before they had done him together with all them that suffered in his cause; and a boar’s head, with an apple in its mouth, to represent the king by this as bestial, as by the others they had done foolish and tyrannical. After the repast the Eikon Basilike was burnt, anthems were sung, and the oath was sworn upon Milton’s Defensio Populi Anglicani. The company consisted of Independents and Anabaptists; Jerry White, formerly chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, said grace; and the table-cloth being removed, the Anniversary Anthem, as they impiously called it, was sung, and a calf’s skull filled with wine or other liquor, and then a brimmer went about to the pious memory of those worthy patriots that had killed the tyrant, &c. (See the Secret History of the Caloes” Head Club, 6th edit. 1706.)
But the whole affair of the Calves’-Head Club was a hoax, kept alive by the pretended Secret History. An accidental riot, following a debauch on one 30th of January, has been distributed between two successive years, owing to a misapprehension of the mode of reckoning prevalent in the early part of the last century; and there is no more reason for believing in the existence of a Calves’-Head Club in 1734-5 than there is for believing that it exists in 1867.—(See Club Life of London, vol. i. pp. 25-34. 18G6.)
Coleman-street, named from its builder, was originally part of the ” Lower Walks of Moorfields:” it gives name to the Ward. In a house in this street were received and harboured the Five Members accused of treason by Charles I. At the Star tavern, in Coleman-street, Oliver Cromwell and several of his party occasionally met, as given in evidence on the trial of Hugh Peters. In a conventicle in Swan-alley, Venner, a wine-cooper and Millenarian, preached to the soldiers of King Jesus: an insurreotion followed, and Venner was hanged and quartered in Coleman-street, Jan. 19, 1660-61. The Cambridge carrier put up ain rier put the Bell, in Coleman-street, 1637; and in Great Bell Yard, Bloomfield, author of the Farmer’s Boy, worked as a shoemaker. Justice Clement, in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Rumour, lived in Colernan-street; and Cowley wrote a comedy called Cutter of Coleman-street, 1721.
MUSEUM, THE BRITISH,
GREAT Russell-street, Bloomsbury, occupies the site of Montague House, built for Ralph Montague, first Baron Montague, of Boughton, by Robert Hooke, the celebrated mathematician and horologist. Evelyn describes it, in 1679, as ” Mr. Montague’s new palace neere Bloomsberry, built somewhat after the French pavilion way,” with ceilings painted by Verrio. On Jan. 19,1686, it was burnt to the ground, through the carelessness of a servant “airing some goods by the fire;” the house being at the time let by Lord Montague to the Earl of Devonshire. Lady Rachel Russell, in one of her letters, describes the sparks and flames covering Southampton House and filling the court. The loss is stated at 40,000^., besides 6000J. in plate; and Lord Devonshire’s pictures, hangings, and furniture. The mansion was rebuilt upon the foundations and burnt walls of the former one, the architect being Peter Puget. La Fosse painted the ceilings, Rousseau the landscapes and architecture, and Jean Baptiste Monnoyer the flowers. Lord Montague, who in 1705 was created Marquis of Monthermer and Duke of Montague, died here in 1709; his son resided here until his mansion was completed at Whitehall. Montague House was built on the plan of a first-class French hotel, of red brick, with stone dressings, lofty domed centre, and pavilion-like wings. In front was a spacious court, inclosed with a high wall, within which was an Ionic colonnade, the principal entrance being in the centre, by the ” Montague Great Gate,” beneath a picturesque octangular lantern, with clock and cupola; and at each extremity of the wall was a square lantern. The old mansion was removed between 1845 and 1852,
when portions of the painted walls and ceilings, La Fosse’s deities, and Baptiste’s flowers, were preserved, and sold with the materials.
Montague House and gardens occupied seven acres. In the latter, in 1780, were encamped the troops stationed to quell the Gordon Riots ; and a print of the period shows the gardens in the rear of the mansion, laid out in grass terraces, flower-borders, grass-plots, and gravel-walks, where the gay world resorted on a summer’s evening: the back being open to the fields, extending west to Lisson-green and Paddington; north to Primrose Hill, Chalk Farm, Hampstead, and Highgate; and east to Battlebridge, Islington, St. Pancras, &c. On the side of the garden next Bedford-square was a fine grove of elm-trees; and the gardens of Bedford House, in Bloomsbury-square, reached to those of the British Museum, before that house was taken down, and Russell-square and the adjacent streets were built on its site. (See Fibld ov Foety Footsteps, page 337.)
The British Museum has been the growth of a century, between the first purchase for the collection in 1753, and the near completion of the new buildings in 1853. The Museum originated in a suggestion in the will of Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753), offering his collection to parliament for 20,0007., it having cost him 50,000Z. The offer was accepted; and by an Act (26th George II.) were purchased all Sir Hans Sloane’s ” library of books, drawings, manuscripts, prints, medals, seals, cameos and intaglios, precious stones, agates, jaspers, vessels of agate and jasper, crystals, mathemre,stals, atical instruments, pictures,” &c. By the same Act was bought, for 10,000Z., the Harleian Library of MSS. (about 7600 volumes of rolls, charters, &c.); to which were added the Cottonian Library of MSS., and the library of Major Arthur Edwards. (See Libraries, page 519.) By the same Act also was raised by lottery 100,000?., out of which the Sloane and Harleian collections were paid for; 10,250?. to Lord Halifax for Montague House, and 12,873?. for its repairs; a fund being set apart for the payment of taxes and salaries of officers. Trustees were elected from persons of rank, station, and literary attainments; and the institution was named the British Mitsetjm. There had also been offered Buckingham House, with the gardens and field, for 30,000?.; and at one time it was proposed to deposit the Museum in Old Palace-yard, in the place designed by Kent for new Houses of Parliament. To Montague House were removed the Harleian collection of MSS. in 1755; other collections in 1756; and the Museum was opened to the public January 15, 1759. At first the Museum was divided into three departments, viz.—Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Natural History; the increase of collections soon rendered it necessary to provide additional accommodation for them, Montague House proving insufficient. The present by George III. of Egyptian Antiquities, and the purchase of the Hamilton and Townley Antiquities, made it more imperative to create an additional department—that of Antiquities and Art—to which were united the Prints and Drawings, as well as the Medals and Coins previously attached to the Library of Printed Books and Manuscripts. Next, in 1816, was provided temporary shelter for the Elgin Marbles, this being the last addition to Montague House.
When, in 1823, the Library collected by George III. was presented to the nation by George IV., it became necessary to erect a building to receive it. It was then decided to have an entirely new edifice to contain the whole of the Museum collections, including the recently acquired Library. Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., tne architect, accordingly prepared plans. The eastern side of the present structure was completed in 1828, and the Royal Library was then deposited in it. The northern, southern, and western sides of the building were subsequently erected, Montague House being re* moved piecemeal as the new buildings progressed, so that the Museum was not closed for the rebuilding. Mr. Sydney Smirke, in 1846, succeeded his brother, Sir Robert, as architect to the Museum. The plan consists of a courtyard, flanked east and west with the official apartments. The main buildings form a quadrangle, upon the ground of the gardens of Montague House. The architecture throughout the exterior is Grecian-Ionic. The southern facade consists of the great entrance portico, eight columns in width, and two intercolumniations in projection; on either side is an advancing wing: entire front 370 feet, surrounded by a colonnade of 44 columns, 5 feet at their lower diameter, and 45 feet high; height of colonnade from the pavement 64^ feet. At the foot of the portico are 12 stone steps, 120 feet in width, terminating Avith pedestals for colossal groups of sculpture. ” Since the days of Trajan or Hadrian, no such stones have been used as those recently employed at the British Museum, where 800 stones, from 5 to 9 tons weight, form the front. Even St. Paul’s contains no ap-
proach to these magnitudes.” (Prof. Cockerell’s Lectures, 1850.) The tympanum of the pediment is enriched with a group allegorical of the ” Progress of Civilization,” and thus described by the sculptor, Sir Eichard Westmacott, R.A.:
Commencing at the western end or angle of the pediment, Man is represented emerging from foomerginga rutie savage stage through the influence of Religion. He is next personified as a hunter and tiller of the earth, and labouring for his subsistence. Patriarchal simplicity then becomes invaded, and the worship or trie true bod defiled. Paganism prevails, and becomes diffused by means of the Arts. The worship or tne heavenly bodies, and their supposed influence, led the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and other nations to study astronomy, typified by the centre statue—the key-stone to the composition. Civilization is now ^m”?!. +• aV e made consitJera ble progress. Descending towards the eastern angle of the pediment is Mathematics, in allusion to Science being now pursued on known sound principles. The Drama, .Poetry, and Music balance the group of the Fine Arts on the western side, the whole composition terminating with Natural History, in which such subjects or specimens only are represented as could be made most effective in sculpture.” The crocodile is emblematic of the cruelty of man in savage life the tortoise of his slow progress to civilization. The figure of Astronomy is 12 feet high, and weighs between 7 and 8 tons. The several figures are executed in Portland-stone, and the decorative accessories are gilt.
The ornamental gates and railing inclosing the courtyard were commenced in model by Lovati, who died before he had made much progress; they were completed by Mr. Thomas and Messrs. Collmann and Davis. The railing—spears painted dark copper, with the beads gilt, and with an ornamented band—is raised upon a granite curb. In the centre of the railing is a grand set of carriage-gates and foot-entrances, strengthened by fluted columns with composite capitals, richly gilt, surmounted by vases. The frieze is wholly of hammered iron : the remainder of the iron-work is cast from metal moulds, and was chiefly piece-moulded, in order to obtain relief. The carriage-gates are moved by a windlass, both sides opening simultaneously. Each half of these gates weighs upwards of five tons. The height of the iron-work is 9 feet to the top rail: the length of the whole palisade is about 800 feet. The metal-work was contracted for by Walker, of York, and cost nearly 8000?. Upon the granite gate-piers are to be placed sitting statues of Bacon and Newton, and upon the two end piers Milton and Shakspeare. The buildings have altogether cost upwards of 800,000Z.
As you stand beneath the portico, the effect is truly majestic, and you are impressed with the feeling that this is a noble institution of a great country. The principal entrance is by a carved oak door, 9 feet 6 inches in width, and 24 feet in height. The hall is Grecian-Doric. The ceiling, trabeated and deeply coffered, is enriched with Greek frets and other ornaments in various colours, painted in encaustic. Here are three marble statues : the Hon. Mrs. Damer, holding a small figure of the Genius of the Thames ; Shakspeare, by Roubiliac; and Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., by Chantrey. The statue of Shakspeare was bequeathed by Garrick to the Museum after the death of his widow; the statue of Sir Joseph Banks was presented by his personal friends. Between these statues is the doorway to the Grenville Library. East of the hall is the Manuscripts Department j west, the principal staircase (with carved vases of Huddlestone stone), and a gallery which forms the approach to the Collection of Antiquities.
To inspect the several collections in the order in which they are described in the” official Guide, the visitor will ascend to the upper floor by the principal staircase, and enter the exhibition rooms of the Zoological Department. These-rooms form part of the southern, the whole of the eastern, and part of the northern sides of the upper floor. The Minerals and Fossils was and F which are next described, are contained in the remaining part of the northern side. The Botanical exhibition is displayed in two rooms in the southern front of the building, which are entered by a doorway on the eastern side of the Central Saloon in the Zoological Department. Following still the order of the Guide, the visitor will descend the principal stairs to the hall, and enter the Department of Antiquities by the doorway near the south-western angle. The Antiquities occupy the whole of the western parts of the ground floor, several rooms connected therewith on the basement, and the western side of the upper floor. On the lower floor, the eastern portion of the south front, and part of the east wing, is the Library of Manuscripts. The remainder of the east side, and the whole of the northern side of the quadrangle, are occupied by the Printed Books.
The entrance to the Grenville room is on the eastern side of the hall, under the clock. In this room is deposited the splendid library bequeathed to the nation in 1847 by the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, a marble bust of whom, by Comolli, stands in a recess on the southern side. Here, as well as in the Royal library, are exhibited various printed books, selected to show the progress of the art of printing, with specimens of ornamental and curious binding. From the Grenville library the visitor proceeds to the Manuscript Saloon, where selections of manuscripts, charters, autographs, and seals are arranged for inspection. The visitor next enters the Royal library, and here, besides the printed books already mentioned, are exhibited some interesting and valuable specimens from the department of prints and drawings.
The Zoological Collections. —Specimens from the existing classes of Animals are contained in three Galleries j and are arranged in two series. The Beasts, Birds,
Reptiles, and Fishes are exhibited in the Wall Cases. The hard parts of the Radiated, Molluscous, and Annulose Animals, (as Shells, Corals, Sea Eggs, Starfish, Crustacea,) and Insects, and the Eggs of Eirds, are arranged in a series in the Table-Cases of the several Rooms.
The General Collection of Mammals, or Beasts which suckle their young, is arranged in three Rooms, the Hoofed Beasts (Ungulata) being contained in the Central Saloon and Southern Zoological gallery, and the Beasts with claws ( Unguiculata) in the Mammalia Saloon.
Central Saloon. —In the Cases the specimens of the Antelopes, Goats, and Sheep; and the Bats, or Cheiroptera. Some of the larger Mammalia are placed on the floor, such as the Giraffes, and the Morse or Walrus. Also, the full-grown male Gorilla, of the female, and of a young male, from the Gaboon, Equatorial Africa; horns of Oxen.
Southern Zoological Gallery. —In Cases, the continuation of the collection of the Hoofed Quadrupeds, as the Oxen, Elands, Deer, Camels, Llamas, Horses, and the various species of Swine. Here also are placed the species of Armadillo, Manis, and Sloth. On the Wall Cases are the horns of Antelopes, and on the floor are arranged the different Rhinoceros, Indian Elephant; a very young African Elephant, remarkable for the large size of its ears ; specimens of the young, half-grown, and adult Hippopotamus, and the wild Oxen from India and Java. Here is the aurochs, or shaggy-maned Lithuanian Bison, presented by Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, and said to be the finest specimen of stuffing in the Museum. Aba yhe Museove the bison of the prairies is the ornithorhyncus, with a bird-like bill,—the water-mole of Australia.
Mammalia Saloon. —In the Cases are the specimens of Handed, Rapacious, Glirine, and Pouched Beasts; over the Cases are the different kinds of Seals, Manatees, and Porpoises; and arranged in Table Cases are the general collections of Corals.
Eastern Zoological Gallery, 300 feet long and 50 feet wide.—The general collection of Birds; the collection of Shells of Molluscous animals, and a series of horns of Deer and Rhinoceros. Here is a Reeves’s Chinese pheasant (tail-feathers 5 feet 6 inches long) ; and next the ostriches are a Dutch painting of the extinct dodo, a foot of the bird supposed to be more than two and a half centuries old, and a cast of the head ; also, a specimen of the rare apteryx, or wingless bird of New Zealand.
Above the Wall Cases are 116 portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, heroes, travellers, and men of science, —a few from the Sloanean and Cottonian collections: including two portraits of Oliver Cromwell (one a copy from an original possessed by a great-grandson of Cromwell; the other an original presented by Cromwell himself to Nath. ltich, a colonel in the parliamentary army, and bequeathed to the Museum, in 1784, by Sir Robert Rich, Bart.); three portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, Richard II., Edward 111., Henry V., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and II., &c.; three portraits of Sir Hans Sloane; Peter I. of Russia, Stanislaus Augustus I. of Poland, Charles XII. of Sweden, and Louis XIV. of France; Lord Bacon; the poets Pope and Prior; Dr. John Ray, the first great English naturalist; Gecjrge Buchanan, 1581, on panel; Sir Francis Drake and Captain Dampier; Martin Luther, 1546, on panel; Gutenberg, the inventor of printing; Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist; Vesalius, by Sir Antonio More; Mary Davis, 1688, ” artatis 74,” with a horn-like wen on her head; Sir Robert Cotton, Dr. Birch, Humphrey Wanley, Sir H. Spelman, and Sir W. Dugdale; Camden, on panel; Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal-man; Andrew Marvell, said to be the only portrait extant of hira; &c. This is, probably, the largest collection of portraits in the kingdom: many are ill-painted, others very curious, and some unique; the majority of them had long lain in the lumber-lofts of the old Museum, when they were hung up, chiefly at the suggestion of the late Mr. William Smith, of Lisle-street. A very interesting catalogue raisonnee of these pictures appeared in the Times, Nov. 27 and Dec. 8,1838.
Northern Zoological Gallery —five rooms: 1. Nests of Birds and Insects; larger Reptiles ; rarest small Quadrupeds; the Aye-aye of Madagascar; 3. British Zoological Collection—the Vertebrated Animals ; the larger species, such as the Whales, Sharks, Tunny, &c., are suspended on the Walls, or placed on the Cases; the eggs of the Birds; a series of British Annulose Animals; the stuffed exotic Reptiles and Batrachia; the hard parts of the Radiated Animals, including the Sea-Eggs, Sea-Stars, and Encrinites; 4. The stuffed collection of exotic bony Fish; select specimens of Annulose Animals; Insects—Beetles, Praying Mantis, Walking Stick, and Leaf Insects, White Ants, Wasps and Bees, Butterflies, Spiders, Crustacea; 5. The exotic Cartilaginous Fish, such as the voracious Sharks; the Rays; the Torpedo or Numb-fish; Sturgeons; the saws of various Saw-fish, and larger Sponges.
North Gallery. —Fossil Remains in six rooms, partly in Zoological order and partly
ont face=”Georgia, “Palatino Linotype”, “Book Antiqua”, Palatino, “Times New Roman”, serif”> MUSEUM, THE BRITISH.
in Geological sequence. 1. Plants. 2. Fishes, arranged chiefly after Agassiz. 3. Reptilian Remains: Frog, Tortoise, and Crocodile; the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus; gigantic Salamander, mistaken for a human skeleton; remains of Iguanodon, 70 feet long, from Tilgate Forest, Sussex; of the Hylseosaurus, or Wealden lizard; and the Plesiosaurus ; the Epyornis, extinct wingless bird from Madagascar, remains referred by Professor Owen to distinct genera, some of which are still living in New Zealand, whilst others are, most probably, extinct. Amongst the living species may be noticed the Notornis Mantelli, a very large species of the Rail family. The Dinornis, wingless, and gigantic, from 10 to 11 feet in height, IQicynodon from South Africa, with two large descending tusks; enormous Tortoise from India. 4. Reptilian Remains; birds and Marsupials. 5. Mammalian Remains: corals, mollusca, nummulites, stone lilies, sea urchins, worms, insects, Crustacea, trilobites, fossil shells. 6. Edentata and Pachydermata : skeleton of the Megatherium; Elephant, and Mastodon; cast of the skeleton of the Megatherium Americanum, found in Buenos Ayres; fossil human skeleton from Guadaloupe, &c. In Saurian Fossils the Museum is eminently rich; as well as in gigantic osseous remains; and impressions of vegetables, fruit, and fish.
Mineral Collection, mostly on Berzelius’s system, in four rooms: mass of Meteoric Iron (14001bs.) from Buenos Ayres ; native Silver from Konsberg; trunk of a tree converted into semi-opal; large mass of Websterite from Newhaven ; Tortoise scidptured in Nephrite, or Jade, from the banks of the Jumna; Esquimaux knife and harpoon, of meteoric iron; a large collection of Meteoric Stones chronologically arranged. Here, also, are Diamonds of various forms, and models of celebrated diamonds. The collection is superior to any in Europe, and includes a splendid cabinet of minerals from the Harz Mountains.
The Botanical op. Banksian Department contains the Herbaria of Sir Hans Sloane (336 vtl imes bound in 262); the Herbaria of Plukenet and Petiver; collections from those of Merret, Cunningham, Hermann, Robart, Bernard de Jussieu, Tournefort, Scheuchzer, Kamel, Vaillant, Kaenapfer, Catesby, Houston, and Boerhaave; the Plants presented to the Royal Society by the Company of Apothecaries from 1722 to 1796, as rent paid by the Company for the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. Also the Herbarium of the Baron de Moll; the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, mostly in cabinets, nearly 30,000 species, including Sir Joseph’s collections upon his voyage with Captain Cook, and the Plants collected in subsequent voyages of discovery; Loureiro’s Plants from Cochin China; an extensive series presented by the East India Company; Egyptian Plants, presented by Wilkinson, &c. The Flowers and Fruits preserved in spirits, and the dried Seeds and Fruits, are fine; as are also the various specimens of Woods.
Departments op Antiquities. —The collections are divided into two series. The first, consisting of Sculpture, including Inscription and Architectural remains, occupies the Ground Flooas e Grounr of the South-western and Western portions of the building; and to this division have been added some rooms in the basement—Assyria and other countries. The second series, placed in a suite of rooms on the Upper Floor, comprehends all the smaller remains, of whatever nation or period, such as Vases and Terra-cottas, Bronzes, Coins, and Medals, and articles of personal or domestic use. To the latter division are attached the Ethnographical specimens. The four principal series of Sculptures are the Roman, including the mixed class termed Grseco-Roman, the Hellenic, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian at right angles to the Roman. To the left of the Hall, on entering the building, is the Roman Gallery. On the South side are miscellaneous Roman antiquities discovered in this country, belonging to British Antiquities. On the opposite side is the series of Roman Iconographical or portrait Sculptures, whether statues or busts.
In 1864 were added nine statues from the Farnese Palace at Rome, purchased from the ex-king of Naples, for 40002. These statues are: 1. A Mercury, nearly identical in pose and scale with the celebrated statue in the Belvedere of the Vatican. 2. An equestrian statue of a Eoman Emperor of heroic size. The head is that of a Caligula, but doubts have been entertained whether it belongs to the body: this group is in very fine condition, and especially interesting, as being one of the very lew equestrian statues which have been preserved to us from antiquity. 3. The celebrated and unique copy of the Diadumenos of Polycletus. This figure, engraved in K. O. Miiller’s Denkmaler d. a. Kumt, taf. xxxi. No. 136, represents a Greek athlete binding a diadem round his head, whence the name Diadumenos: used as a canon of proportions in the ancient schools, and which, at a later period, sold for the enormous sum of 100 talents, equal to 25,0002. 4. An Apollo playing on the lyre, in the same attitude as the beautiful statue from Cyrene, in the British Museum, but naked. 6. An heroic figure, possibly a King of the Macedonian period in the character of a Deity. 7. A Satyr holding up a basket in which is an
Amorino. The two remaining statues are a group of Mercury and Herse\ An interesting notice of these statues, from the pen of Professor Gerhard, of Berlin, is to be found in Bunsen’s great work on the Topography of Rome.
Also, a bronze lamp found on the site of Julian’s palace, probably of adate prior to the Christian era, and considered to be Greek—a most beautiful work.
British and Anglo-Roman Remains —Tessellated pavements, Roman altars, sarcophagi, Roman pigs of lead; tessellated pavements from the Bank of England and Threadneedle-street and other parts; Roman mill fragments from Trinity House-square, and a sarcophagus from Haydon-square.
In 1864, were added 2000 objects, connected with the first or early appearance of man on this earth, as flint implements, or weapons found in the drift, a section of a Danish Kjokkenmodding, relics from caves of the South of France, implements of bone, engraving and sculpture on bone and horn, remains of the Stone Period, bronze implements, celts and arrow-heads, bronze figures of animals, Roman remains—all extremely interesting to the antiquary and geologist, &c. Also, the Collection of Remains found in the cavern at Abbeville, with specimens of the cave bones and stones, illustrating the Antiquity of Man.
Greco-Roman Rooms. —Statm H Rooms.ues and bas-reliefs by Greek artists, or from Greek originals; busts of mythological, poetical, and historical personages; statues and busts of Roman emperors; architectural and decorative sculptures and bas-reliefs; sepulchral monumeuts, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman; Roman altars; pavement from Carthage; bas-relief of Jupiter and Leda; the group of Mithra; the Rondini Faun; torso of Venus, from Richmond House; bas-relief of the Apotheosis of Homer, cost 1000£.; Persepolitan marbles, presented by Sir Gore Ouseley and the Earl of Aberdeen; a Venus of the Capitol; and other high-class marbles from the collections of Sir W. Hamilton, R. Payne Knight, and Edmund Burke; including, from the latter, the copy of the Cupid of Praxiteles, presented by the painter Barry to Burke. Here also are a sarcophagus from Sidon, sculptured with combats of Greeks, Amazons, and Centaurs; and a magnificent marble tazza 4 feet 3^ inches high, and 3 feet 7 inches diameter.
The Townley Collection of bas-reliefs, vases, statues, and groups, heads and busts, includes 83 terra-cottas: the famed Discobolus, or Quoit-thrower, in marble, from the bronze of the sculptor Myron; Venus, or Dione, the finest Greek statue seen by Canova in England; Venus Victrix, of the highest style of art; busts of Pallas, Hercules, Minerva, and Homer; bust of ” Clytie rising from a sunflower;” and busts of Greek poets and philosophers. The Bacchus is finest—so beautiful, self-possessed, and severe; Bacchus, the mighty conqueror of India—not a drunken boy—but the power, not the victim of wine.
These stores of Greek and Roman art were collected by Mr. Charles Townley, chiefly at Rome, between 1765 and 1772; and were arranged by him at No. 7, Park-street, Westminster, with accompani-ments so classically correct, that the house resembled the interior of a Roman villa. The dining-room had walls of scagliola porphyry; and here were placed the largest and most valuable statues, lighted by lamps almost to animation. Mr. Townley died in 1805; and his collection of marbles and terra-cottas was purchased by the British Museum for 2O,0O0Z., and first exhibited in a gallery built for their reception in 1808. Mr. Townley^ bronzes, coins, gems, drawings, &c., chiefly illustrating the sculptures, were subsequently purchased by the Museum for 82002. A bust of Mr. Townley, by Nollekens, is placed near the entrance to the Central Saloon. Subsequent acquisitions have been made by the bequest of the collection of R. Payne Knight, Esq., in 1824, and by various individual purchases and donations.
Lycian Gallery. —Reliefs, tombs, and sarcophagi discovered and brought to England by Sir Charles Fellows, principally from the ruins of Xanthus, S. W. Asia Minor; dating from the earliest Greek period to that of the Byzantine empire, and earlier than the Parthenon. Model of the Harpy Tomb, with its actual white marble reliefs, presumed to represesent the daughters of Pandarus carried off by Harpies: the tomb itself was a square shaft, 80 tons weight. Model of an Ionic peristyle building, with 14 columns and statues; the friezes representing the conquest of Lycia by the Persians, and the siege of Xanthus. Tomb of Paiafa : roof resembling an inverted boat, and an early Gothic arch; the sides sculptured with combats of warriors on horseback and foot; a chariot, sphinxes, &c. Casts from the sculptured Rock-tomb at Myra, with bilingual (Greek and Lycian) inscription.
Elgin Rooms. —The Elgin marbles, brought from the Parthenon at Athens by the Earl of Elgin: some are the work of Phidias himself. (See in this room two models of the Parthenon, each 12 feet long, made by R. ble, made C. Lucas, described in Remarks on the Parthenon by R. C. Lucas, Sculptor; Salisbury, 1844: 1. The temple after the bombardment in 1687; 2. The Parthenon restored.) The Metopes from the Frieze (15 originals and 1 cast), representing the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha?, in alto-relievo: for the original the English Government agent bid 1000Z. at the sale of the collection of the Count de Choiseul Gouffier; but he was outbid by the Director of the French Museum, where the metope now is. The Panathenaic Frieze, 524 feet in length, is probably the largest piece of sculpture ever attempted in Greece: its men, women, and children, in all costumes and attitudes; horsemen, charioteers; oxen and other victims for sacrifice; images of the gods; sacred flagons, baskets, &c.,—have an astonishing air of reality. Of the 110 horses, no two are in the same attitude : ” they appear,” says Flaxman, ” to live and move, to roll their eyes, to gallop, to prance, and curvet; the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with circulation.” Here are about 326 feet of the Frieze, 76 feet casts, and about 250 feet of the genuine marble which Phidias put up.
” The British Museum,” says Professor Welcker, ” possesses in the works of Phidias a treasure with which nothing can be compared in the whole range of ancient art.” Flaxman said that these sculptures were ” as perfect representations of nature as it is possible to put into the compass of the marble in which they are executed—and nature, too, in its most beautiful form.” Chantrey spoke enthusiastically of ” the exquisite judgment with which the artists of these sculptures had modified the style of working the marble, according to the kind and degree of light which would fall on them when in their places.” Lawrence said that, ” after looking at the finest sculptures in Italy, he found the Elgin marbles superior to any of them.” Canovasaid, in reply to an application made to him respecting their repair or restoration, that ” it would be sacrilege in him or any man, to presume to touch them with a chisel.”
Pedimental sculptures, placed upon raised stages: East, the birth of Minerva, Hyperion, and heads of two of his horses: Theseus, ideal beauty of the first order, the finest figure in the collection, of which more drawings have been made than all the other Athenian marbles put together: ” the back of the Theseus is the finest thing in the world.” Head of a horse from the chariot of Night, valued at 250Z., the finest possible workmanship. West pediment: Contest between Athena and Poseidon for the naming of Athens; the recumbent statue of the river god Ilissus, pronounced by Canova and Visconti equal to the Theseus: torso, supposed of Cecrops, grand in outline : fragment of the head and statue of Minerva. Also, a capital and part of a shaft of a Doric column of the Parthenon, piece of the ceiling, and Ionic shaft, from the Temple of Erechtheus at Athens, imperfect statue of a youth, piece of a frieze from the tomb of Agamemnon, exceedingly ancient: circular altars from Delos, bronze sepulchral urn, very richly wrought: casts from the Temple of Theseus, the best presei-ved of all the ancient Athenian monuments; the Wingless Victory and the Choragic monument of Lysicrates ; from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus, a colossal statue of Bacchus, inferior only to the Phidian sculptures ; Eros (Cupid), discovered by Lord Elgin within the Acropolis (headless), has in the limbs the grace and elegance of the age of Praxiteles ; the Sigean inscription, most ancient Grecian, in the Boustrophedon style:— i.e. the lines read as an ox passes from one furrowd aom one to another.
To Haydon must be conceded the genius of instantly appreciating the beauty of the Elgin Marbles; yet they were utterly neglected until Canova, on seeing them, declared, ” Sans doute, la verity est telle, les accidents de la chair et les formes sont si vraies et si belles, que ces statues produiront un grand changement dans les arts. lis renverseront le systerae matheinatique des autres antiques.” Haydon soon roused the public interest in the sculptures, and they were purchased by Parliament for 35,0OM. ” You have saved the marbles,” Lawrence said to Haydon, ” but it will ruin you.”—Haydon’s Autobiography, 1853.
Tuesdays and Thursdays in every week, and the whole month of September in every year (when daylight is usually the steadiest and strongest), are exclusively devoted to artists and students in the Elgin and Townley Galleries.
Hellenic Room. —The Marbles have been brought from Greece and its colonies, exclusive of Athens and Attica. Bas-reliefs of the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithse, and the combat of the Greeks and Amazons, from among the ruins of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigaleia; built by Ictinus, contemporary with Phidias, and architect of the Parthenon (Pausanias). Their historical value, representing the art of the Praxitelian period, is scarcely less than that of the Parthenon marbles. In two model pediments from the eastern and western ends of the Temple of Jupiter Par-bellenius, in the Island of .Sgina, are, west, 10 original statues, representing Greeks and Trojans contesting for the body of Patroclus; east, 5 figures, expedition of Hercules and Telamon against Troy, these statues being the only illustration extant of the
armour of the heroic ages. In this saloon, also, are the Canning Marlles, or Bodroum Sculptures, from Bodroum, in Asia Minor, the site of Halicarnassus; 11 has-reliefs (combat of Amazons and Greek warriors), formerly part of the celebrated Mausoleum erected in honour of Mausolus, King of Caria, by his wife Artemisia, B.C. 353 : it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These, and other sculptures from Bodroum, were presented by the Sultan to Sir Stratford Canning (whence their name), and by him to the British Museum.
Assyrian Galleries. — Assyrian Sculptures, collected by Layard : fragments of the disinterred Assyrian palaces of Nimroud (Nineveh) and Kouyunjik ; cuneiform (arrow-headed) and other writing • gypsum or alabaster bas-reliefs that lined the interior walls; detached sculptures; ivories and other ornaments ; winged lions, weighing 15 tons each; winged bulls, each 14 feet high; sculptured slabs of battle-pieces and sieges, combats, treaties, and triumphs, lion and bull hunts, armies crossing rivers; winged and eagle-headed human figures; religious ceremonies, sculptured obelisks, incription on a bull, connecting the Assyrian dynasty of Sennacherib with Hezekiah of the Bible ; fragments of a temple built by Sardanapalus, and a basalt Assyrian statue, closely resembling the Egyptian style; costumes, field-sports, and domestic life of 2000 years since. Here also are a few stones with cuneiform inscriptions, excavated by Mr. Rich from the presumed site of Nineveh, near Mosul, but previous to Mr. Layard’s researches, ” a case scarcely three feet square enclosed all that remained not only of the great city of Nineveh, but of Babylon itself \” (See Layard’s ^Nineveh and its Remains, Monuments, Sfc.) To these has been added a further collection from the same region, excavated in 1853-55, bv Mr. Hormuzd RassaiesHormuzdm and Mr. W. K. Loftus, under the direction of Sir H. C. Rawlinson, K.C.B.
Egyptian Galleries. —The monuments in this collection constitute on the whole the most widely extended series in the range of Antiquity, ascending to at least 2000 years before the Christian sera, and closing with the Mohammadan invasion of Egypt, a.d. 640. The Sculptures (from Thebes, Karnac, Luxor, and Memphis, and 800 in number) are placed in chronological order, from north to south: in the vestibule, early period; northern gallery, 18th dynasty; central saloon, monuments of Rameses II.; and in the southern gallery, those posterior to that monarch, descending to the latest times of the Roman empire. The Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek Antiquities are thus exhibited in three parallel lines; a fourth, or transverse line, along the southern extremity of the others, being appropriated to Roman remains. Among the sculptures from Egypt are, the celebrated head of Memnon, from Thebes, of first-class Egyptian art. The head and arm of a king, a statue originally 26 feet high. Amenoph III. seated on his throne—the great Memnon in miniature. Two colossal red granite lions, couchant, from Upper Nubia; fine specimens of Early Egyptian art in animal forms. Breccia sarcophagus, supposed tomb of Alexander the Great, carved with 21,700 characters. The Rosetta Stone, black basalt, the most valuable existing relic of Egyptian history, inscribed in hieroglyphics, the ancient spoken language of Egypt, and in Greek, with the services of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes: the deciphering of which has afforded a key to Champollion, Wilkinson, &c. The Tablet of Abydos, giving a chronological succession of the monarchy. Sepulchral tablets and fragments of tombs; Egyptian frescoes, painted perhaps 3000 years ago, yet fresh in colour. Arragonite vases from the fourth dynasty. Plaster casts taken in Egypt, and coloured after the originals. Here is a statue of the son of Rameses the Second, about four feet high. He bears a standard on each side; it is of most beautiful workmanship, placed near the head of Memnon. It is in a very good state of preservation, and is a beautiful specimen of Egyptian Art. It is curious as a lithological specimen, the breccia being formed of the consolidated sand of the desert, inclosing jasper, chert, and other siliceous pebbles.
Egyptian Rooms (two), upstairs, contain divinities, and royal personages, and sacred animals; sepulchral remains; and miscellaneous objects, specially illustrative of the domestic manners of the Egyptians; mostly from the collections of Salt, Sams, and Wilkinson. Here are mummies and mummy-cases, wooden figures from tombs, bronze offerings, and porcelain figures; painted, gilt, stone, bronze, silver, and porcelain deities; figures of the jackal, hippopotamus, baboon, lion, cat, ram, &c.; a coffin and body from
the third Pyramid; model of an Egyptian house, granary, and yard; furniture, as tables, stools, chairs, and head-rests, couches and pillows, keys, locks, hinges, holts, and handles; from the toilet, the black wig and box, caps, aprons, tunics, sandals, shoes, combs, pins, studs, and cases for eye-lid paint; vases and lamps, bowls and cups, agricultural implements, warlike weapons, writing and painting implements, working tools, and weaving looms, toys, and musical instruments. A stand, with a cooked duck and bread-cakes, from a tomb; sepulchral tablets, scaraba?i, and amulets; rings, necklaces, and bracelets, and mummy ornaments. Above the Wall-cases are casts of battle-scenes, triumphs, and court ceremonies, coloured after the originals, from temples in Nubia.
The Temple Collectionl ole Coll, of antiquities, bequeathed to the British Museum in 1856 by the Hon. Sir William Temple, K.C.B. The majority of the specimens belong to that large region of Lower Italy which, prior to the Roman dominion, was extensively colonized and highly cultivated by the Greeks, and thence received the name of Magna Grsecia. They comprehend, therefore, specimens of the arts of three different races— the Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans.
Vase Rooms (two) contain Etruscan and Graeco-Italian vases, painted from the myths or popular poetry of the day: classified into Early Italian, Black Etruscan, and Red Etruscan ware; varnished ware, mostly early; Italian vases, of Archaic Greek style; vases of Transition style, finest Greek, and the Basilicata and latest period.
(Vaux’s Handbook.) Here are the ancient fictile vases purchased of Sir William Hamilton in 1772, and then the largest collection known.
The Hamilton Vase, on being examined in 1839 by M. Gerhard, was found to bear the name of each personage depicted on it; from which it appears that the myth, or story, is totally distinct from that assigned to it by M. D’Hancarville, in his schedules of the Vases of the Hamilton collection; thus overturning his theory, and reading a strange lesson to virtuosi and antiquaries.
Here also are Greek and Roman terra-cottas, of various epochs and styles. Above the
Wall-cases are painted fac-similes, by Campanari, of entertainments from Etruscan tombs.
The Barberini or Portland Vase, the property of the Duke of Portland, has been deposited in the Museum since 1810.
The Portland Vote was found about 1560, in a sarcophagus in a sepulchre under the Monte del Grano, Z\ miles from Rome. It was deposited in the palace of the Barberini family until 1770, when it was purchased by Byres, the antiquary; and sold by him to Sir William Hamilton, of whom it was bought, for 1800 guineas, by the Duchess of Portland, at the sale of whose property it was bought in by the family for 1029Z. The vase is 9f inches high and 7i inches in diameter, and has two handles. It is of glass: yet Breval considered it calcedony; Bartoli, sardonyx; Count Tetzi, amethyst; and De la Chausse, agate. It is ornamented with white opaque figures upon a dark-blue semi-transparent ground; the whole having been originally covered with white enamel, out of which the figures have been cut, like a cameo. The glass foot is distinct, and is thought to have been cemented on after bones or ashes had been placed in the vase. The seven figures, each 5 inches high, are said by some to illustrate the fable of Thaddeus and Theseus; by Bertoli, Proserpine and Pluto; by Winckelmann, the nuptials of Thetis and Peleus; Darwin, an allegory of Life and Immortality; others, Orpheus and Eurydice; Fos-broke, a marriage, death, and second marriage; Tetzi, the birth of Alexander Severus, whose cinerary urn the vase is thought to d 7s thougbe; while Mr. Windus, F.S.A., in a work published 1845, considers the scene as a love-sick lady consulting Galen. The vase was engraved by Cipriani and Bartolozzi in 1786: copies of it were executed by Wedgwood, and sold at 50 guineas each, the model for which cost 500 guineas: there is a copy in the British and Mediaeval Boom.
The Portland Vase was exhibited in a small room of the old Museum buildings until February 7, 1845, when it was wantonly dashed to pieces with a stone by one AVilliam Lloyd; but the pieces being gathered up, the Vase has been restored by Mr. Doubleday so beautifully, that a blemish can scarcely be detected. The Vase is now kept in the Medal Room. A drawing of the fractured pieces is preserved.
Bronze Boom. —Figures of divinities, furniture, mirrors, tripods, candelabra, lamps and vases, armour, personal ornaments, &c.; including copper-bronze lions, bronze remains of a throne, fragments of glass vessels and of armour, discovered by Layard in Assyria. A large collection of bronze objects from Greece Proper, from Rome and of the Roman period: and from the sepulchres of ancient Etruria, and the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These include fragments of statues; spear-heads, daggers, helmets, and Roman eagles; steelyards, amphorae, and tripods; candelabra, vases, votive figures, and statuettes; mirrors and their cases; the exquisite 798 bronzes bequeathed by R. Payne Knight; and the celebrated bronzes of Siris, from the south of Italy. Miscellaneous Greek and Roman objects, including astragali of crystal, cornelian, and ivory; dice, anciently loaded; tickets for the games; hair-pins and ivory busts; ancient glass vases and paterae; fragments of cornelian, onyx, and jasper cups, and a crystal vessel holding gold; animals in bronze; styli for writing; keys, plates, enamel-work ; Etruscan and Koman fibulse and finger-rings. Above the Wall-cases are facsimile paintings of Games, from tombs at Vida.
British and Mediceval Room, containing antiquities found in Great Britain and Ireland, and extending from the earliest period to the Norman Conquest; also, Mediaeval objects, English and foreign; including
Celts; stone knives, arrow-heads, and hammers: models of Celtic cromlechs, or sepulchres; paintings of Plas Newydd and Stonehenge; bronze celts, swords,daggers, spear-heads, helmet, and buckler; half-baked pottery from British barrows; fragments of Roman buildings; Kimmeridge coal-money; a Coway stake from the Thames; Roman service of plate; Roman glass; Saxon brooches. Mediaeval: personal ornaments and weapons; ivory chessmen and draughtsmen; paintings from St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster; Dr. Dee’s crystal ball and wax cakes; and (from Strawberry Hill) the Show-stone (cannel coal) into which Dee ” used to call his spirits.” Here also are tenure and state swords; Limoges enamels; Venetian glass; Alhambra tiles; Bow porcelain; Wedgwood copy of the Portland Vase, and two superb Chelsea porcelain vases, valued at 300 guineas, presented by Wedgwood.
The Early Christian Collection contains a number of pieces of glass vases with ornaments in gold leaf, all discovered in the Catacombs of Rome. The subjects on these are chiefly from the life of our Lord, or antitypes from the Old Testament, such as Jonah, Moses striking the rock. There are also figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, and other saints connected with the Early Roman Church. Here is the faterere is mous Blacas Collection of gems and coins, Greek and Roman bronzes, mural painting from Pompeii and Herculaneum, sepulchral inscriptions and manuscripts, Greek vases, silver toilet service of a Roman bride, &c, purchased in 1866, for 48,0002.
The Mediceval Collection contains Sculpture and Carving, chiefly in ivory; Paintings, Metal-work, Matrices of Seals, Enamels, English Pottery, Venetian and German glass, Italian Majolica, German Stoneware, &c.
The Ethnographical Room contains objects illustrating the religion, arts, and industry of various countries; including the model of a moveable Indian temple; a Chinese bell, captured from a Buddhist temple near Ningpo in 1844; a model of Nelson’s ship, the Victory, and a piece of its actual timber with a 401b. shot in it from the battle of Trafalgar; a plaster cast of the Shield of Achilles, modelled by Flaxman from the 17th book of Homer’s Iliad ,• a colossal gilt figure of the Burmese idol Gaudama; Chinese figures of deities, beggars, mandarins, and trinkets; Hindoo deities, measures, vessels, and arms; Chinese and Japanese matchlocks, bows and arrows, shoes, mirrors, screens, and musical instruments; richly-decorated cloth from Central Africa: a Foulah cloak from Sierra Leone; an Ashantee loom, umbrellas, tobacco-pipes, fly-flappers, and sandals j terra-cotta Mexican figures (mostly from Bullock’s Museum); Aztec vases, idols, and armaments; Peruvian mummies and silver images; musical instruments, weapons, tools, ornaments, and costumes, from Guiana, the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands, Tahiti and the Friendly Isles, New Zealand and Australia, Borneo, New Guinea, the Pelew Islands, Siam, &c.; and a tortoise-shell bonnet from the Navigators’ Islands.
The Medal Room contains a collection of Coins and Medals superior to that of Vienna and Florence, if not Paris. The nucleus of the British Museum collection was Sir Hans Sloane’s coins, worth 7000Z. as bullion, to which were added Sir Robert Cotton’s coins; 6000 medals from the Hamilton collection; the Cracherode coins and medals, valued at 60002.; coins from the Conquest to George III. (Roberts’s), purchased for 4000 guineas; a series of Papal medals, and a collection of Greek coins ; the Townley Greek and Roman coins; a vast collection of foreign coins, presented by Miss Banks; Payne Knight’s Greek coins; Rich’s early Arabian, Parthian, and Sas-sanian coins; medals and coins attached to the library of George III.; Marsden’s-Oriental coins; Burnes’s Bactrian coins; and contributions and purchases of finds of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Gallic, and early English coins. The collection is arranged in, 1. Ancient coins—Greek in Geographical order, and Roman chronologically. 2. Modern coins—Anglo-Saxon, English, Anglo-Gallic, Scotch, and Irish, and the coins of foreign nations, arranged according to countries: the Anglo-Saxon and English series is complete from Ethelbert I. The great collection, with medals, 7700 specimens, formerly in the Bank of England. Of Queen Anne’s farthings here are seven varieties, one only of which circulated, the others being pattern-pieces. 3. Medals, including an almost perfect series of British medals, besides the Papal and Napoleonic medals. Here is kept a gold snuff-box set with diamonds, and a miniature portrait of Napoleon, who*
presented it to the Hon. Mrs. Damer, by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum, on condition that the portrait should never be copied. Also a gold snuff-box with a cameo lid, presented by Pope Pius VI. to Napo>.on, and by him bequeathed to Lady Holland, with a card in Napoleon’s handwriting. Here are the engraved gems, antique paste as ctique pnd glass, and gold trinkets, including the breastplate of a British chieftain.
” The coins are a noble collection: here, as in the other departments of the Museum, the solid value of the collection consists in the equal and complete manner in which it covers the whole area of the subject-matter; and in this respect it stands the highest among collections.”— Times, 1S63.
Libraries. — The Royal Library and general collection of Printed Books occupy the east and north sides of the ground-floor and the internal quadrangle. The King’s Library is deposited in a magnificent hall 300 feet long and 65 feet wide in the centre, where are four Corinthian columns of polished Peterhead granite 25 feet high, with Derbyshire alabaster capitals : the door-cases are marble, and the doors oak inlaid with bronze. This library, the finest and most complete ever formed by a single individual, is exceedingly rich in early editions of the classics, books from Caxton’s press, history of the States of Europe in their respective languages, in Transactions of Academies, and grand geographical collections,—80,000 volumes, exclusive of pamphlets: among the Jesuits’ books, purchased in 1768, was the Florence Homer of 1488. Here is one of the most extensive and interesting collections of maps in Europe. The entire collection cost 130,000?.; catalogue, 5 vols, folio.
An interesting Department is that devoted to Books inscribed with Autographs. The rarest of all these is a copy of Florio’s Montaigne’s Essays, printed in 1603, and bearing the autograph of William Shakspeare. Here, too, is the autograph of Ben Jonson, in a presentation copy to John Florio of the first edition of his Volpone, printed in 1607. In other books we find the autographs of Bacon, Michael Angelo, Calvin, Martin Luther, Philip Melancthon, Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Walter Scott, Voltaire, &c. In this department are also some curious Proclamations. There is one issued in 1714, offering 100,000/. for the apprehension of the Pretender, Prince James, should he attempt to land in England. Another is a Proclamation of Prince Charles Edward, styling himself Prince of Wales, and offering 30,000£. for the apprehension of George II., who is therein coolly styled the Elector of Hanover, dated August 22nd, 1745.
The Grenville Library, 20,240 volumes, cost 54,GO07., was bequeathed to the Museum by the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, whose bust is placed here. Among its rarities are a Mazarine Latin Bible on vellum, the earliest printed Bible, and the earliest printed book known (supposed Gutenberg and Fust, Mentz, 1455) ; also the first Psalter, the first book with a date, and earliest printed in colours.
The General Library ranks with the public libraries of Vienna and Berlin, and is inferior only to those of Munich and Paris. Among the rarities is Coverdale’s Bible, 1535, the first complete edition of the Scriptures in English; The Game and Playe of the Chesse, the first book printed in English, from Caxton’s press, 1474 j the first edition of Chaucer’s Tales of Canterburye, only two perfect copies known, &c.; pamphlets and periodicals of the Civil Wars of Charles I.; the musical libraries of Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney; Garrick’s old Plays ;* Tracts of the Revolutionary
History of France. The Library is very rich in early folios and quartos of Shakspeare: there are the folios of 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1695. The quartos comprise the unique Venus and Adonis of 1602; the rare second edition of the same poem of 1594; the Homeo and Juliet of 1597; and many others of fabulous value. Books of Divinity are bound in blue, History in red, Poetry in yellow, and Biography in olive-coloured, leather. The catalogues of the several collections are in themselves a library. The catalogue, 7 vols. 1813-19, has been expanded, by interleaving and manuscript entries,
into 67 folio volumes. About 2000?. is expended annually in adding old and foreign works to the library; and, under the Copyright Act, 5 and 6 Vic. cap. 48, a copy of every book, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of music, chart, or plan, published within her Majesty’s dominions, must be delivered to the British Museum.
” The printed book Library is rich in early and rare editions. It boasts that it can challenge the best library of any nation in the world to show a series of the books of any foreign nation that can compare
* The collection of Shakspeare’s Plays are for the most part from the collection of David Garrick; and it is not. generally known that he obtained these precious pamphlets—for such they are in form—from the trustees of the Dulwich Gallery, who, as recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine of that period, exchanged Alleyne’s collection of stage plays for what they thought, in true churchwarden’s phrase, something more useful—viz., some encyclopaedias of the period, and a collection of voyages and travels, then modern. This fact gives a threefold value to the British Museum collection, as, besides Shaksp°are’s plays, the collection exchanged comprised several acting copies of older dramatists belonging to Alleyne himself, and used by him in performance.
•with those on the shelves in London. Out of Russia, Hungary, Germany, and France, respectively, there are no such Kussian, Magyar. German, or French libraries as those of the British Museum.”— Timet. 1S63.
The Xetcspapers are the largest collection in England. It was commenced by Sir Hans Sloane; and to it, in 1813, was added Dr. Burney’s collection, purchased for 10002.; since which the Commissioners of Stamps have transferred to the Museum copies of all the stamped newspapers. The oldest in the collection is a Venetian Gazette of the year 1570. Dr. Birch’s Historical Collections, No. 4106, contain The English Mercurie of July 23, 1588, long believed “the earliest English Newspaper,” now proved to be a forgery. In Dr. Burney’s library is Newes out of Holland, May 16, 1619, the earliest newspaper printed in England; and The Neios of the Present Week, May 23, 1622, the first weekly newspaper in England.
The Reading Room, in the internal quadrangle of the Museum, occupies an area of 48,000 superficial feet. It originated with Mr. Panizzi, who suggested building a flat, low, circular Reading-room in the quadrangle; the architect of the Trustees, Mr. Sydney Smirke, approved of Mr. Panizzi’s suggestion, but proposed a dome and glazed vaulting, to give more air to the readers and a more architectural character to the interior. This grew, on maturer consideration, into the much larger dome as erected from Mr. Smirke’s drawings, and under his direction as architect. It occupied three years in construction, and cost about 150,0002.
The Reading-room is circular. The entire building does not occupy the whole quadrangle, there being a clear interval of from 27 to 30 feet all round, to give light and air to the surrounding buildings, and as a guard against possible destruction by fire from the outer parts of the Museum. The dome of this reading-room is 140 feet in diameter, its height being 106 feet. In this dimension of diameter it is only inferior to the Pantheon of Rome by 2 feet; St. Peter’s being only 139; Sta. Maria, in Florence, 139; the tomb of Mahomet, Bejapore, 135; St. Paul’s, 112; St. Sophia, Constantinople, 107, and the Church at Darmstadt, 105. The new reading-room contains 1,250,000 cubic feet of space; its “suburbs,” or surrounding libraries, 750,000. The building is constructed principally of iron, with brick arches between the main ribs, supported by 20 iron piers, having a sectional area of 10 superficial feet to each, including the brick casing, or 200 feet in all. This saving of space by the use of iron is remarkable, the piers of support on which our dome rests only thus occupying 200 feet, whereas the piers of the Pantheon of Rome fill 7477 feet of area, and those of the tomb of Mahomet 5593. Upwards of 2000 tons of iron were employed in the construction. The roof is formed into two separate spherical and concentric air-chambers, extending over the whole surface; one between the external covering and brick vaulting, the object being the equalization of temperature during extremes of heat and cold out-of-doors; the other chamber, between the brick vaulting and the internal visible surface, being intended to carry ofF the vitiated air from the reading-room. This ventilation is effected through apertures in the soffites of the windows, and at the top of the dome; the bad air passing through outlets around the lantern.
The Reading-Room is world famous, and does not need description or praise, though the ingenious fire-proof library that surrounds it may be less known, and is, in fact, part of the vast improvement created by Mr. Panizzi when his Reading-Room was raised. That Reading-Room, with its light and cheerful dome, is the type of the modern and the comfortable, not to say social, as the venerable chamber of the Bodleian is of the older, more severe, and more secluded form of public study. The new library is the most ingenious application of glass and iron too cs and i the purposes of economizing space and providing effective accommodation for and sufficient light to an enormous number of books that was ever invented. The space between the dome of the reading-room and the walls of the Museum quadrangle is occupied by a series of parallel wrought-iron bookcases, with passages between them, and a few square courts left in places. The floors of the passages are formed of iron gratings, and each passage and the adjacent bookcases are lit from the roof. This vertical light penetrates to the base of the building, through the successive galleries or passages, that in some places are in tiers one over the other up to three or four stories. This most ingenious library is calculated to hold from 800,000 to 1,000,000 volumes, and by its method of construction solves the problem of future extension for the library, even at its present rapid growth of 20,000 volumes in the year. Calculated to hold the books that may be added for the next forty years, this new library thus shows how another million of books may after that be accommodated on a space of about three-quarters of an aore.— Times, 1863. There are twenty-five miles of book-shelves.
The Reading-Room is open everyday, except on Sundays, on Ash Wednesdays, Good Fridays, Christmas-day, and on any Fast or Thanksgiving days ordered by authority; except also between the 1st and 7th of Al ay, the 1st and 7th of September, and the 1st and 7th of January, inclusive. The hours are from 9 till 7 during May, June, July, and August (except on Saturdays, at 5), and from 9 till 4 during the rest
of the year. To obtain admission, persons are to send their applications in writing, specifying their Christian and surnames, rank or profession, and places of abode, to the principal Librarian; or, in his absence, to the Secretary; or, in his absence, to the senior under-librarian; who will either immediately admit such persons, or lay their applications before the next meeting of the Trustees. Every person applying is to produce a recommendation satisfactory to a Trustee or an officer of the establishment. Applications defective in this respect will not be attended to. Permission will in general be granted for six months, and at the expiration of this term fresh application is to be made for a renewal. The tickets given to readers are not transferable, and no person can be admitted without a ticket. Persons under 18 years of age are not admissible.
The persons whose recommendations are accepted are Peers of the realm, Members of Parliament, Judges, Queen’s Counsel, Masters in Chancery or any of the great law-officers of the Crown, any one of the 48 Trustees of the British Museum, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, rectors of parishes in the metropolis, principals or heads of colleges, eminent physicians and surgeons, and Royal Academicians, or any gentleman in superior post to an ordinary clerk in any of the public offices.
Nichols’s Handbook for Headers, published in 1866, details the regulations and arrangements affecting the use of the room, and describes the plans and scopes of the various catalogues of the printed books and manuscripts in the National Library.
Manttsckipts. —The Manuscript Library is the largest, and hoth in respect to the intrinsic value of the documents it contains, and to the order in which they are arranged and kept, is inferior to none in the world : the Cottonian Collection is especially rich in historical documents from the Saxons to James I. ; registries of English monasteries ; theriasteriee charters of the Saxon Edgar and King Henry I. to Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, written in golden letters; and ” the Durham Book,” a copy of the Gospels in Latin, written about 800, splendidly illuminated in the style of the Anglo-Saxons by the monks of Lindisfarne, and believed once to have belonged to the Venerable Bede. The collection is rich also in royal and other original letters. The Harleian Collection abounds in geographical and heraldic MSS.; in visitations of counties, and English topography; legal and parliamentary proceedings; abbey registers; MSS. of the classics, including one of the earliest known of the Odyssey of Homer; in missals, antiphonaries, and other service-books of the Romish Church; and in old English poetry. Also two very early copies of the Latin Gospels, written in golden letters; splendidly illuminated MSS.; an extensive mass of Correspondence; nearly 300 Bibles and biblical books, in the Chaldaic, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and Latin, in Manuscript; nearly 200 volumes of the writings of the Fathers of the Church; and works on the arts and sciences. Here is the oldest specimen of a Miracle-Play in English, of the earlier part of the reign of Edward III. The Sloanean Collection consists chiefly of MSS. on natural history, voyages, travels, and the arts, and also on medicine. It comprises the chief of Kaempfer’s MSS., with the voluminous medical collection of Sir Theodore Mayerne, and the annals of his practice at the Court of England from 1611 to 1649 ; also scientific and medical Correspondence, and historical MSS.; the drawings of animals are beautifully rich and accurate : two volumes on vellum, by Madame Merian, contain the insects of Surinam. The Royal MSS. contain the collection by our kings, from Richard II. to George II.; including the Codex Alexandrinus, in 4 quarto volumes of fine vellum, written, probably, between a.d. 300 and a.d. 500, and presumed to be the most ancient MS. of the Greek Bible now extant in uncial character: it was a present from Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople to King Charles I. Other MSS. came into the royal possession at the dissolution of the monasteries. Old scholastic divinity abounds in the collection; and many of the volumes are superbly illuminated in a succession of periods to the 16th century. Here also are several of the domestic music-books of Henry VIII.; and the Basilicon Doron of James I. in his own handwriting. The Lansdowne Collection, purchased in 1807 for 4925Z., consists of the Burghley and Caesar papers; the MSS. of Bishop Kennet; numerous valuable historical documents; and about 200 Chinese drawings. Here are Hardyng’s Chronicle, presented by the chronicler to King Henry VI.; a copy of the very rare French version of the Bible, upon vellum, translated by Raoul de Prede for Charles V. of France; also five volumes of Saxon homilies, transcribed by Mr. Elstob and his sister; and a fac-simile of the Vatican Virgil, made by Bartoli in 1642. The Sargreave MSS., added in 1813, contain, besides early Law Reports, an abridgment of equity practice, in 45 volumes, by Sir Thomas Sewell, Master of the Rolls. The Burney MSS., collected by the Rev. Charles Burney, and purchased in 1818, consist chiefly of the Greek and Latin classics, including the Tovvnley Homer, a MS. of the Iliad similar to that of the Odyssey in the Harleian
collection (cost 600 guineas); also two early MSS. of Greek rhetoricians; a volume of the mathematical tracts of Pappas; and a magnificent Greek MS. of Ptolemy’s Geography, enriched with maps of the 15th century. The Oriental MSS. include the valuable collection made by Mr. Rich while Consul at Bagdad, and comprising several Syriac copies of the Scriptures; also Arabic and Peruvian MSS. of great value, bequeathed by Mr. J. P. Hull in 1827. Here also are MSS. of French History and Literature, bequeathed by the Earl of Bridgewater in 1829. The Howard-Arundel MSS., acquired from the Royal Society in 1831, more than 500 t core thavolumes in every branch of learning. In illuminated works, the Collection in the British Museum is not surpassed, in the art of almost every age from the 4th, or certainly the 8th century to the 16th. Even the collection of Paris, or the Vatican itself, is not superior to that in our Museum, which is the most comprehensive in existence. The Oriental manuscripts are of inestimable value.
The Ancient Rolls and Charters of the Museum, many thousands in numher, partly from the Cottonian, Harleian, and Sloanean collections, illustrative of English history, monastic and other property, are separately catalogued.
Magna Charta, if not the original, a copy made when King John’s seal was affixed to it, was acquired by the British Museum with the Cottonian Library. It was nearly destroyed in the fire at Westminster in 1731; the parchment is much shrivelled and mutilated, and the seal is reduced to an almost shapeless mass of wax. The MS. was carefully lined and mounted; and in 1733 an excellent facsimile of it was published hy John Pine, surrounded hy inaccurate representations of the armorial ensigns of the 25 barons appointed as securities for the due performance of Magna Charta. An impression of this facsimile, printed on vellum, with the arms carved and gilded, is placed opposite the Cottonian original of the Great Charter, which is now secured under glass. It is about 2 feet square, is written in Latin, and is quite illegible. It is traditionally stated to have heen bought for fourpence, by Sir Robert Cotton, of a tailor, who was about to cut up the parchment into measures ! But this anecdote, if true, may refer to another copy of the Charter preserved at the British Museum, in a portfolio of royal and ecclesiastical instruments, marked Augustus II. art. 106; the original Charter is believed to have been presented to Sir Robert Cotton by Sir Edward Dering, Lieut.-Governor of Dover Castle; and to be that referred to in a letter dated May 10, 1630, extant in the Museum Library, in the volume of Correspondence, Julius C. III. fol. 191.
The Commissioners on the Public Kecords regarded the original of Magna Charta preserved at Lincoln to be of superior authority to either of those in the British Mnsenm, on account of several words and sentences being inserted in the body of that Charter, which in the latter are added at the foot, with reference-marks to the four places where they were to be added. These notes, however, possibly may prove that one of the Museum Charters was really the first written, to which those important additions were made immediately previous to the sealing on Runnemede, and therefore the actual original whence the more perfect transcripts were taken.—Richard Thomson, Author of An Historical Essay on the Magna Charta of King John, tyc. 1829.
In the Museum, also, is the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope Innocent III. receiving the kingdoms of England and Ireland under his protection, and granting them in fee to King John and his successors, dated 1214, and reciting King John’s charter of fealty to the Church of Rome, dated 1213. Also, the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope Leo X. conferring the title of Defender of the Faith upon Henry VIII.
The Donation Manuscripts include Madox’s collection for his History of the Exchequer ; Rymer’s materials for his Foedera, used and unused; the historical and biographical MSS. of Dr. Birch; the Decisions of the Judges upon the Claims after the Great Fire of London in 1666 ; also Sir William Musgrave’s Obituary; Cole’s collection for a hisTimion fortory of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire, and an Athena Cantabrigienses : hesides many Coptic and other ancient MSS. taken from the French in Egypt; Ducarel’s abstract of the Archiepiscopal Registers at Lambeth Palace j and a long series of Calendars of the original rolls from the 1st of Henry VIII. to the 2nd of James I. Also Linacre’s translation of Galen’s Methodus Medendi, on spotless vellum ; the presentation copies of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey: the former illuminated with the royal arms, the latter with the Cardinal’s hat.
Here are—the Bible written by Alcuin for Charlemagne, large folio, 449 leaves of vellum, said to have occupied 20 years -in transcribing, and illuminated. Psalters of Henry VI. and Henry VIII.; and Prayer-books of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Eliza-
beth. The Breviary of Isabella of Castile, 1496-97; a profusely adorned specimen of Flemish and Spanish art. The Bedford Missal, a Book of Hours, written and sumptuously illuminated in France for the Begent, John Duke of Bedford, and his Duchess, Anne of Burgundy, between 1423 and 1430. MS. of Valerius Maximus, splendidly illuminated. Original Letters of all the great Reformers; the English Kings; and Poets and Philosophers. The MS. of ” paper-sparing ” Pope’s Homer, written on the backs and covers of letters. Three original assignments: Milton’s Paradise Lost to Simmons; Dryden’s Virgil to Tonson; and Goldsmith’s History of Eminent Persons to Dodsley. Selections from the Rupert and Fairfax correspondence, 1640-49, including letters of Charles I., Charles II., Fairfax, and Hyde (Lord Clarendon). The original marriage-contract of Charles I. when Prince of Wales. The pocket-hook taken from the Duke of Monmouth after the battle of Sedgmoor, certified in the handwriting of James II. Papyri. —In the Egyptian Room is a framed specimen of this style of writing; and among the MSS. is a Greek papyrus, prohably of B.C. 135, containing the translation of a deed of sale; and a book of sheets of papyrus sewn together, brought from Egypt, and bearing a copy in Greek of part of the Psalms of David. Several Egyptian papyri, written in the hieroglyphical, hieratical, enchorial, or demotic character, framed and glazed, are arranged in the staircase leading to the Print-Room.
The Print-Room has only been an independent department since 1837. Tn 1836 was purchased from the Messrs. Smith, the Dutch and Flemish portions of Mr. Sheepshanks’ collection for 5000L Valuable additions have since been made, and the Print-Room now contains the most perfect collection known of the works of the Engravers of the early Italian, German, Dutch, and Flemish Schools. Among the Curiosities are, in the Early Italian School, an engraved silver plate (a Roman Catholic Pax), by Maso Finiguerra, 3£ inches high by 2\ inches wide, sold in 1824 for 300 guineas. An impression in sulphur, a similar subject, the first step in the discovery in this branch of printing, cost 250 guineas. Another similar subject, printed on paper, probably the earliest exemplar known, cost 300 guineas. Specimens of this description are much more numerous in the British Museum than in all other collections combined. Early German School: works of F. Van Bocholt (1466), Martin Schoengauer, Israel van Meeken, Albert Durer (a beautiful series, including some unfinished plates), Lucas van Leyden, &c. Dutch and Flemish Schools : works of Rembrandt, worth probably from 15,000Z. to 20,000?.; the large portrait of the Dutch writing-master Coppenal is valued at 500 guineas. French School: an admirable series of etchings by the hand of Claude. English School: works of Sir Robert Strange and Woollett; prints after the pictures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, West, and Sir Thomas Lawrence; 4000 prints after Sttheints afothard.
The Print-Room also contains an excellent representative series illustrative of Mezzotint Engraving : specimens by the inventor, Count Siegen, and by its earliest prac-tisers, Prince Rupert, the Canon Furstemberg, &c., are remarkably fine and numerous. Also, an extensive series of British Portraits and British Topography. Some thousand drawings and prints collected and bequeathed by Mr. Crowle, cost upwards of 7000£., including some of Turner’s earliest drawings. Original Drawings by Raphael, Albert Durer, Holbein, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke; and some beautiful designs by Claude, a portion of his Liber Veritatis. Here are the finest specimens in the world of Ostade and Backhuysen; cost 200 guineas each. In an adjoining room is a small selection of the most capital drawings, framed and glazed. In the Print-Room, also, is a carving in hone-stone (Birth of John the Baptist) by Albert Durer, dated 1510, a wonderful cutting in high relief, which cost 500 guineas; also, a beautifully chased silver Cup, attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The whole contents of the Print-Room are worth considerably more than 100,0002. They can only be seen by very few persons at a time, and by particular permission.
The first Keeper of the Prints was Mr. Alexander, so well known for his Views and Costumes of China. He was succeeded by Mr. J. T. Smith, the topographer, and author of the amusing Life and Times of Nollekens. Mr. Young Ottley, the eminent collector, and author of the Early History of Engraving, was his successor; and he was followed by Mr. Henry Jozi, to whose energy a large amount of the present prosperity of this department is due. On his decease in 1845, the post wa3 given to Mr. Carpenter, F.S.A., Keeper, to whose attainments and kindness all visitors to the Print-Boom will bear ample testimony. Mr. Carpenter died in 1S65. The present keeper is Mr. G. Keid.
Here are a few small portraits—viz., Geoffrey Chaucer, 1400, a small whole-length on panel; a limning of Frederic III. of Saxony, by L. Cranach, Moliere, Corneille, an unknown head by Dobson,—all on panel; with the portrait of a Pope or Cardinal.
The public are admitted to the collections of Zoology, Minerals, and Antiquities on Monday, Wednesday, Friday (and Saturday from 12 to 5 during May, June, and July), and the whole of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun weeks; November, December, January, and February, 10 to 4; September, October, March, April, 10 to 5; May, June, July, and August, 10 to 6; closed the first week in January, May, and September; and on Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Ash Wednesday; and on any special Fast or Thanksgiving Days. The Visitors’ Book is in the Hall.
A list of Descriptive Catalogues, &c, published by the British Museum is appended to the Synopsis; with a list of the prices of casts and photographs from ancient marbles, bronzes, &c. in the Museum.
A list of objects added to the several collections in each year is printed in the Parliamentary Eeturn, usually in April or May.
Beneath the portico of the Museum have been set up casts from portions of the famous Lion, which was erected on the sepulchre of the Boeotians who fell in the Battle of Chseronea, B.C. 338: a mound was raised, and a gigantic lion set up on its summit: the mound was excavated, and the fragments found s Ngments are in almost the finest style of Greek art. This lion is placed close by that Lion of Cnidus, which is thought to be of earlier date.
Principal Librarian and Secretary, Mr. J. Winter Jones, who succeeded Mr. Panizz in 1866. Superintendent of Natural History, Professor Richard Owen.
MUSEUMS.
ADELAIDE GALLERY op Practical Science (the), Adelaide-street, Strand, was built by Jacob Perkins, the engineer, and opened by a Society in 1832, for the exhibition of Models of Inventions, works of Art, and specimens of Novel Manufacture. Here, in a canal, 70 feet long, and containing 6000 gallons of water, were shown steamboat models, with clock-work machinery; experimental steam-paddles ; lighthouse models, &c. Next were exhibited the combustion of the hardest steel; the compression of water; a mouse in a diving-bell; steam sugar-mill and gas-cooking apparatus; a model of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; electro-magnets; a mechanical trumpet; a magic bust; models, from the Temples of Egypt to the Thames Tunnel ; looms at work; mummy-cloth 2000 years old; and Carey’s Oxy-hydrogen Microscope, shown on a disc 17 feet diameter; automatic ship and sea, &c.
Here Perkins’s Steam-Gun was exhibited, propelling balls with four times greater force than that of gunpowder, the steam being raised to from 300 to 500 lbs. to the square inch; and the balls, on reaching the cast-iron target, fired at a distance of 100 feet, were reduced to the substance of tin-foil. It was possible to propel 420 balls in a minute, or 25,200 balls in an hour; and the gun was promised to mow down a regiment in less than ten minutes! The Duke of Wellington predicted its failure in warfare.
A living Electrical Eel (Gymnotus) was brought here from South America in 1838; its length was 40 inches, and it resembled in appearance dark puce and brown plush. Professor Faraday obtained from it a most intense electric spark; and by one shock not only was the needle of a galvanometer deflected, but chemical action and magnetic induction were obtained. The eel died March 14,1842. In 1776, a living Gymnotus was exhibited in London, 5g. each visitor.
Anatomical Museums, mostly from the Continent, are often exhibited in London; and Anatomical Collections are attached to the Hospitals.
Antiquaries, Society’s, Museum, Somerset House, contains Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan antiquities; Roman antiquities, mostly found in Britain; British and Anglo-Roman remains; hair of Edward IV., and fragment of his queen’s (Elizabeth) coffin; dagger, &c, found near the site of Sir W. Walworth’s residence; stone-shot from the Tower moat; brass-gilt spur from Towton battle-field; reputed sword of Cromwell; Bohemian astronomical clock, 1525; presumed Caxton woodcut-block; matrices of mediaeval seals; decorative tiles found in London; coins, medals, and provincial tokens; Worcester Clothiers’ Company’s pall, and human skin from the doors of Worcester Cathedral; West Indian antiquities and curiosities; geological specimens (elephant’s fossil teeth from Pall Mall); Porter’s map of London (Charles I.). A synopsis of the contents of the Museum is presented to the Fellows of the Society.
Among the old pictures area ” Greek payntinainGreek pg on wood;” folding Picture of Preaching at Paul’s Cross, and Procession of James I., 1616; the Fire of London, from near the Temple; 26 ancient pictures (Kerrick’s). Portraits of Philip the Good of Burgundy, Henry V. of England, Henry VI., Edward VI., Margaret of York, Richard III., Henry VII. (four portraits), Mary of Austria, Ferdinand the Catholic, Louis XII., Francis I., Queen Mary, William Powlett, Marquis of Winchester (see Catalogue, by G.
Scharf). Drawings of ancient mural paintings in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster (see Catalogue, by A. Way, F.S.A.); portraits of distinguished Antiquaries; the very curious prescriptions ordered for Charles II. on his deathbed, signed by 16 doctors (Medicorum Chorus), the names, according to court etiquette, being written at full length; and not, as ordinarily indicated, by initials only. Among ” the Milton Papers” preserved here is the signature of John Bunyan to a memorial to Cromwell and the Council of the Army, dated 1653.
Antiquities, London. —This extensive collection of Roman and Mediaeval relics, was formed by Mr. Charles Roach Smith, at 5, Liverpool-street, City. It consists chiefly of objects illustrative of the domestic and social life and customs of the inhabitants of London in the time of the Romans and during the Middle Ages. In the first of these divisions are a bronze shield and weapons from the Thames; remarkably fine bronze statuettes of Apollo and Mercury; a bronze hand of colossal size; a pair of forceps elaborately decorated with busts of gods and goddesses, and with heads of animals; an extensive series of fictile vessels, among which are embossed red bowls and vases of great beauty and rarity; wall-paintings from houses, and tiles for conducting the heated air to the apartments; flat glass, such as the Romans, or their predecessors, used for windows; also other Roman glass. Some of the tiles used in the buildings are stamped pe. beit. ion., and are remarkable as presenting, perhaps, the earliest example extant of an abbreviation of the word Londinium, now London. The leather sandals are rare and curious specimens of Roman costume. Steel styli for writing, personal ornaments, and many examples of coloured and ornamented glass, are also worthy of reference; while the coins, chiefly from the Thames, include rare types. Of the later antiquities, the Saxon knives, swords, and spears present some uncommon examples. There is also a rival to the celebrated Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, in an ouche, or brooch, of gold filigree work, set with pearls and enclosing a portrait of a regal personage, or possibly a saint, exquisitely worked in opaque, coloured, vitreous pastes. This valuable relic, and some Norman bowls in bronze, preserved in this collection, have been engraved in the Archceologia. Bone skates curiously illustrate Fitzstephen’s account of an old City pastime, as practised on the ice on the site of Moorfields ; and the cuir bouilli, or stamped leather, shows how artistically this useful material was worked in the Middle Ages. The shoes of the time of Edward III. and Richard II. are elegant in their ornamentation j and one is covered with mottoes in Latin and in Norman French, and with designs of groups of figures. The Pilgrims’ Signs, in lead, form an almost unique series, illustrative of an old religious observance; and there are some fine early leaden Tokens of London tradesmen. A few of the objects have been engraved in the Collectanea Antiqua; and an illustrated Catalogue of the whole has been printed, for subscribers. The Collection is now in the British Museum.
Aech-eoiogical Association and Institute. —Neither of these Societies possesses a Museum of noteworthy specimens. The Institute has presenter,e has ped its principal articles to the British Museum, for the room of British Antiquities. Each Society, however, usually assembles a Museum in the city or town wherein is held its annual meeting.
At the Rooms of the Archaeological Institute, 26, Suffolk-street, in 1853, was exhibited the Fejeveray Museum, illustrative of the history of Art, and consisting of Egyptian remains, purely artistic; Etruscan remains, principally in bronze; engraved gems; Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, ancient Persian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman remains. The collection comprises also a noble set of Majolica ware, twenty-five pieces in number, two painted by Giorgio, two others by Santi, and several after designs by P. Prancia; a very curious case of niello-work, one piece of which belonged to Luigi Sforza, Duke of Milan; many curious terra-cottas; some striking Byzantine objects; artistic antiquities illustrative of art in Hindostan, China, Persia, &c. &c.j a mass of Celtic objects; and a rare assemblage of Hungarian, Transylvanian, and Sclavic coins.
The British Archceological Association, 32, Sackville-street, Piccadilly, was established in 1843; and in the same year The Archceological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1, Burlington Gardens. Each Society publishes its journal quarterly. The Surrey Archceological Society, 8, Danes Inn, Strand, was established in 1853; and The London and Middlesex Archceological Society in 1856, 22, Hart-street, Blooms-bury. The objects of these several societies are cognate; each paying special attention to the locality specified in the title.
Aechitects, Beitish, Royal Institute Museum, No. 9, Conduit-street, contains a series of busts and portraits of architects; an original statuette in terra-cotta
of Inigo Jones, by Rysbraeck; medals, &c, of Schadow and Perrier; examples of Continental marbles; two flutes of the Parthenon; ” growing stone” from Hieropolis; auriferous quartz from California; building-stones, including 117 specimens whence was chosen the stone for the New Palace at Westminster; casts of ornaments from ancient and mediaeval buildings; models of public buildings, roofs, and scaffoldings; apparatus for painting the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, &c.
Aechitectueal Museum (the), South Kensington, originated by Mr. G. G. Scott, F.S.A., was opened in 1853, as an exhibition and study for workmen sketching and modelling, in connexion with a School of Art for Architectural Workmen. The leading objects of this Museum are plaster casts of foliage, figures, &c.; casts or impressions of ancient seals or gems; tracings of stained glass, wall decorations, ornamental pavements, &c.; rubbings of brasses and incised stones; specimens or casts of ancient metal-work and pottery; photographs, or other faithful drawings; architectural books, prints, &c. Here are casts from effigies in our Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, and a beautiful selection from the Chapter House; panels from the Baptistery gates at Florence; figures and details from the French Cathedrals, casts from Venice, &c. The Museum is supported by architects, builders, and sculptors; and small subscriptions from students, carvers, and other artist-workmen.
Aemoubies :—1. At the Hall of the Armourers and Braziers’ Company, Coleman-street, where is Northcote’s well-known picture of the Entry into London of Richard II. and Bolingbroke; 2. Artillery Company’s Museum (se&am’s Musee p. 25).
Asiatic Society (Royal), 5, New Burlington-street. This Museum contains oriental coins and medals, marbles and inscriptions; armour and weapons, including Malay and Ceylonese spears, and an entire suit of Persian armour; Ceylonese jingals, and Hindoo statues. The public are admitted on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, by Members’ tickets.
Atjtogeaphs. —The collections in the metropolis are too numerous for us to detail. The late Mr. Robert Cole, F.S.A., assembled nearly 200 volumes of MSS. and Original Letters, including Queen Caroline’s : Her Letters to Lady Anne Hamilton; the draft of the Queen’s Letter to George IV., claiming the right to be crowned with him : the Narrative of her sojourn on the Continent, from her leaving England to her return as Queen, the whole autograph, continued by Lady Anne Hamilton to the Queen’s death in 1821. Also, a mass of Letters and Poetry inscribed to the Queen; and many of the original Addresses presented at Brandenburgh House, with drafts of the replies, in Dr. Robert Fellowes’s handwriting. Several hundred Letters from ” the Princess Olive of Cumberland.” Nell Gwyn : Treasury order for payment of Annuity to Nell; her signature E. G. to receipts; her power of attorney to Fraser, signed E. G., and witnessed by Thomas Otway, the poet. Nell’s apothecary’s bill, and many accounts for silks and satins, hay and corn, ale, spirits, &c., supplied to her. Lewis Paul: his papers and Cotton-manufacture Patents, granted many years before Arkwright’s, proving that Paul was the original inventor of Cotton-spinning Machinery. Regalia of Charles II.: Papers relating to those made for his coronation. Flora Macdonald: her only known letter. Nelson: the introduction letter; the gunner’s expense-book at the battle of St. Vincent, signed by Nelson. The original Jubilee Address of the Royal Academy to George III., signed by all the Members. Also, Letters, &c. of James Watt and John Rennie, James Barry, &c. This collection has been dispersed by auction.*
Botanical Society, 20, Bedford-street, Covent Garden, has an extensive herbarium, open to members and other botanists, to facilitate the exchange of British and foreign specimens in forming herbaria.
Beookes’s Museum, Blenheim-street, in the rear of 13, Great Marlborough-street (subsequently Colburn, the publisher’s), was a fine anatomical collection of more than 6000 preparations, models, and casts, made by Joshua Brookes, F.R.S., during thirty
* Among the Dealers in Autographs is Waller, Fleet-street.
years. The greater part was sold in 1828. Brookes was for more than forty years a distinguished teacher of anatomy, and had 7000 pupils; yet he died in comparative poverty, and in despondency at the dispersion of his Museum.
Bullock’s Museum. (See Egyptian Hall, p. 320.)
Civil Engineers, Institution of (the), 25, Great George-street, “Westminster, formerly possessed a Museum of models and specimens, which, on the extension of the library and theatre, were distributed among other scientific societies. At the annual Conversazione of the President of the Institution is assembled a large collection of working models of new machinery, works of art, and specimens of manufaterens of cture. In the theatre are portraits of Thomas Telford, and of succeeding Presidents of the Institution. (See Libeaeies, p. 517.)
The Institution of Civil Engineers first met at the Zing’s Head Tavern, Poultry, Jan. 2,1818; and was incorporated 1828. Telford bequeathed to the Society a large portion of his library, professional papers, and drawings; and a considerable sum of money, the interest to be expended in annual premiums. Mr. Charles Manby, F.R.S., Hon. Secretary.
College oe Physicians’ (Royal) Museum, Pall Mall East, contains the very curious preparations which Harvey either made at Padua, or procured from that celebrated school of medicine. They consist of six tables or boards, upon which are spread the different nerves and blood-vessels, carefully dissected out of the body: in one of them are the semilunar valves of the aorta, which, placed at the origin of the arteries, must, together with the valves of the veins, have furnished Harvey with the most conclusive arguments in support of his novel doctrines of the Circulation of the Blood. Of the Lectures which he read to the College in 1616, the original MSS. are preserved in the British Museum. The above preparations were presented to the College, in 1823, by the late Earl of Winchilsea, the direct descendant of Lord Chancellor Nottingham, who married Harvey’s niece, and possessed his property. Here also is Dr. Matthew Baillie’s entire collection of anatomical preparations, mostly put up by his own hands, and from which his great work on anatomy is illustrated. Like Harvey, Baillie gave this collection in his lifetime (1819). The preparations were restored in 1851, by Mr. G. E. Blenkins, whom the College presented with a silver inkstand and a purse of fifty guineas. Here also is a gold-headed cane, which had been successively carried by Drs. Badcliffe, Mead, Askew, Pitcairn, and Baillie, whose arms are engraved on the head: presented by Mrs. Baillie. Among the MSS. is Bustorum aliquot Reliquiae, Baldwin Harvey’s account of his contemporaries, and the amount of their fees; and in the library are Harvey’s MS. notes and criticisms upon Aristophanes. Admission by a Physician’s order.
College op Suegeons’ (Boyal) Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was commenced with the collection of John Hunter, of specimens in natural history, comparative anatomy, physiology, and pathology, purchased by the Corporation of Surgeons, and first opened in 1813 ; greatly enlarged in 1836, and again in 1853. The total number of specimens is 23,000, of which 10,000 belonged to Hunter’s original Museum, the remainder having since been added. There are elaborate catalogues of the whole: arranged in ” the Physiological Department, or Normal Structures;” and ” the Pathological Department, or Abnormal Structures.” Besides the anatomical preparations are the following Curiosities: fossil shell of a gigantic extinct armadillo; fossil skeleton of the mylodon, a large extinct sloth from Buenos Ayres ; skeleton of a hippopotamus ; bones of the pelvis, tail, and left hind-leg of the mighty megatherium; skeleton (8 ft. high) of Charles O’Brien, the Irish giant, who died in 1783, aged twenty-two; skeleton (20 in. high) of Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian dwarf, who died in 1824, aged ten years; plaster casts of hand of Patrick Cotter, another Irish giant, 8 ft. 7 in. high; and hand of M. Louis, a French giant, 7 ft. 4 in. high; glove of O’Brien; plaster casts of bones of the extinct bird, the dinornis giganteus of New Zealand, which must have stood 10 ft. high; skeleton of the gigantic extinct deer, exhumed from beneath a peat-bog near Limerick (span of antlers, 8 ft.; length of antler, 7 ft. 3 in.; height of skull, 7 ft. 6 in.); great penguin from the southernmost point touched by Sit atouchedr James Ross; skeleton of the giraffe; skeleton of the Indian elephant
Chunee, purchased for 900 guineas, in 1810, to appear in processions on Covent Garden Theatre stage, and subsequently sold to Mr. Cross at Exeter Change, where it was shot in 1S26, during an annual paroxysm, aggravated by inflammation of one of the tusks, but not killed until it had received more than 100 bullets (see Hone’s Everyday Book, vol. i.): the skeleton was sold for 100 guineas: the head is 13 ft. from the ground; the bones weighed 876 lbs., the skin 17 cwt. Plaster cast of a young negro, and a bust of John Hunter, by Flaxinan; skeleton of a man who died from water on the brain, skull 48 in. in circumference; skulls of a double-headed child, born in Bengal, who lived to be four years old, when it was killed by the bite of a cobra di capello: the skulls are united by their crowns, the upper head being inverted ; it had four eyes, which moved in different directions at the same time, and the superior eyelids never thoroughly closed, even when the child was asleep. Skeleton, whose joints are anchylosed, or rendered immovable, by unnatural splints of bone growing out in all directions. ” The shaft case:” the chest of a man impaled by the shaft of a chaise, the first tug-hook also penetrating the chest, and wounding the left lung; the patient recovered, and survived the injury eleven years : the preparation of the chest is side by side with the shaft. Iron pivot of a try-sail, which, in the London Docks, Feb. 26, 1831, was driven through the body of John Taylor, a seaman, and passed obliquely through the heart and left lung, pinning him to the deck ; the trysail mast 39 ft. long, and 600 lbs. weight: Taylor was carried to the London Hospital, where he recovered in five months, so as to walk from the hospital to the College and back again, and he ultimately returned to his duties as a seaman. Wax cast of the band uniting the bodies of the Siamese twins. Among the mummies is the first wife of the noted Martin van Butchell; and a female who died of consumption in 1775, the vessels and viscera injected with camphor and turpentine. Also a sitting mummy, supposed of a Peruvian nobleman, who immolated himself with his wife and child some centuries ago. Since 1835, Professor Owen, F.R.S., has been Conservator of the Museum, and the catalogues have been prepared by him. Here are :
Twelve wax models of the anatomy of the Cramp-fish ( Torpedo galvanii), presented by Professor Owen.
Fossil Bones of the Dinornis, or extinct gigantic wingless Bird of New Zealand (tibia3 feet in length).
Coloured casts of the Eggs of the gigantic extinct Bird of Madagascar (Epyornis), supposed the original Roc of Arabian romance. One egg contains the matter of 12 ostrich-eggs, 140 hen’s-eggs, and 10,000 humming-bird’s eggs.
Skeleton of the Skulls of the great Chimpanzee {Troglodytes gorilla). This animal is upwards of 6 feet high, of prodigious muscular strength, and much dreaded by the Negroes of the West coast of Tropical Africa.
A series of prepared Skulls of different classes of Animals, illustrative of Professor Owen’s “Archetype of the Vertebrate Skeleton.”
Skeleton of male Boschman (diminutive Hottentot); and plaster casts of the male and female, from life.
Here, too, are some preparations similar to those of Harvey in the College of Physicians; they originally belonged to the Museum of the Royal Society, kept at Gresham College, and were the gift of John Evelyn, who bought them at Padua, where he saw them taken out of the body of a man, and very curiously spread upon four large tables: they were the work of Fabritius Bartoletus, then Veslingius’s assistant. The Council of the College of Surgeons has presented to all the recognised provincial hospitals possessing libraries sets of the valuable illustrated catalogues of the Museum, of the collective value of 690Z. The metropolitan Hospitals, and many learned and scientific societies both at home and abroad, had previously experienced a similar act of collegiate liberality.
The Museum is open to Fellows and Members of the College, and to visitors introduced by them, or by written orders (not transferable), on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from twelve to four o’clock; on Fridays it is open only for the purposes of study. The arrangements for the admission of learned and scientific foreigners, state-officers, church and law dignitaries, and members of scientific bodies, are liberal and judicious.
Coeporation Museum, Guildhall, contains the relics of Roman London discovered in excavating for the foundation of the Royal Exchange, arranged by Mr. Tite, F.R.S.: 1. Pottery and glass: moulded articles, bricks and tiles; jars, urns, vases, amphora?; terra-cotta lamps; Samian ware; potters’ marks j glass. 2. Writing materials: tablets, and styles in iron, brass, bone, and wood. 3. Miscellaneous: domestic articles; artificers’ tools; leather manufactures. 4. Coins, of copper, yellow brass, silver, and silver-plated brass, of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, &c.; Henry IV. of England, Elizabeth, &c. ; foreign, Flemish, German, Prussian, Danish, Dutch. 5. Horns, shells, bones, and vegetable remains. 6. Antiquities and articles of later date. The Catalogue, printed for the Corporation in 1846, is scarce. Here, also, is the City charter (William I.) : the Shakspeare deed of sale,* &c. (See Libbabies, pp. 518, 519.)
Here is a Cabinet of the London Traders’, Tavern, and Coffeehouse Tokens current in the 17th century, presented to the Corporation Library by Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy, citizen and distiller. They consist of Tokens of iron, lead, tin, brass, copper, and leather, and 9 Eoyal (Copper) Farthing Tok=”G Farthiens; in all 1174. The Leaden Tokens were issued anterior to 1649, and the others from 1649 till 1672, by traders of the City, as small change and advertisement; each Token generally bearing the name, residence, and sign of the house; the index of them being a record of the olden topography and history of London, and a Key to streets and localities long lost. Here is the Token struck by Farr, of the Rainbow Coffee-house, Fleet-street, which escaped the Great Fire of 1666; and the Tokens of the Turk’s Head, in Change-alley; and the Soar’s Head Tavern, Eastcheap. A Descriptive Catalogue of these Tokens, with historical notes, ably edited by Jacob Henry Burn, was printed for the Corporation in 1853 ; and enlarged and reprinted in 1855.
Cottingham Museum, 43, Waterloo-road, Lambeth, collected by the late S. N. Cottingham, F.S.A., architect, contained about 31,000 specimens of Domestic and Ecclesiastical Architecture, Sculpture, and Furniture; a complete series of studies from the Norman period to the close of the reign of Elizabeth. Here was an Elizabethan ante-room and parlour, with a pair of enamelled fire-dogs, once Sir Thomas More’s ; a ceiling from Bishop Bonner’s Palace, Lambeth; busts of Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, Baleigh, and Burghley; ebony table from Norwich; Queen Anne Boleyn’s sofa, from the Tower; a gallery and a ceiling from the council-chamber of Crosby Place, temp. Richard II. (see p. 298); perforated Spanish brass lantern-chandelier, temp. Henry VII.; Spanish pattern lantern, date 1600; fireplace from the Star-chamber, Westminster ; figures of saints and bishops, and busts of English monarchs; Flemish oak screen (1490), carved with the history of our Lord, and figures in niches, richly painted and gilt; a reliquary, sixteenth century, painted and carved; cabinet with ceiling (Henry VII.), and Decorated window painted with Henry VII. and his queen; models and casts of tombs of the children of Edward III., William of Windsor, and Blanche de la Tour; a gallery with ceiling, Henry VI.; oak panelling from the palace of Layer Marney, Essex; fac-simile of doorway, Rochester Cathedral; altar and altar-piece, with canopied figures; ancient stall-seats (thirteenth century); throne, and figures; grand figures of the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, &c.; splendid fac-similes of lofty tombs, with recumbent effigies; seven rooms filled with models and casts; branches, with prickets for candles, temp. Henry V.; supposed canopy of Chaucer’s tomb; marble keystone mask from Pompeii; cast from the Stratford bust of Shakspeare; fragments from Hever castle, St. Katherine’s-at-the-Tower, the palace and abbey at Westminster, &c.; processional cross from Glastonbury Abbey, &c. The collection, sold by auction in 2205 lots, Nov. 1851, produced but 2009Z. 13s. 6A, being depreciated at least fifty per cent, by this dispersion. The collection is well described in an illustrated Catalogue, by Henry Shaw, F.S.A.
Cox’s Museum, Spring Gardens, formed by James Cox, jeweller, consisted of several magnificent pieces of mechanism and jewelled ornaments : the tickets were a quarter-guinea each: the collection was disposed of by lottery, by Act of Parlia-
* The most important fact of the town property of Shakspeare is that first pointed out by Mr. Halliwell in his 8vo Life of the Poet—viz. that the house purchased by him of Henry Walker, in March, 1612-13, and the counterpart of the conveyance of which is preserved in the Guildhall Library, with. Shakspeare’s signature attached, and which is described there as “abutting upon a streete leading doune to Pudle Wharfe (Blackfriers) in the east part right against the Kinges Majesties Wardrobe, is still identified, or rather sheltered, in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s themes Andrewre. The eery house was, most probably, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666; but the house stands on its proper spot; and until within these few years, it had been tenanted by the Robinson family, to whom Shakspeare leased it. Close behind this house, in Great Carter-lane, stood the Old Bell Inn, mentioned in a letter addressed to Shakspeare (see p. 452); and the poet was probably often in this house, the site of which was noted, after the destruction of the original building, by a richly-sculptured bell, dated 1687, and subsequently affixed to the front of a house in Great Carter-lane, on the north side.
ment, in 1774; the schedule contains a descriptive inventory. Walpole mentions-” the immortal lines on Cox’s Museum;” and Sheridan, in the Rivals, ” the bull in Cox’s Museum.” At its dispersion, some articles were added to Weeks’s Museum (See p. 606.)
Cumingian Museum, 80, Gower-street, Bedford-square, collected by Mr. Hugh Cuming, contains upwards of 124,000 species and varieties, including 68,000 specimens-of Shells j besides Genera in spirits, with the animals carefully preserved ; from Patagonia, Chili, Peru, Columbia, Central America, the Gallapagos Islands, Sumatra, the Malayan Peninsula, Java, the Philippines, and the South Pacific Islands.
In the luxuriant forests, on the arid plains, the mountain-sides, the sheltered bays and rocky shores of these countries, and by exploring the floor of the ocean, species of Mollusca, hitherto imperfectly known, were found in abundance, and numerous forms were discovered entirely new to science; entitling Mr. Cuming to rank with Sloane, Hunter, and Montague. The collection has been sold to the British Museum.
Daniel, Geoege, Museum and Libeaey of, Canonbury-square, dispersed by auction in July, 1864, the sale occupying ten days.
Among the gems was a collection of 70 black-letter ballads, 1559-1597, which brought 75(K. Mun-day’s Banquet of Dainiie Conceits, 1588, the only known copy, 2501. Joe Miller’s Jests, 1st edition, extremely rare. On the Shakspeare day, a copy of Shakspeare’s Sonnets, one of only two perfect copies known with the same imprint, which cost Narcissus Luttrell one shilling, was knocked down for 215 guineas! Separate plays of Shakspeare, original editions, produced more than 300 guineas each: the ” first folio,” bought for Miss Burdett Coutts at 682 guineas. Among the Tokens was that of tha Boar’s Head, said to be unique; and the Mermaid Tavern, rare. There were many original drawings, engraved portraits, and curious examples of art and virtu. Among the portraits were Betterton, Bullock, and Barton Booth; the very rare mezzotint of George Harris as Cardinal Wolsey; Miss Norsa, painted and engraved by Bernard Lens, exceedingly rare; and Shuter, as he spoke Joe Haynes’s epilogue, mounted on an ass. Among the oil-paintings were an old portrait of Shakspeare, bought at the sale of Mr. Symes’s effects, at old Canonbury Tower, and a whole length of Napoleon I., taken from life by Barlow while on board the Bellerophon. Among the memorials was an octagonal casket, with conical lid, surmounted by the bust of Shakspeare, carved by Sharp from the famed mulberry-tree, with vine-leaves and grapes within ornamented arches, formerly in the possession of Garrick. With this relie was allotted Garrick’s cane, malacca, gold-mounted, presented by Garrick to King the actor, and which he used as a stage dress cane in Lord Ogleby, &c. King gave this cane to John Bannister, who gave it to John Pritt Harley, at the sale of whose effecrdif whosets, in 1858, it was purchased by Mr. Daniel. A crucifix in hard wood, exquisitely carved, it was said, by Cellini, and the plinth by Gibbons, brought thirty guineas; and the double cup, in silver, from the Strawberry Hill Collection, was sold for 601.
Entomological Society’s Museum, 12, Bedford-row, Holborn: a collection of insects, commenced with Mr. Kirby’s specimens, from which the first of monographs ever published was formed. (Kirby and Spence’s Introduction.) Here is also a library of reference on Entomology.
Geology, Peactical, Museum op, Nos. 28 to 32, Jermyn-street, originated in a suggestion by Sir H. De la Beche, C.B., in 1835, for the collection of geological and mineralogical specimens during the progress of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. The collections were first exhibited in a house in Craig’s-court, Charing Cross; but becoming too extensive for this accommodation, the present handsome edifice was erected, with entrance in Jermyn-street, and frontage in Piccadilly: Penne-thorne, architect; style, Italian palaazo.
In the lower hall is a collection of British building and ornamental stones—sandstones, oolites, limestones, granites, and porphyries, in six-inch cubes. The entrance is lined with Derbyshire alabaster; and the hall has pilasters of granite from Scotland, serpentine from Ireland, and limestones from Devonshire, Derbyshire, &c. On one side is an elaborate screen, with Cornish serpentine pilasters and cornice; and Irish serpentine panels, framed with Derbyshire productions. Here is a large copy of an Etruscan vase cut in Aberdeen granite; and on the floors are a very fine tessellated pavement of Cornish clay, and examples of encaustic tiles; pedestals of British marbles support vases and statuettes of artificial stone, cement, &c.
The principal floor has an apartment 95 feet by 55 feet, with an iron roof, glazed with rough plate-glass. Around run two light galleries. Here are specimens of iron, copper, tin, lead, manganese, antimony, cobalt, &c, of the United Kingdom and the colonies; also a good collection of similar ores from the most important metalliferous countries of the world. The processes of raising these from the mines are illustrated by an extensive series of models, with the modes of dressing the ores for the market, and the final production of the metal; mining tools, safety-lamps, &c.; including models of Taylor’s Cornish pumping-engine, the water-pressure engine, the turbine and other
wheels, and a beautiful set of valves. The models of mines can he dissected, and the mode of working shown; with the machines for lowering and raising the miners, models of stamping and crushing engines, and iron-smelting by the hot and cold blast. Here, also, are tools of the Cornish, German, Russian, and Mexican miners.
The history of the metals may also be read in a collection of bronzes and brasses, and gold and silver ornaments; examples of metal casting and steel manufacture are shown; as are also metal statuettes, electrotype deposits, and illustrations of electro-plating and gilding, and photographic processes. Here is also a large and valuable collection of ancient glass, in beads, bottles, jugs, &c., historically arranged: the old Venetian glass is exceedingly curious. The processes of enamelling are illustrated; and here are specimens of fine Limoges, modern works, and Chinese enamels. Next is a collectiomods a coln of Roman pottery. The China clays, China stone, and other raw materials of earthenware and porcelain, are shown; and here is a complete series of the wares of the Staffordshire potteries; also, specimens of those of Derby, Worcester, Swansea, Chelsea, Bow, and other districts, in comparison with the earthenware of the ancients, the ceramic manufactures of Italy, Germany, France, and the Orientals.
In the galleries round the large room is a very complete collection of British fossils, arranged in the order of their occurrence and labelled, so that a collector may compare and identify any specimen he may find.
Attached to the Museum is the Mining Records Office, in which are collected plans and sections of existing and abandoned mines. Here also are a Library, and a Lecture-theatre with 580 sittings. Lastly are well-fitted Laboratories, communicating by a hydraulic lift with a fire-proof room in the basement-story, containing an assay-furnace. The collections are open to the public gratuitously on the first three days of the week; and on the other three days to the students of the Royal School of Mines, &c.
Geological Society’s Museum:, Somerset House, is rich in the original types of fossils described in the Geological Transactions. The collection contains a series of British fossils and rocks, arranged stratigraphically; likewise, an assemblage of selected minerals, and a foreign collection geographically arranged. The Society possesses also a fine library of works upon geological science.
Geological : Me. J. S. Bowebbank’s Collection, 3, Highbury-grove, Islington, consisting more especially of British fossils stratigraphically arranged; and particularly ricli in the crag, London clay, and chalk formations; the whole occupying 400 drawers. Also the most extensive collection of British and foreign Sponges in Europe, consisting of many hundred species from Australia, Africa, the West Indies, &c.
Guiana Exhibition, 209, Regent-street (Cosmorama), was a Museum of objects illustrative of the ethnography and natural history of British Guiana, collected by Mr. (afterwards Sir) H. Robert Schomburgk, and exhibited in 1840. The saloon was fitted up as a Guianese hut; and here were three living natives, part of Schomburgk’s boat’s crew, in their picturesque costumes. Besides collections of mammalia, birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusca, and insects, specimens in osteology, geology, &c, here was a painting of the Victoria Regia lily; Guianese furniture, clothing, and other manufactures; poisoned arrows and blowpipe; a native hammock and bark shirt; the boa, puma, and ant-eater; splendid rock manakins and humming-birds, &c. The three natives, wearing only waistcloths, and jaguar-skin cloaks, and teeth necklaces, and feather-caps, and their skins painted and tattooed, exhibited their blowpipe shooting and dances, which were very attractive.
At the Cosmorama was revived, in 1839, the “Invisible Girl” of some thirty years previously, the invention of M. Charles, and detailed by Sir David Brewster in his Natural Magic. The poet Moore inscribed, with exquisite fancy, ” Lines to the Invisible Girl.” The invention ” consisted of an apparatus with trumpets, communicating by a pipe beneath the floor of the room to an apartment in which sat a lady, who, through a small hole in the partition, saw what was going on in the exhibition-room, and answered th&amd answerough the tube accordingly; the sound losing so much of its force in its passage, as to appear like the voice of a girl.”
Hospitals, the principal, possess Anatomical Museums.
Hudson’s Bat Company’s House, Fenchurch-street, possessed many years since a Museum of stuffed Birds, and other objects of natural history from Rupert’s Land; the
greater portion of which has been presented to the British Museum and the Zoological Society.
Hunter’s (William) Museum was collected at his large house on the east side of Great Windmill-street, Haymarket. Hunter employed many years in the anatomical preparations and in the dissections; besides making additions by purchase from the museums of Sandys, Falconer, Blackall, and others. Here was a sumptuous library of Greek and Latin classics; and a very rare cabinet of ancient medals, besides coins, purchased at 20,000Z. expense. Minerals, shells, and other specimens of natural history were gradually added to this Museum, which hence became one of the Curiosities of Europe. The cost of the whole exceeded 70,000?.; it was bequeathed by Hunter to the University of Glasgow, with 8000£. to support and augment the whole.
India Museum^. Fife House, Whitehall-yard, formerly the residence of the Earl of Liverpool. This collection was re-arranged in 1858, and has been removed from the East India House, as above. In the old Museum, so long one of the sights of London, trophies of war were the most conspicuous objects, and the specimens of natural history and rare literary treasures were secondary attractions compared with the silver elephant-howdah and the tiger-organ of Tippoo Sahib. The new collection contains some monumental and artistic records of the progress of British empire in the East, but its principal object is to illustrate the productive resources of India, and to give information about the life and manners, the arts and industry, of its inhabitants.
Here are models and groups of figures representing the varieties of race, caste, dress, occupation, worship, and everything belonging to the public or the domestic life of the people of India: specimens of their agricultural implements, manufacturing tools, and rude machinery; of their conveyances by land and water, of their household furniture and their musical instruments. There is a model of a Sepoy encampment, the huts with their bamboo framework supporting the walls of Durmah matting, topped by a heavy roof of straw thatch ; a model, also, of a kutcherrie, or law-court. In the industrial portion are shown Calcutta and Madras leather; specimens of paper made from jute fibre and plantain leaf; matwork; metal work, as—bangles, rings, bracelets, brooches, tassel knots for dresses, hookah mouthpieces; Trichinopoly filigree work; from the Bengal presidency a superb necklace of gold set with pearls and emeralds; a gold bracelet thickly set with pearls and diamonds; a necklace of emeralds, pearls, and rubies; a bracelet of three rows of large diamonds, about 90 in number; and a number of curiously formed gold and silver spice boxes. Portrait of Runjeet Singh, sitting at his Durbar: round his neck is a string of 280 pearls, said to be the largest and most valuable in the world; (now in the possession of her Majesty). His head-dress is a perfect mass of rubies and emeralds, while on his arms is a cluster of armlets of jewels, one a noble emerald. Here are enormous silver chains of great weightdra great and such strength as to carry the heavy arms and accoutrements of the hill tribes of Thibet, with native charm rings and rough-looking bracelets. Also, turquoises of the largest size and purest water, imcut and unpolished, found amid the mountains of Thibet. Specimens of carved woodwork, the inlaid work of wood, metal, and ivory, and the lackered work of Lahore, Bareilly, and Scinde; metal works and brass wares from Madras, Travancore, Darjheeling, Delhi, and Benares. The formidable knives of the Ghoorkas, the long matchlocks of the men of Oude, the shields and spears of the Santals, the keen-edged swords of the Rajpoots, and the camel guns of the old Mahrattas. Here, too, is actually a revolver musket at least 60 years old, which at once disposes of the claims of both Colt and Adams to originality even of construction. This revolver, we believe, was taken by Sir David Baird at the storming of Seringapatam. Among the costumes are dresses embroidered with beetles, &c. Here are marble statues of Wellington, Clive, and Hastings; pictures; models of Indian craft; antelopes, stags, leopards, and other large stuffed animals. A fine collection of the Elliot marbles, from the ruins of Amrawutti. The Museum is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10 to 4, free.
King’s College Museum, Strand, consists of the collection formed at the Kew Observatory by King George III., and of a cabinet of natural history specimens from Kew Palace; presented to the College in 1843, and known as ” George the Third’s Museum.” Here are the celebrated ” Boyle models,” and ” forty-one brass plates, engraved with astronomical, astrological, and mathematical delineations;” a large orrery, date 1733 ; an armillary sphere, 1731; apparatus made for Desaguliers’ lectures j a rude model of Watt’s steam-engine; Attwood’s large arch of polished brass voussoirs, &c. There have been added Wheatstone’s speaking-machine; a model, fifteen feet long, of the celebrated Schaffhausen timber bridge; a bust of Queen Victoria, by Weekes; and a statuette of George III., by Turnerelli. The collection also includes small philosophical apparatus, entomological specimens, fossils, minerals, &c. Here also is a portion of Mr. Babbage’s Calculating Machine, which has succeeded in printing mathematical and astronomical tables. At the College is likewise an Anatomical Museum, a Cabinet of Natural History; and a Chemical Theatre, with a Daniell constant battery of great power.
The College possesses a beautifully-illuminated MS. containing the Statutes of the Order of the Garter; a drawing of the House of Lords, temp. Edward I.: and the Statutes in more elegant Latin corrected in the handwriting of King Edward VI., superbly emblazoned with arms, &c. The Museum can be seen by the Curator’s order.
Leverian Museum : (See Leicester-square, p. 512.)
Linnean Society, 32, Soho-square (the house of Sir Joseph Banks, and bequeathed by him to the Society), formerly contained in its Museum the herbarium of Linnaeus, purchased, with the library, by Sir J. E. Smith, for 1000?. The herbarium was kept in three small cases, and was a curious botanical antiquity, of great value in ascertaining with certainty the synonyms of the writings of Linnaeus. The museum is very rich in the botanical department, containing the herbaria of Linnaeus, Smith, Pulteney, Woodward, Winch, &c.; besides a valuable herbar &aluable ium presented by the East India Company in 1833. The entomological collections are extensive ; the zoology is rich in Australian marsupials, birds, and reptiles ; and the shells are fine. Here also was a collection of paintings, including a portrait of Linnaeus, frbm the original by Roslin at Stockholm, described as the most striking likeness ever executed. This copy was painted for Archbishop Von Troil, by whom it was presented to Sir Joseph Banks. In this house Sir Joseph Banks gave public breakfasts on Thursdays, and conversazioni on Sunday evenings, to the Fellows of the Royal Society, during his long presidency. He left an annuity of 200Z., his library, and botanical collections, for life, to his librarian, Mr. Robert Brown, F.R.S., afterwards to come to the British Museum; but by arrangement the library and collections were at once transferred to the Museum.
Manufactures anp Ornamental Art Museum, Marlborough House, Pall Mall was opened temporarily in 1852, with purchases from the Great Exhibition, with 5000?. voted by Parliament: including gorgeous scarfs and shawls from Cashmere and Lahore ; the French shawl of Duche aine et C ie , the most perfect specimen of shawl-weaving ever produced; glittering swords, yataghans, and pistols from Tunis and Constantinople ; the famous ” La Gloire” vase from the Sevres manufacture; Marcel Freres’ hunting-knife of St. Hubert; Changarnier’s sword, from the workshop ot Froment Meurice; Vecte’s splendid shield; a facsimile of the celebrated Cellini cup; and other art-illustrations of the highest order. To these were added purchases; and the articles were grouped into six classes: woven fabrics, metal works, pottery, furniture, and miscellanies. The metal-work department consisted also of the rich and splendid manufacture of the East, with a few rude specimens illustrative of the innate taste of their workmen; the silver and bronze materials of France, cups of English and brooches of Irish manufacture, and Elkington’s electrotypes. The division of pottery was enriched by the Queen’s Sevres collection, and by valuable works from Baring, Minton, Copeland, Webb, and Farrar : the royal collection, though of forty-two pieces only, being worth 12,000?. The casts of ornamental art were removed here from Somerset House; and the collection included ancient Greek and Roman, mediaeval or Romanesque, Saracenic or Gothic, Renaissance, figures, busts, masks, animals, &c.; the Renaissance (a.d. 1400 to 1600) arranged chronologically.
There was a collection of 3489 specimens of enrichment, British and foreign examples, for the guidance as to style of the carvers employed in the New Houses of Parliament; and another collection of 3283 casts, from models prepared for stone and wood carvings, deposited in the Government Works at Thames Bank, and at the New Houses of Parliament. These examples cost 700W., and are intended to iorm part of a National Museum of Mediaeval Art.— First Report Hep. Practical Art, 1853.
The Car for the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington, in 1852, modelled by Pupils of the Department, was subsequently exhibited here. The collection was removed to South Kensington, upon Marlborough House being prepared for the reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales; the Car being removed to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Mead’s (Dr.) Museum was in the garden of No. 49, Great Ormond-street, where was also a library of 10,000 volumes. The collection included prints and drawings, coins and medals; marble statues of Greek philosophers and Roman emperors; bronzes, gems, intaglios, Etruscan vases, &c.; marble busts of Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope, by Scheemakers;
Mead, when not engaged at home, generally spent his evenings at Batson’s coffeehouse, Cornhill; and in the forenoons, apothecaries came to him at Tom’s, Covent Garden, with written or verhal reports of cases, for which he prescribed without seeing the patient, and took half-guinea fees. Dr. Mead’s gay conversazioni, in Ormond-street, were the first meetings of the kind.
Missionary Museum, The, 8, Bloomfield-street, Finsbury, contributed chiefly by the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, and travellers generally, is remarkable for its great number of idols and objects of superstitious regard, costumes, domestic utensils, implements of war, music, &c. from islands in the Pacific Ocean, China, and ultra-Ganges; India, including the three Presidencies; Africa and Madagascar j North and South America; ” especially the idols given up by their former worshippers, from a full conviction of the folly and sin of idolatry.” Here also is an assemblage of natural history specimens, principally Polynesian: its Tahitian collection rivals Capt. Cook’s, in the British Museum.
Some of the idols are 12 feet high. Among the rarities are 18 model pictures of Japanese costumes obtained at great risk; and six coloured etchings by a Chinese artist, the Progress of the Opium-smoker, a counterpart to Hogarth’s “Rake’s Progress.” Admission by Director’s or officer’s tickets.
National Repository, The, was formed in 1828, in the upper gallery of the southwest side of the King’s Mews, Charing Cross; and 35 adjoining rooms were reserved for the reception of products from the chief manufacturing towns. Here were silk-looms to work at certain hours, English Mechlin lace, crystallo-ceramic ornamental glass j models of steam-engines, steam-boat paddles, suspension-bridges, and public buildings; new kaleidoscopes, rain-gauges, musical glasses, Indian corn-mills, lifebuoys, &c. The exhibition proved unattractive, notwithstanding the King (George IV.) and his Ministers took much interest in the project. The collection was removed to a house on the east side of Leicester-square, and there merged into the ” Museum of National Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts.” It was soon dispersed; but, doubtless, suggested the Polytechnic Exhibitions at the Adelaide Gallery, and in Regent-street and elsewhere.
Naval Museum (” The Model Room”), Somerset House. Here were models of the science and trade of ship-building, with sections of interior and exterior construction, from the Cheat Harry and the Sovereign of the Seas ,to our own time. In the central room was a large model of the Victoria, 110 guns, laid down in 1839; and above hangs a model of the Victory, built 1735, and lost in 1744, with an admiral and its entire crew. Here also were models of the JBucentaur ; a Chinese Junk; a Burmese War-boat; the Queen, 110 guns; and the Agamemnon steam-screw warship, 91 guns. This collection was removed to the Naval Court of the South Kensington Museum, in 1864.
Pharmaceutical Society, THE,l7,Blia,ty, THEoomsbury-square, incorporated 1842, possesses the most extensive and complete Museum of the kind in existence ; comprising rare specimens of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; and substances and products used in Medicine and Pharmacy. Also, groups and series of authenticated specimens, valuable for identifying, comparing, and tracing, the origin and natural history of products. Here is the valuable Museum of the late Dr. Pereira, including collections of Cinchona barks by eminent foreign naturalists. The collection may be seen daily, except Saturdays, by Member’s order, or on application to the curator.
Rackstrow’s Museum, at No. 197, was a Fleet-street sight of the last century. Rackstrow was a statuary, and had Sir Isaac Newton’s Head for a sign: his museum consisted of natural and artificial curiosities and anatomical figures; and ” the circulation of the blood, shown by a red liquor conveyed through glass tubes, made in imitation of the principal veins and arteries of the human body; the heart and its auricles, and likewise the lungs, are put in their proper motions.” Rackstrow died at his house in Fleet-street, in 1772; and in seven years after, the collection was dispersed by auction. One of the prodigies of the collection was the skeleton of a whale, more than 70 feet long. Donovan, the naturalist, subsequently exhibited here his London Museum, which was soon after dispersed.
Royal Society’s Museum, Burlington House, was commenced in 1665, with ” the collecting of a repository, the setting up a chemical laboratory, a mechanical operatory, an astronomical observatory, and an optick chamber :” next year Evelyn presented ” the table of veins, arteries, and nerves, which he had made out of the natural human bodies, in Italy.” Sir R. Moray presented ” the stories taken out of Lord Balcarras’s heart, in a silver box ;” and ” a bottle full of stag’s tears.” Hooke gave ” a petrified fish, the skin of an antelope which died in St. James’s Park, a petrified foetus,” and other rarities. In 1681, when Dr. Grew published his curious catalogue, the Museum contained several thousand specimens of zoological subjects and foreign curiosities; among the eighty-three contributors are Prince Rupert, the Duke of Norfolk, Boyle, Evelyn, Hooke, Pepys, &c. (Weld’s History of the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 278.) Ned Ward {London Spy, part iii.) satirically describes this Museum of Wiseacres’ Hall, or Gresham College. The account of its rarities in Hatton’s London, 1708, fills 20 pages; and it is curious to observe how much it must have propagated error. Thus we find among Dr. Grew’s rarities:—
” The Quills of a Porcupine, which, on certain occasions, the creature can shoot at the pursuing enemy and erect at pleasure.
” The Flying Squirrel, which, for a good nut-tree, will pass a river on the bark of a tree, erecting his tail for a sail.
” The Leg-bone of an Elephant, brought out of Syria for the thigh-bone of a giant. In winter, when it begins to rain, elephants are mad, and so continue from April to September, chained to some tree, and then become tame again.
” Tortoises, when turned on their backs, will sometimes fetch deep sighs, and shed abundance of tears.
” A Humming-bird and Nest, said to weigh but 12 grains; his feathers are set in gold, and sell at a grealyiell at t rate.
” A Bone, said to be taken out of a Mermaid’s head.
” The Largest Whale, liker an island than an animal.
” The White Shark, which sometimes swallows men whole.
” A Siphalter, said with its sucker to fasten on a ship, and stop it under sail.
” A Stag-beetle, whose horns worn in a ring are good against the cramp.
“A Mountain Cabbage: one reported 300 feet high.”
Of the Society’s pictures there is a good catalogue by Mr. Weld, Assistant Secretary, who has also, from the Charter-book, collected into a volume fac-similes of 300 of the Fellows (from the period of the institution of the Royal Society to the present time), an illustrious set of autographs.
Relics of Sir Isaac Newton. —An autograph note from the Mint Office; one of the solar dials made by Newton # when a boy; his richly-chased gold watch, with a medallion of Newton, and inscribed: ” Mrs. Catherine Conduitt to Sir Isaac Newton. Jan. 4, 1708.” ” The first reflecting telescope, invented by Sir Isaac Newton, and made with his own hands,” 1761; the mask of his face, from the cast taken after death, which belonged to Roubiliac; a small lock of Newton’s silver-white hair: and three portraits of him in oil, painted by Jervas, Marchand, and Vanderbank. Here likewise is the original model of the Safety-lamp, made by Sir Humphry Davy’s own hands in 1815.
Salteeo’s (Don) Museum was first established at a coffee-house, afterwards the Swan Tavern, in Cheyne-walk, Chelsea, in 1695, by one Salter, a barber, who assembled there a collection of Curiosities: they remained in the coffee-room till August, 1799, when they were dispersed by public auction; previous to which printed Catalogues were sold, with the names of the principal benefactors to the collection. In Dr. Franklin’s Life we read: ” Some gentlemen from the country went by water to see the College, and Don Saltero’s Curiosities,” at Chelsea. The collection is also noticed at p. 90.
Saull’s Museum, 15, Aldersgate-street, was a private collection, which the proprietor liberally allowed to be inspected. The Antiquities, principally excavated in the metropolis, consisted of early British vases, Roman lamps and urns, amphora?, and dishes, tiles, bricks, and pavements, and fragments of Samian ware; also, a few Egyptian antiquities ; and a cabinet of Greek, Roman, and early British coins. The Geological Department contained the collection of the late Mr. Sowerby, with additions by Mr. Saull; together exceeding 20,000 specimens, arranged according to the probable order of the earth’s structure. Every article bore a descriptive label; and the localization of the antiquities, some of which were dug up almost on the spot, rendered these relics so many medals of our metropolitan civilization. Mr. Saull, F.G.S., died in 1855, when the collection was distributed to the British Museum and other institutions.
Seoane Museum, The, collecarl, The, ted by Sir Hans Sloane, at Chelsea, consisted of natural and artificial Curiosities, which cost Sir Hans 50,000£.: after his death in 1753, they were sold to Parliament for 20,000£., and formed the nucleus of the British Museum. The collection consisted of a library of 50,000 volumes; MSS. upon natural history, voyages and travels, and the arts, especially medicine; 23,000 medals and coins; anatomical preparations; natural history specimens; and an herbarium of 336 volumes. The Catalogue of the collection extended to 38 vols, folio, and 8 vols. 4to. (See Beitish Museum, p. 574.)
Soane Museum, The, 13, Lincoln’s Inn Fields (north side), was founded and endowed by Sir John Soane, the architect, with 30,000Z. 3 per cents, and a house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, to support the Museum. At Soane’s death, in 1837, the Trustees appointed by Parliament took charge of the ” Museum, Library, Books, Prints, Manuscripts, Drawings, Maps, Models, Plans, and Works of Art, and the House and offices;” providing for the free admission of amateurs and students in painting, sculpture, and architecture; and general visitors.
The Museum is open to general visitors on any Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday in April, May, and June; and likewise on the Wednesdays in February, March, July, and August.
Admission is obtained by cards, to be applied for either to a Trustee, by letter to the Curator, or personally at the Museum.
Access to the books, drawings, MSS., or permission to copy pictures or other works of art, is granted on special application to the Trustees or the very obliging Curator, Mr. Joseph Bonomi, who resides at the Museum.
A general description of the Collection, abridged from that printed by Sir John Soane in 1835, may be had at the Museum. The larger work (only 150 copies printed) is interspersed with poetical illustrations by Mrs. Holland.
The house, built by Mr. Soane in 1792, was in 1812 faced with a stone screen, in which are introduced Gothic corbels, 12th century; and terra-cotta canephorae, copied from the caryatides of the Temple of Pandrosus at Athens. The entrance-hall is decorated with medallion reliefs after the antique. The dining-room and library ceiling are painted by H. Howard, R.A. Here are a large collection of drawings of buildings by Sir John Soane ;* plaster models of ancient Greek and Eoman edifices, restored; a cork model of Pompeii; fictile vases, alabaster urns, and antique bronzes; windows filled with old stained glass; busts of Homer, Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Camden, and Inigo Jones; Greek and Etruscan vases, and Wedgwood’s imitations; Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Snake in the Grass, purchased for 510 guineas by Soafie, at the Marchioness of Thomond’s sale; and a portrait of Soane, almost the last picture painted by Lawrence, 1829. Here also is a walnut-tree and marble table, formerly Sir Robert Walpole’s: on this table is exhibited the celebrated Julio Clovis’ MS. The Little Study contains marble fragments of Greek and Roman sculpture, antique bronzes, and some natural Curiosities. In the Monk’s Yard are Gothic fragments of the ancient palace at Westminster, picturesquely arranged to resemble a ruined cloister. In the Corridor are casts from Westminster Hall; and Banks’s model of a Sleeping Girl, at Ashbourne; also two engravings, the Laughing Audience, and the Chorus, by Hogarth; and a drawing by Canaletti. The Monk’s Parlour has its walls covered with fragments and cast vaents ans of mediaeval buildings. The Monument Court contains architectural groups of various nations. The Picture-room has moveable planes, which serve as double walls, on each side of which are hung the pictures: here are Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress, eight paintings, purchased for 570 guineas; and Hogarth’s Election, four paintings, for 1650 guineas; also, three pictures by Canaletti, one, the Grand Canal of Venice, his chef-d’oeuvre; Van Tromp’s Barges entering the Texel, by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.; the Study of a Head, from one of Raphael’s Cartoons,—a relic saved from the wreck of the lost Cartoon, which remained in the possession of the family of the weaver who originally worked the Cartoons in tapestry; also copies of two other heads from the same, by Flaxman; pictures by Watteau, Fuseli, Bird, Westall, Turner, Callcott, Hilton, &c. The fifteen Indian-ink Drawings of Psestum, by Piranesi, are very fine.
* Sir John Soane, the son of a Berkshire bricklayer, designed a greater number of public edifices than any contemporary; from the Bank of England in the City, to Chelsea Hospital at the western extremity; from Walworth in the southern to the Regent’s Park in the north-western suburbs. His last work (1833), the State Paper Office, in St. James’s Park, was very unlike any other of his designs. He died at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Jan. 20,1837.
Upon tables are displayed several illuminated MSS., a MS. Tasso, the first three editions of Shakspeare, sketch-books of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other curious works.
In the Catacombs are ancient marble cinerary urns and vases. In the Sepulchral Chamber is the Sarcophagus discovered in 1817, by Belzoni, in a royal tomb near Gournou, Thebes. It was bought by Sir John Soane of Mr. Salt, the traveller, in 1824, for the sum of 2000Z. When first discovered, this Sarcophagus was considered by Dr. Young to be the tomb of Psamnis; and the hieroglyphics in the cartouche to indicate Osiezi-menephtha, the father of Ramos II.; although Sir Gardner Wilkinson considers it was not that monarch’s sarcophagus, but his cenotaph. Mr. Bonomi has illustrated to the Syro-Egyptian Society Belzoni’s very animated description of this Sarcophagus by a section and plan of the catacomb, which is excavated to a depth of one hundred yards into the solid rock. The sarcophagus is completely covered with hieroglyphics and 659 figures (each 2 inches high), all of which were originally filled in with a blue paste. The subjects on both sides are of a religious character, while that on the floor of the sarcophagus is personal. Two subjects of particular interest are pointed out, one as representing the ancient Cosmical philosophy, and the other as exhibiting in a very perfect manner the doctrine of the Metempsychosis. Mr. Bonomi also considers that the sarcophagus reveals two remarkable features which have not been seen in any other example: the first in the existence of two holes at each end of the lid, for the admission of ropes to ensure the gradual adjustment of the cover into its proper place; and the next the evidence of a means of preserving the edges of the sarcophagus from fracture during the process of lowering, and affording the means of hermetically closing it. It is formed of a large mass of arragonite, or alabaster: it is 9 feet 4 inches long, and 2 feet 8 inches deep. The seventeen fragments which formed part of the cover have been put together: and 19 plates of the whole have been carefully drawn by Mr. Bonomi, and described by Mr. S. Sharpe.
In the Crypt are several cork models of ancient tombs and sepulchral chambers discovered in Sicily, the walls decorate inalls ded with painting and sculpture; and in the centre the remains of the deceased, amidst vases and other funereal accompaniments.
In various apartments are a plaster cast of the Apollo Belvedere, taken by Lord Burlington about 1718; a marble bust of Sir John Soane, presented by the sculptor, Chantrey; a richly-mounted pistol, taken by Peter the Great from the Turkish Bey at Azof, 1696, presented by Alexander Emperor of Russia to the Emperor Napoleon at Tilsit in 1807, and given by him to a French officer at St. Helena; also, a portrait of Napoleon in his 28th year, by a Venetian artist; and a miniature of Napoleon, painted at Elba, in 1814, by Isabey; statuettes of Michael Angelo and Raphael, cast from the model, by Flaxman, in Mr. Rogers’s collection; marble bust of Sir William Chambers; bust of R. B. Sheridan, by Garrard; carved and gilt ivory table and chairs, formerly Tippoo Saib’s; the watch, measuring-rods, and compasses used by Sir Christopher Wren; a large collection of ancient gems and intaglios; and a set of the Napoleon Medals, once the Empress Josephine’s. (See Libraries, p. 525.)
The Sculpture, Marbles, Casts, and Models, contain 40 specimens of Flaxman, including a plaster cast of his ” Shield of Achilles;” 10 works of Banks; and specimens of Michael Angelo, John de Bologna, Donatello, Rysbraeck, Westmacott, Chantrey, Gibson, Baily, Rossi, &c.
The Architectural department includes drawings, models of buildings, and details. Among the drawings are those of all Sir John Soane’s works, and others by Piranesi, Zucchi, Bibiena, Campanella, Thornhill, Chambers, Kent, and Smirke; and a volume of drawings by Thorpe, the Elizabethan architect. There are busts of Palladio, Wren, Chambers, Dance, &c.
The nine Etruscan Vases exhibit the variety of shapes to be found in much larger collections: one (the Englefield) is of extreme rarity; and the Cawdor vase is of extraordinary size and elegantly enriched. Among the Roman antiquities are real specimens and casts from the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome, and of the 8ibyl or Vesta at Tivoli, &c.
The Antiquities and Curiosities are as useful to artists and pattern-drawers as the new rooms in the Louvre at Paris. The entire collection cost Sir John Soane upwards of 50,0002.
The Museum is not merely interesting as a sight or show-house, but of great service for artistic study in architecture, sculpture, painting, and house decoration. The number of visitors in a year are from 2000 to 3000 persons. The removal of the contents of the Museum has been proposed, to extend its beneficial effects; but it is urged, and we think with success, that the donor intended the Collection should never be removed from its present location, as he fitted up the house for its reception in the most elaborate and peculiar manner.— (See ” A Morning in Sir John Soane’s Museum,” in Walks and Talks about London; and a paper, with four large engravings in the Illustrated London News, May, 1864).
Society of Aets, 18, John-street, Adelphi (the house built by the brothers Adam, in
1772-74), has Barry’s celebrated pictures upon the walls of the Council-room, and a few portraits, &c.; to he seen gratis, between 10 and 4 daily,to and 4 except Wednesday and Sunday. The collection is constantly receiving interesting additions.
The Model Repository, 42 feet by 35 feet, on the ground-floor, contains one of the most extensive collections of models in Europe.
Here are ” hands for the one-handed, and other instruments for those who have lost both; clothes of all sorts of materials from all countries; medals of Charles I.’s reign, and the last new stc ve of Victoria’s; fire-escape ladders to run down from windows aud scaffolds, rising telescope fashion out of a box, to mount roofs; beehives and turnip-slicers, ploughs and instruments CO restrain vicious bulls, pans to preserve butter in hot countries, safety-lamps; models of massive cranes and of little tips for umbrellas; life-buoys and maroon-locks; diving-bells and expanding keys; safety-coaches and traps; clocks, and tail-pieces for violoncellos; instruments to draw spirits and to draw teeth; samples of tea, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmegs, in different stages of growth; models of Tuscan pavement; beds for invalids; methods to teach the blind how to write” (Knight’s London); also, the first piece of gutta percha seen in Europe, and presented to the Society 1843.
In the Ante-room, upstairs, are Nollekens’s medallion of Jephtha’s Vow, Barry’s picture of Eve tempting Adam, &c. The large pictures in the Council-room were presented gratuitously by Barry, between 1777 and 1783, and were commenced when he had but sixteen shillings in his pocket! They are—1. Orpheus Civilizing the Inhabitants of Thrace. 2. A Grecian Harvest-home. 3. Crowning the Victors at Olympia. 4. Commerce, or the Triumph of the Thames. 5. The Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts. 6. Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution. Barry has published etchings of these pictures, and has minutely described the subjects in his published Works, vol. ii. p. 323, edit. 1809. They were exhibited, and produced Barry 500Z., to which the Society added 2001. The Victors at Olympia is the finest work of the series: Canova declared the sight of it to be worth a voyage to England. In the Distribution picture are introduced portraits of Shipley, Arthur Young, the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Montagu, Sir George Savile, Bishop Hurd, Soame Jenyns, the two beautiful Duchesses of Rutland and Devonshire, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Folkestone, William Lock, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Johnson. The Retribution contains great and good men of all ages and times. Each of the latter pictures is 42 feet long. Barry died in 1806, and his remains lay in state in the room which the grandeur of his genius had so magnificently adorned. In the ante-room is a portrait of Barry; and in the large room are portraits of Lord Folkestone, by Gainsborough: Lord Romney, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; a marble statue of Dr. Ward, by Carlini; busts of Dr. Franklin and Barry; and casts of Venus, Mars, and Narcissus, by John Bacon.
The Society have held in the Great Room annual Exhibitions of Decorative Manufactures, and ancient and Mediaeval Art; and the collected works of Mulready, Etty, and other artists of note. But the benefits which the country has derived from the Society of Arts culminate in their initiative services in the origin and organization of the Great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, under the wisdom-tempered zeal of the Royal President of the Society, Prince Albert, the beneficial effects of whose sagacity, foresight, and integrity in contributing to the true glory of the nation become, year by year, the more fully appreciated.
South Kensington sush KensiMtjsetjm commenced with the erection in 1856 of an iron structure under the superintendence of Sir W. Cubitt (which, from its engineering unsightliness, got the sobriquet of ” the Boilers”), and when completed was given by the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, into the possession of the Science and Art Department. Since that date a permanent brick and iron structure, with terracotta decorations, has been erected. The building was planned, and its construction superintended up to the year 1865, by Captain Fowke, R.E. Its decorations, external and internal, were designed by Mr. Godfrey Sykes, originally a student of the Sheffield School of Art. The site is of irregular form, bounded on three sides by straight lines, and with three slightly acute angles, the narrowed portion being towards the north or rear. The two longer boundaries abut on the Cromwell and Exhibition Roads; the former measuring about 740 feet, the latter about 600 feet; the principal front and the entrances towards the south—that is, Cromwell-road. It would occupy more space than is at our disposal to describe the plan of the several Museum buildings, to be erected from time to time, as the requisite funds are voted bv Parliament. The central portion
is Italian in general effect. The most novel characteristics are due to the employment of coloured materials—namely, for the construction, bright red bricks, in two tints; and for the ornament, terra-cottas of deep red, and a pale, but not harshly white, hue; tile tesserae in chocolate and warm grey for mosaics, inserted in panels on the front, and for a large one in the pediment; and majolica with white ground, relieved with yellow and blue, for the soffits of the arches of the columnar recess in front, for the arcades, &c. The great central columns are modelled with figures testifying the three divisions of Man’s Life, Childhood, Manhood, and Old Age, alternating with a bough modelled from nature, and laid over fluting. The figures are mediaeval in character, in the style of Michael Angelo and Raphael. The subject for the tile-mosaic of the pediment is an allegorical representation of the Queen opening the great Exhibition of 1851. The columns above described stand before the new Lecture Theatre, a handsome hall, calculated to seat about 600 persons.
The contents of the South Kensington Museum may be classified as follows: —
1. The Art Collections, which now number 12,530 objects, illustrative of the history, principles, and processes of decorative art in sculpture, carvings in wood and ivory, decorative furniture, metal work, goldsmiths’ work, jewellery and lapidaries’ work, engraved gems, niello work, arms, armour, pottery, glass, enamels, ancient lac work, textile fabrics, miniatures, &c. &c. An important feature in these collections is the reproduction by means of casting, and electrotypy, of rare and costly works of art in other countries, with which the Department of Science and Art is desirous of effecting exchanges of such reproductions. Another feature is the permanent Loan Exhibition of valuable objects of art belonging to private owners. The Museum also contains a large and valuable number of modem English paintings mainly presented by the late Mr. Sheepshanks, and water-colour drawings, principally bequeathed by Mr. Ellison, as well as the Cartoons of Raphael lent by her Majesty; and it affords temporary accommodation for the exhibition of many paintings of the British School which belong to the National Gallery.
2. The Art Library, containing about 15,000 volumes relating to art, and a great number of original drawing-s, illuminations, an raminatiod engravings.
3. The Educational Museum and Library, containing many educational works in various European languages, and scientific apparatus and diagrams, chiefly lent by the inventors and publishers.
4. The Museum of Construction and Building Materials, containing examples of materials and apparatus of use in building, draining, and decorating houses; and many architectural models.
5. The Museum of Animal Products and Pood Collection, principally formed by the transference by English and Foreign commissions of collections exhibited in the International Exhibitions of London in 1851 and 1862, and of Paris in 1855.
6. The Naval Models, belonging to the Admiralty, supplemented by loans from private builders and owners. The Admiralty Collection shows the various changes “in the construction of men-of-war from 1416 down to the present time.
The following are the terms on which the Museum is open to the public:—
The Museum is open daily, Sundays excepted, free, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. The Students’ days are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when the public are admitted on payment of 6d. each person, from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. Tickets of admission to the Museum, including the Art-library and Educational Reading-room, are issued.
Here, also, is the Museum of Patents, mainly founded by Mr. Benet Woodcroft, and greatly extended by the zeal of the present curator, F. Petit Smith. The collection includes ” patriarchal models,” from the parent engine of Steam Navigation to the model of the engine of the Great Eastern; historical locomotives, and machines of endless ingenuity; with a collection of portraits of inventors, scientific library, &c. (See Patent Seal Office Library, p. 522.)
The authorities at the South Kensington have considerably encouraged mosaic decoration. Their first proposition was to decorate with mosaics the facade of the picture-galleries of the 1862 Exhibition, building. Subsequently they caused a number of mosaics of divers kinds to be inserted in various parts of the new and permanent buildings of the South Kensington Museum. The most important of these is the series of figures which are inserted in compartments of the wall-arcade of the south court of the Museum. Of these the most important are Apelles, Mr. Poynter; Cimabue, Mr. P. Leighton, A.R.A.; the Raphael, Godfrey Sykes; the Giorgione, Mr. Prinsep.
The Sheepshanks’ valuable collection of Pictures by modern British artists is fully equal, and is in seme respects superior, to the Vernon Collection. The works of Leslie, R.A., and Mulready, R.A., can nowhere be studied to greater advantage. Observe: Highland Drovers, The Shepherd’s Chief Mourner, Jack in Office, the Breakfast, all by E. Landseer, R.A.; Duncan Gray and the Broken Jar, by Sir D. Wilkie; Choosing the Wedding Gown, The Ball, Giving a Bite, First Love, all by W. Mulready, R.A.; Scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor, Uncle Toby and Widow Wadman, both by C. R. Leslie, R.A. Paintings in oil, 233 specimens; Drawings and Sketches, 103 specimens.
On May 20, 1867, here was laid with great State, by Queen Victoria, the first stone of ” the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences,” a vast elliptical building, of red brick, with terra-cotta decorations, estimated to cost 200,000^.
Tradescants’ Museum, at South Lambeth (see p. 185), contained not only stuffed animals and dried plants, but also minerals ; implements of war and domestic use, of various nations; and a collection of coins and medals. In the Catalogue en-
titled Museum Tradescantium, 1656, we find, ” Two feathers of the phoenix tayle •” ” a natural dragon f and a stuffed specimen of the Dodo, believed to have been exhibited alive in London in 1638; its head and foot are preserved in the Askmolean Museum at Oxford, of which the Tradescants’ collection formed the nucleus.
Tbinity House Museum, Tower Hill, contains various models of lighthouses, floating-lights, life-boats, and a noble model of the ” Royal William,” 150 years old. Among the naval Curiosities is the flag taken by Sir Francis Drake, in 1588, from the Spaniards; pen-and-ink plans of sea-fights, temp. Charles II.; Chinese map; pair of colossal globes, &c.; besides a large picture, by Gainsborough, of the Elder Trinity Brethren, and numerous portraits and busts. To be seen by Secretary’s order.
United Sebyice Institution Museum, Whitehall-yard, contains an Armoury, Chinese cabinet and model gallery, antiquities, and an ethnological collection ; a lecture-theatre and library. This institution, which was founded in 1830, under the patronage of King William IV. and the Duke of Wellington, has the support of most of the officers of rank in both services, and has received from her Majesty a Royal charter of incorporation.
The visitor first passes through rooms containing the arms and armour of the Esquimaux, New Zealander, inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands, Australia, and of Africa, and then enters the European armoury. Bound this room are displayed firearms from the time of Henry VIII. to Victoria; in the windows are cases containing swords of heroes, amongst them the sword of Cromwell which he carried at the siege of Drogheda; a small sword of Nelson; and dirks and yataghans from the Greek Islands. In a spacious room are arranged a scries of models of steam-engines from the first appliance of steam to the screw-engines of the present time; here also are models of tents by Major Rhodes and Mr. Turner. The next room contains a collection of the arms, accoutrements, clothing, and field equipment of a soldier of the Line and rifleman of our own and of the Prussian, Austrian, Belgian, and Sardinian armies, with the addition in the case of Sardinia of those of a cavalry and artillery soldier. These have been presented to the institution by the respective Governments. The grand staircase is guarded, as it were, by two men-at-arms of the time of Charles I. On the walls are pikes, spears, helmets, and long two-handed swords, and on either side shirts of ringed mail of the time of the Crusaders; a genuine English longbow of the time of Henry VIII.; and arrows taken out of the citadel of Aleppo, supposed to be of the time of the Crusaders. The Asiatic Armoury has its walls covered with spears, sabres, shields, matchlocks, and other descriptions of arms and armour from Borneo, Java, and Ceylon, to the Punjaub and AiTghanistan. In this room are also to be seen the dress worn by Tippoo Sahib at the capture of Seringapatam, and the pistols takriae pistoen from his body after his fall. Next is the Enfield Rifle Boom, where is exhibited the Enfieid rifle in all stages of manufacture, from specimens of the raw material to the finished rifle. In the naval departments are models of vessels, from the most perfect model of a line-of-battle ship, put together in a bottle by one of the French prisoners of war in Norman Cross Prison, to a large one of the Comicallis, 74, built in Bombay; and from the heavy, cumbrous build of the Dutch man-of-war of 1650 to the beautiful lines of the modern frigate; also, models of guns and anchors, Cuningham’s plan for reefing topsails from the deck, Clifford’s boat-lowering apparatus, life-boats, and gun-rafts. Next are curiosities: from Drake’s walking-stick to Cook’s punchbowl and chronometer; models of foreign craft, from the Maltese galley to the Malayproa and the birch-bark canoe of the Indian. Here, also, is the table made from the wood of the Victory when under repair, on which are the relics of the various expeditions in search of Sir J. Franklin. Also, an Australian Boomerang •. the stone upon which Capt. Cook fell dead at Owhyee; war implements from all parts of the world; a piece of the deck of the Victory, from the spot on which NeUon fell; Napoleon Bonaparte’s fusil, razor and shaving-brush, and fragment of his coffin ; articles found on the field of Waterloo; relics of the Royal George, sunk 1782, and the Mary Rose, 1545; chronological series of firearms (James II. to William IV.); skeleton of the horse Marengo, rode by Napoleon at Waterloo; Chinese trophies and chain-shot; Polar bear and wolf shot by Sir George Back; wooden Chinese cage for human prisoner ; first uniform worn in the British navy; hat of Lord Nelson; Chinese magic mirror; models of ships of all nations; fortification models; great model of Linz and its camp; and pictures of battles. Also, Capt. Siborne’s Model of the Battle of Waterloo; scale, 9 feet to a mile, area 440 square feet; showing the entire field, and the British, French, and Prussian armies, by 190,000 metal figures; with the villages, houses, farmyards, and clumps of trees: cost Captain Siborne 4000£.; purchased for the Institution by subscription. Here, also, are Colonel Hamilton’s model of the South of the Crimea; models of the different systems of fortification, with relics commemorative of the Peninsular, Waterloo, and the Crimean campaigns. The Library contains between 11,000 and 12,000 volumes of works on naval and military history, biography, improvements in arms, and general science. The topographical department contains the naval charts, and maps, and plans, supplied by the Admiralty and War Departments; here on maps are marked out, by pins and coloured cards, warlike operations or peaceful movements over the world. The reading-room is well supplied with the military periodicals of the day. During the season lectures on subjects of passing interest, or bearing on the naval or military services, are delivered. The United Service Institution is supported by entrance-fees, 11.; annual subscription, 10». The public are admitted daily, free, by members’ orders.
Untvebsity College, Gower-street. The Anatomical Museum, based upon the collection of Sir Charles Bell, consists of 4-066 specimens in catalogue, and large additions. Also, the models in wax by Tuson, including the celebrated case of Ichthyosis cornea; 700 coloured drawings by Sir R. Carswell, and 200 by Armstrong; the heart and throat of Ramo Samee (the sword-swallowing Indian juggler), ob. 24 July, 1849; a Skull from the Wreck of the Royal George ,• bones and a Skull from ancient Greek
graves; a Head from the Catacombs in Paris; an Elephant’s Heart; reputed fragments of bones of the Good Duke Humphrey and Kobert Bruce; and a cast from Hervey Leach (Hervio Nano), ob. March, 1847. Here, also, is the skeleton of Jeremyalaton of Bentham, dressed in the clothes which he usually wore, and with a wax face modelled by Dr. Talrych : also a portion of skin from the body of the first person obtained under the New Anatomical Act (Lady Barrington). A Museum of Comparative Anatomy, and a fine Materia Medica collection. The Natural Philosophy Models are good. In the Drawing School are three marble figures in relief of the Hindoo Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, dug up from the ruins of a city in a forest 50 miles east of Baroda. In the School, also, is a collection of Casts, including the Apollo made in Rome for Plaxman, the Laocoon, &c.
Waterloo Museum:, Pall Mall, was a collection of portraits, battle-scenes, costumes, and trophies, cuirasses, helmets, sabres, and fire-arms, from the field of Waterloo, exhibited 1815.
Weeks’s Museum, 3, Tichborne-street, established about 1810, was famed for its mechanical Curiosities. The grand room, by Wyatt, had a ceiling painted by Rebecca and Singleton. Here were two temples, 7 feet high, supported by 16 elephants, and embellished with 1700 pieces of jewellery. Among the automata were the tarantula spider and bird of paradise. Weeks’s Museum has long been dispersed; after his death, March 23, 1864, were sold many of the large mechanical pieces originally exhibited at his museum, comprising the large swan of chased silver; also^temples, birdcages, clocks, and automaton figures, several with musical movements; also a great variety of clocks and candelabra, miniatures, musical birdboxes, watches, &c. The chased silver swan was in the Great Paris Exhibition of 1867. Weeks’s Gallery was subsequently the show-rooms of the Rockingham Works, where, in 1837, was exhibited a splendid porcelain dessert-service, made for William IV.: 200 pieces, painted with 760 subjects, occupied 5 years, and cost 3000?. In 1851 the place was refitted by Robin, the conjuror.
Zoological Society’s Museum, The, was originally commenced in Bruton-street, then removed to No. 26, Leicester-square; and is now contained in a building erected for it in the Society’s Garden, Regent’s Park, about 1843. This Museum was projected upon an extensive scale: during the earlier years of its formation, it was, scientifically, the great collection of this country; but it soon became eclipsed by the rapid accumulation with which Dr. Gray enriched the galleries of the British Museum; and as the national collection gradually assumed the important place which it now occupies among the great public institutions of Europe, the Council of the Zoological Society withdrew from the competition, and concentrated their efforts towards their Vivarium. Their Museum is arranged to convey an idea of the Generic Forms of the Vertebrate Division of the Animal Kingdom. By this method, most of the essential differences of form are well illustrated in a reduced number of specimens, so as to impress a casual observer with the distinctive features of each family, Among the animals preserved are many of the rarest and most curious known to exist, and selected from the original collection, commenced with the gifts of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the first President of the Zoological Society: and Mr. N. A. Vigors, its first Secretary.
Private Collections. —The following have been mostly dispersed; or when they exist can only be seen by private introduction to the proprietors.
Auldjo, Mr. John, Noel Souse, Kensington: an extensive assemblage of Antique and Mediaeval Articles of Vertu; including a portion of a Greek glass vase, of similar es t of simxecution to the Portland Vase:” it is ornamented with foliage and birds, and was found at Pompeii in 1833. This collection has been dispersed.
Gwilt, Mr. George, 8, Union-street, SouthwarJc; and Gwilt, Mr. Joseph, 20, Abing’don-street, Westminster: Collections of Architectural Antiquities; the former especially rich in Southwark relics (some Roman), old London Bridge, &c.
Londesborough, the late Lord, 8, Carlton House-terrace, formed a collection of Antiquities ranging from the earliest English period. Saxon remains, urns, arms, and articles of personal decoration, principally excavated by his lordship from tumuli in Kent. Also Irish gold antiques, valuable and curious; and mediaeval gold and silver work in jewels, cups, &c, and a very fine collection of Anglo-Saxon relics, principally ornaments, from the Isle of Wight. Arms and armour, artistically wrought and richly decorated (hut chiefly preserved at Grimstone, in Yorkshire). Lady Londeshorough also collected a series of many hundred antique rings, ranging from the early Egyptian times to the seventeenth century. These collections were shown at conversazioni given hy Lord and Lady Londeshorough during the London season. There is a privately printed Catalogue, hy Mr. T. Crofton Croker, F.S.A.
Magniac, Mr. H, 87, Jermyn-street, St. James’s: a collection chiefly remarkable for its fine Ecclesiastical Works—crosiers, reliquaries, pyxes, &c. Also fine examples of Ancient Carved Furniture, and other specimens of mediaeval art.
Marryat, Mr. Joseph, author of a History of Pottery, until 1866 possessed a large collection of Ceramic Works, particularly Flemish and German, but exhibiting generally the varied forms and peculiarities of the entire manufacture: formerly at Richmond-terrace, Whitehall; removed to the Ynescedwyn Iron-works, Swansea.
Morgan, Mr. Octavius, F. S.A., 9, Pall Mall, possesses a very valuable series of Ancient Clocks and Watches; particularly remarkable for its historic illustration of the gradual improvement in Watches, from the earliest period to that of Quare and Tompion.
Rothschild, the Baron Lionel de, 148, Piccadilly, has a costly collection of Mediawal Art. Also Antique Pottery, including a candlestick formed of white clay, rare Henry II. ware (French), which cost the Baron 2201. : not more than 27 articles of this ware are known to exist.
Sainsbury, Mr., 13, Upper Panelagh-street, Pimlico: Historical MSS. and Autographs, 1473 to 1848; enamels, miniatures, medals, and coins; books, drawings, and prints; Shakspeare relics (including the Garrick cup); Napoleon Collection exhibited at the ” Napoleon Museum,” at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. This collection has been dispersed.
Slade, Mr. Felix, Walcot-place, Lambeth, possesses a collection of Pottery and Glass of the Middle Ages: the latter unmatched in examples of Venetian workmancluetian wship.
Windus, the late Mr. T., Stamford Hill, collected, in a building of style 1550, carvings in ivory, mother-of-pearl, and wood; crystals, antique gems, and rings; mosaics, cameos, medals, and coins; Grecian pottery; drawings by Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vandyke j fac-simile of the sarcophagus in which the Portland Vase was found.
MUSIC HALLS.
THE following list of these places of entertainment, licensed by the Magistrates under the Act of George II. for ” music and dancing,” together with the cost of building and fittings, and the number of persons accommodated, is thus given in a statement laid before Parliament:—
Crystal Palace Agricultural-hall ..
St. James’s-hall
St. Martin’s-hall
Exeter-hall
Gallery of Illustration …
Egyptian-hall
Polygraphie-hall
Polytechnic
Alhambra, Leicester-sq…. Oxford, Oxford-street Strand, Strand … Canterbury-hall, Lambeth Metropolitan, Edgware-rd. Regent, Westminster Wilton’s, Wellclose-sq. … Evans’s, Covent-garden … Weston’s, Holborn Philharmonic, Islington… Highbury Barn, Highbury Cambridge, Shoreditch … Winchester, Southwark …
From this list a number of small tavern-concert rooms are excluded. It should be further diminished by the removal of the ” Gallery of Illustration,” which has been licensed by the Chamberlain for theatrical entertainments. The first of these places opened was Canteebuky. Hail, Lambeth, with its expensive decorations, its large marble reliefs by Geefs; and its handsome Picture Gallery, and really good collection of modern paintings. The new enterprise proved very successful, and there sprang up in different quarters of the metropolis, Music-halls, the great majority of which were successful speculations, and they are now more numerous than the regular theatres. The second Music Hall was Weston’s, High Holborn, of splendid, if not tasteful ornamentation.
The Oxford, Oxford-street, is decorated in the Italian style, and is 94 feet in length, 44 feet in width, between Corinthian columns which support the roof, with a promenade beyond on each side. The ceiling is coved on to the walls, and springs from the top of an ornamental entablature. The columns are arranged in pairs. A large glass chandelier here has a very pretty effect from below,—a tree of light. The hall is lighted with star burners.
The Alhambra Palace, Leicester-square, formerly the Panopticon, according to a statement laid before Parliament, represents a capital of 100,000£, and employs 320 persons of both sexes, paying wages at the rate of nearly 450Z. per week. It has increased the wages of ballet-girls at least 20 per cent. It receives on an average 3000 visitors every night, at an average admission price of 1*. per head; and the expenditure of each person in drink, eatables, and cigars, averages about 7d. The working classes, for whom an upper gallery capable of holding 1000 persons is provided, attend in large numbers. The item in the statement relative to the consumption of refreshments shows that the money expended by the visitors on eating and drinking amounts to little more than half the money received for admission.
Philharmonic Hall, Islington, is an Italian Renaissance saloon, of large size, with a classic entrance, Ionic distyle in antis.
St. James’s Hall is described at p. 426 j and St. Martin’s Hall at p. 427.
Etans’s, Covent Garden, is mentioned at p. 294. This noble room, designed by Finch Hill, was built in 1855, upon the garden in the rear of Evans’s Hotel. It is in a bold, handsome style, with a coved ceiling, richly ornamented. It is divided by fluted columns into nave and aisles, and embellished with figures of Poetry, the Drama, Music, &c.; and it is brilliantly lighted by gas in ten richly-cut lustres. Here are sung glees, madrigals, and other fine old melodies; besides pieces from foreign operas, and songs and ballads by living composers.
Strand Music Hall, Strand, in the main building covers what was the site of new Exeter Change, and the area and promenade is stated to contain about 6000 square feet. The roof is of wrought iron and zinc, and here is the large lighting chamber, with its 350 ventilating tubes, conducted into enormous shafts, to convey the vitiated air out of the building. The gas-light from several thousand burners passes through the coloured glass of the roof or ceiling, supported by cast-iron columns, with wrought-copper foliated capitals. The Strand front (Keeling, architec aning, art), is partly of stone, five stories, elaborately sculptured by Tolmie, with capitals, marble shafts, and medallion heads of composers (Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Bishop, Mendelssohn, &c), and metal work. The porch has scarcely an inch of surface that is not carved: yet, notwithstanding its sculptured heads, the building does not speak its purpose. Continental Gothic is the basis of this eclectic design.
Agbicttltural Hall, Islington, is described at p. 424. Its exhibitions and performances are miscellaneous. In 1865, the profits of the Horse show exceeded those of 1865 by more than 1000?., and those of the Cattle show by more than 900Z. The Metropolitan and Provincial Working Men’s Exhibition in 1865 was visited by nearly half a million persons, and produced to the Company a net rent of nearly a thousand pounds.
Highbtjey Baen, Islington, has one of the few remaining old assembly-rooms of the last century; and in addition, a very elegant theatre for dramatic performances.
Geecian, City-road, has a large and elegant Hall for dancing, and out-door orchestra, and platform, in addition to a commodious Theatre.
Haxover Squabe Rooms, on the east side of Hanover-square, were huilt for concerts and balls, by Sir John Gallini, formerly one of the managers of the Italian Opera in this country. They have lately been re-decorated in elegant style.
The ceiling: of the large room (the only decorations of which previously to these alterations were the old pictures by Cipriani) has been ornamented with enrichments in composition and ” carton pierre;” a trellis pattern being placed in the bands across the ceiling, and a laurel in the longitudinal bands, with a crest ornament on the ceiling round each panel. The fluted pilasters on the walls have been retained ; but the cornice over them has been deepened about 7 in., and has been enriched by the addition of mouldings, and with festoons of fruit and flowers to the frieze all round. The old Royal box has been re-constructed in wood and ” carton pierre,” surmounted by an arched top, having a lozenge with the Boyal cipher supported by the figures of two boys, the top being supported by two pilasters and the figures of two female Caryatides, terminating in scroll-work, with fruit and flowers running down the panels of the pilasters. The Iront of the orchestra has been ornamented with musical trophies and festoons of fruit and flowers, with medallions placed over the two doorways at the sides. The panels over the looking-glasses are each filled with a medallion, painted in bas-relief, of some of the most celebrated composers—Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, Weber, Rossini, Purcell, and others, with their names, and the century in which they flourished. In the two wide panels in the orchestra are painted medallions of Ca’.lcott and Bishop. The plinth round the room under the pilasters is decorated in imitation of various coloured marbles. The Royal box is finished in white, buff, and gold, with paintings representing Peace and Plenty, and the four Seasons, and erimson and gold damask hangings. The old method of lighting by means of sunlights has been dispensed with, and a novel mode of lighting has been introduced by suspending from the ceiling, along each side, hemispheres of silvered glass, with the flat sides upwards, having twelve jets to each, radiating to the centre, in a star-like form underneath.— Abridged from the Builder.
Surreyanderif”> Music Hall, Walworth, was erected in 1856, upon the site of the Surrey Zoological Gardens, Horace Jones, architect. The hall was oblong, with semi-octagonal ends, and three tiers of galleries round three sides, the orchestra occupying one end. There were four octagonal staircases, one at each corner; and on the side next the lake were two external galleries. The hall had an arched roof, and externally cappings, partaking of the Chinese pagoda and the Turkish minaret. The vast apartment was 153 feet long, 68 wide, and 77 high in the centre, and would hold 12,000 persons besides 1000 in the orchestra; it was 20 feet longer and 30 feet wider than Exeter Hall, and cost about 18,2002. Its acoustic properties were perfect. It was opened in July, 1856. On October 19th, following, during a religious service here, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, eight persons were killed, and thirty seriously injured, in consequence of a false alarm of fire raised in the hall; Its success as a musical speculation was short-lived; and the premises were subsequently let for the temporary St. Thomas’s Hospital, removed here from Southwark. {See p. 435.)