and constantly-increasing collection of books, maps, drawings, prints,
sculptures, antiquities, and natural curiosities. It occupies a most
extensive suite of buildings in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury,
commenced in 1823, and not even now finished. The sum spent on them is
little less than £1,000,000. Sir Richard Smirke was the architect. The
principal, or south front, 370 feet long, presents a range of 44 columns,
the centre being a majestic portico, with sculptures in the pediment.
Since its commencement, in 1755, the collection has been prodigiously
increased by gifts, bequests, and purchases; and now it is, perhaps, the
largest of the kind in the world. The library contains more than _eight
hundred thousand_ volumes, and is increasing enormously in extent every
year. The Reading-Room is open only to persons who proceed thither for
study, or for consulting authorities. A reading order is readily
procured on written application, enclosing the recommendation of two
respectable householders, to “the Principal Librarian.” It is open
nearly 300 days in the year, and for an average of eight hours each day.
No general inspection of this room by strangers is allowed, except by a
written order from the secretary, which can, however, readily be obtained
on three days in the week. The porters in the hall will direct to the
secretary’s office; and strangers must be careful to observe the
conditions on which the order is given. The present reading-room, opened
in 1857, and built at a cost of £150,000, is one of the finest apartments
in the world; it is circular, 140 feet in diameter, and open to a
dome-roof 106 feet high, supported without pillars. This beautiful room,
and the fireproof galleries for books which surround it, were planned by
Mr. Panizzi, the late chief librarian.
The portions of the British Museum open to ordinary visitors consist of
an extensive series of galleries and saloons on the ground and upper
floors, each devoted to the exhibition of a distinct class of objects.
Among others are—terracottas, Roman sculptures and sepulchral
antiquities, Sir T. Lawrence’s collection of casts, British antiquities,
ethnological specimens, Egyptian antiquities, several saloons containing
the Elgin and Phigalian Marbles, Nineveh and Lycian sculptures, &c. The
rooms containing objects in natural history and artificial curiosities
are handsomely fitted up with glass-cases on the walls and tables. Days
may be spent in examining this vast assemblage of objects; and to assist
in the inspection, catalogues for the entire Museum may be purchased at
the door at a cheap price. [Picture: Reading Room, British Museum] The
following will convey an idea of the order in which the general contents
of the Museum meet the eye. Outside the building, in unsightly glass
sheds under the porticos and colonnades, are ancient Greek sculptures
from Asia Minor, chiefly from the famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; they
are temporarily so placed until room can be found for them elsewhere. On
entering the hall or vestibule, and ascending the staircase, the
galleries of natural history are reached—stuffed quadrupeds, including a
_gorilla_ purchased from M. Chaillu; stuffed birds; birds’ eggs; shells
in immense variety and of surpassing beauty; minerals; and fossils.
These occupy the eastern, northern, and part of the southern galleries.
The western, and the rest of the southern galleries, are occupied by
numerous antiquarian and ethnological collections—including Egyptian
mummies and ornaments, Greek and Etruscan vases, Greek and Roman bronzes,
ancient and mediæval porcelain, ivory carvings, and specimens of the
dresses, weapons, instruments, &c., of various nations. On the
ground-floor, to the right of the hall, visitors are admitted to a room
containing a curious collection of manuscripts, autographs, and early
printed books; and to the King’s Library, a beautiful apartment,
containing the books presented by George IV. This room also possesses a
small but extremely choice display of Italian, German, and Flemish
drawings and engravings; together with a few _nielli_, (black engravings
on silver plates.) The west side of the ground-floor is occupied by the
ancient sculptures—Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Lycian, Roman, &c.—A
refreshment-room for visitors was opened in 1866, and is situated in the
western basement.
The British Museum is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the
whole of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun weeks. It is closed on the first
week in January, May, and September, and on Christmas-day, Good-Friday,
and Ash-Wednesday. The hour of opening is 10 o’clock; that of closing
varies from 4 till 6 o’clock, according to the season of the year.
During many years past there have been newspaper controversies and
parliamentary debates touching the disposal of the rich contents of the
Museum. Almost every part is filled to overflowing; but much diversity
of opinion exists as to which portion, if any, shall be removed to
another locality. Burlington House and the South Kensington Museum, each
has its advocates. Immediate removal of part of the contents has been
decided on.
[Picture: Kensington Museum]
South Kensington Museum.—This very interesting national establishment is
situated at South Kensington, near the Cromwell and Exhibition Roads, on
ground bought out of the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The
varied contents have been either presented to, or purchased by, the
nation, with the exception of a few collections which have been lent for
temporary periods. They consist of illustrations of manufactures and the
useful arts; models of patented inventions; collections of raw produce,
derived from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; a museum of
educational appliances; casts from sculptures and architectural
ornaments; objects of ornamental art, both mediæval and modern; naval
models, &c. Besides these, there are the fine collections of paintings
presented to the nation by Mr. Sheepshanks, and other liberal donors; and
a portion of the Vernon collection, the rest being at the National
Gallery. Turner’s pictures, bequeathed to the nation in his will, were
kept here for some years, but were removed to the National Gallery in
1861. There are, among the group of buildings, some devoted to the
Government Department of Science and Art; but the Museum generally is, so
far as concerns the public, distinct. The Gallery of British Art
contains many hundred pictures, including choice specimens by Turner,
Wilkie, Mulready, Landseer, Leslie, Hogarth, Wilson, Gainsborough,
Reynolds, Lawrence, Constable, Loutherbourg, Callcott, Collins, Etty,
Stanfield, Roberts, Uwins, Creswick, Maclise, Webster, Eastlake, Ward,
Cooke, Cooper, Danby, Goodall, &c. The rooms containing these pictures,
planned by Captain Fowke, are remarkable for the admirable mode of
lighting, both by day and in the evening. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Saturdays, the admission is free from 10 A.M. till 10 P.M.; on the other
three days, called _students’_ days, 6d. is charged from 10 A.M. till 4,
5, or 6, according to the season. This is one of the very few free
exhibitions open in the evening (thrice a-week) as well as the daytime.
Bethnal Green Museum.—This is really a branch of the South Kensington
Museum, and is situated not far from Shoreditch Church. It is accessible
by omnibus from most parts of the City and the West End, and is not far
distant from Victoria Park. It was formally opened, in 1872, by the
Prince and Princess of Wales. At the present, its great attraction is
the picture gallery; but it promises to become as popular as any museum
in London, especially as technical information will become an essential
feature of its future existence. It is open under the same regulations
as are observed at the South Kensington Museum.
Museum of Economic Geology.—This small but interesting establishment,
having an entrance in Jermyn Street, is a national museum for the
exhibition of all such articles as belong to the mineral kingdom. It was
built from the designs of Mr. Pennethorne, and was opened in 1851.
Though less extensive than the British and South Kensington Museums, it
is of a very instructive character. Besides the mineral specimens, raw
and manufactured, it contains models, sections, and diagrams,
illustrative of mining, metallurgy, and various manufactures. It is
open, _free_, every day, except Friday.
Museum of the College of Surgeons.—This building, on the south side of
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, can be visited by strangers only through the
introduction of members of the College. The Government, about seventy
years ago, bought John Hunter’s Anatomical Museum, and presented it to
the College. The contents of the museum are illustrative of the
structure and functions of the human body, both in the healthy and the
diseased state; they have been classified and arranged with great skill
by Professor Owen.
United Service Museum.—This is situated in Whitehall Yard. Admission is
obtained through the members of the United Service Institution. The
contents of the museum consist of models, weapons, and implements
interesting to military men. Here see the robe worn by Tippoo Sahib,
when killed at Seringapatam, in 1799. Also observe Siborne’s
extraordinary model of the battle of Waterloo; and notice the skeleton of
the horse which Napoleon rode at that battle.
East India Museum.—Near the building last noticed, in Fife House,
Whitehall, is deposited the collection known as the East India Museum,
formerly deposited at the India House, in Leadenhall Street, and now
belonging to the nation. It comprises a very curious assemblage of
Oriental dresses, jewels, ornaments, furniture, musical instruments,
models, paintings, tools, implements, idols, trinkets, &c. Among the
rest is the barbaric toy known as _Tippoo’s Tiger_. It consists of a
figure of a tiger trampling on a prostrate man, whom he is just about to
seize with his teeth; the interior contains pipes and other mechanism,
which, when wound up by a key, cause the figure of the man to utter cries
of distress, and the tiger to roar. Such was one of the amusements of
Tippoo Sahib! The museum is open free on Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays, from 10 till 4.
Royal Institution.—This building, in Albemarle Street, is devoted to the
prosecution of science, by means of lectures, experiments, discussions,
and a scientific library. It has been rendered famous by the brilliant
labours of Davy and Faraday. Admission is only obtainable by membership,
or by fees for courses of lectures.
Society of Arts.—This institution has existed in John Street, Adelphi,
for a long series of years. Its object is the encouragement of arts,
manufactures, agriculture, and commerce. Under the auspices of the late
Prince Consort, it was mainly instrumental in bringing about the two
great International Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862. The lecture-room
contains six remarkable pictures by Barry, illustrative of ‘Human
Culture.’ Every year there are free exhibitions of manufactures and new
mechanical inventions.
Scientific Societies.—There are many other Scientific Societies which
hold their meetings in London; but only a few of them possess buildings
worthy of much attention, or contain collections that would interest a
mere casual visitor. The _Royal_, the _Astronomical_, the _Geological_,
the _Chemical_, and the _Linnæan_ Societies, the _College of Physicians_,
the _Institution of Civil Engineers_, and others of like kind, are those
to which we here refer. Many of these societies are at present
accommodated with the use of apartments at the public expense, in
Burlington House, Piccadilly.
NATIONAL GALLERY; ROYAL ACADEMY; ART EXHIBITIONS.
National Gallery.—This building, in Trafalgar Square, is the chief
depository of the pictures belonging to the nation. In 1824, the
Government purchased the Angerstein collection of 38 pictures, for
£57,000, and exhibited it for a time at a house in Pall Mall. The
present structure was finished in 1838, at a cost of about £100,000, from
the designs of Mr. Wilkins. Since that year till 1869, the Royal Academy
occupied the eastern half, and the National Gallery the western. In the
last-named year, the Royal Academy was removed to Burlington House; and
the whole of the building is now what its name denotes. This National
Gallery now comprises the Angerstein collection, together with numerous
pictures presented to the nation by Lord Farnborough, Sir George
Beaumont, the Rev. Holwell Carr, Mr. Vernon, and other persons; and, most
recent of all, the Turner collection, bequeathed to the nation by that
greatest of our landscape painters. Every year, likewise, witnesses the
purchase of choice old pictures out of funds provided by Parliament. The
grant annually is about £10,000. To accommodate the constantly
increasing collection, the centre of the building was re-constructed in
1861, and a very handsome new saloon built, in which are deposited the
choicest examples of the Italian Schools of Painting: forming, with its
contents, one of the noblest rooms of the kind in Europe. To name the
pictures in this collection would be to name some of the finest works of
the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and French schools of painters. Some of
the most costly of the pictures are the following:—Murillo’s ‘Holy
Family,’ £3000; Rubens’s ‘Rape of the Sabines,’ £3000; Francia’s ‘Virgin
and Child,’ £3500; Sebastian del Piombo’s ‘Raising of Lazarus,’ 3500
guineas; Coreggio’s ‘Holy Family,’ £3800; Perugino’s ‘Virgin and Child,’
£4000; Claude’s ‘Seaport,’ £4000; Rubens’s ‘Judgment of Paris,’ £4200;
Raffaelle’s ‘St. Catherine,’ £5000; Rembrandt’s ‘Woman taken in
Adultery,’ £5250; Correggio’s ‘Ecce Homo,’ and ‘Mercury instructing
Cupid,’ 10,000 guineas; and Paul Veronese’s ‘Family of Darius,’ £14,000.
Royal Academy, Burlington House.—The Academy was established in 1768, for
the encouragement of the fine arts. Until the finishing of Mr. Wilkin’s
building, the Academy held its meetings and exhibitions in a small number
of rooms at Somerset House. Students are admitted on evidence of
sufficient preliminary training, and taught gratuitously; but so far as
the public is concerned, the Royal Academy is chiefly known by its famous
Annual Exhibition of modern English pictures and sculptures, from May to
July. This Exhibition is a very profitable affair to the Academy. Royal
commissions and parliamentary committees find a difficulty in
investigating the revenues, privileges, and claims of the Academy; it is
known, however, that the schools are maintained out of the profits.
Concerning the building in Trafalgar Square, most persons agree that the
main front is too much cut up in petty detail, and that one of the finest
sites in Europe has thus been comparatively neglected. Some have
humorously nicknamed it “The National Cruet Stand.”
National Portrait Gallery.—This infant gallery, established by the nation
in 1857, is now at Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The object is to
be strictly confined to the collecting of a series of national portraits
of persons of any note, whether of early or of late days. A sum of £2000
a-year is voted for this purpose. The collection is yet only small, but
very interesting, and is yearly increasing. Open free on Wednesdays and
Saturdays.
Soane Museum.—This closely-packed collection, presented to the nation by
the late Sir John Soane, the architect, occupies the house which he used
to inhabit, at No. 13, on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Every
nook and corner of about 24 rooms is crowded with works of
art—sarcophagi, ancient gems and intaglios, medals and coins, sculptures,
sketches and models of sculptures, books of prints, portfolios of
drawings, Hogarth’s famous series of pictures of the ‘Rake’s Progress,’
and numerous other examples of _vertu_, some of which cost large sums of
money. The place is open every Wednesday from February to August
inclusive, and every Thursday and Friday in April, May, and June, from 10
till 4. Still, these are very insufficient facilities (only 56 days out
of the 365 in the year) for seeing a fine collection of treasures.
Orders for admission are sent, on application, by post.
Art Exhibitions.—There are always numerous picture exhibitions open in
the summer months—such as those formed by the _British Institution_, the
_Society of British Artists_, the _Society of Painters in Water Colours_,
&c.; concerning which information can be seen in the advertisement
columns of the newspapers. At the British Institution there is a spring
exhibition of modern pictures, and a summer exhibition of ancient. The
price of admission to such places is almost invariably One Shilling.
Other exhibitions, pertaining more to entertainment than to fine arts,
are briefly noticed in a later section.
COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES.
London, as may well be imagined, is largely supplied with institutions
tending to the proper care of the young, the aged, the sick, and the
impoverished. A few of the more important among them are worthy of the
attention of strangers.
Colleges.—The two chief colleges in London are connected with the _London
University_. This University is a body of persons, not (as many suppose)
a building. The body was established in 1837, to confer degrees on the
students or graduates of many different colleges in and about London. It
occupies apartments at Burlington House, Piccadilly, lent by the
government for examining purposes; but it neither teaches nor gives
lectures. _University College_, in Gower Street, was originally called
_London University_; but since 1837, the more limited designation has
been given to it. [Picture: University College] It was founded in 1828,
on the proprietary system, to afford a good middle-class education at a
moderate expense, without limitation as to religious tests. Hence it is
much frequented by Jews, Parsees, Hindoos, &c. The whole range of
college tuition is given, except divinity; with the addition of much
fuller instruction in science and in modern languages than was before
given in colleges. The building, with its lofty portico, might possibly
have presented a good appearance if the plans of the architect had been
carried out; but, through want of funds, the wings have never been built,
and the structure is ridiculously incomplete. The college possesses a
fine collection of casts from Flaxman’s sculptures, usually open to
inspection by strangers. _King’s College_, in the Strand, has been
already mentioned as adjoining Somerset House on the east. It was
founded in the same year as University College, expressly in connection
with the Established Church of England. There was some sectarian
bitterness between the two establishments at first, but both have settled
down into a steady career of usefulness. The teaching of divinity, and
the observance of church-service as part of the routine, are maintained
at King’s College. _Gordon College_, or _University Hall_, in Gordon
Square, is an establishment mainly supported by Unitarians; the building
itself, as a modern imitation of the old red-brick style, is worthy of a
passing glance. _New College_, at St. John’s Wood, for
Congregationalists or Independents; the _Baptist College_, in the
Regent’s Park; the _English Presbyterian Theological College_, Guildford
Street, W.C.; the _Wesleyan College_, in the Horseferry Road; _Hackney
College_; and a few others of less note—are establishments maintained by
various bodies of dissenters; some for educating ministers for the
pulpit; some for training schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. Of the
buildings so occupied, the handsomest is New College. This was
established, a few years ago, as a substitute for _Highbury_, _Homerton_,
and _Coward_ Colleges, all belonging to the Congregationalists. _Gresham
College_: this is not a college in the modern sense of the term; it is
only a lecture-room. Sir Thomas Gresham left an endowment for an annual
series of lectures, and residences and stipends for the lecturers. The
charity was greatly misused during the 17th and 18th centuries. Public
attention having been called to the subject, a new lecture hall was
built, a few years ago, at the corner of Basinghall and Gresham Streets,
out of the accumulated fund; and lectures are delivered here at certain
periods of each year. The subjects are divinity, physic, astronomy,
geometry, law, rhetoric, and music. The lectures take place in the
middle of the day, some in Latin, some in English; they are freely open
to the public; but the auditors, at such an hour and in such a
place—surrounded by the busy hum of commerce—are very few in number.
Among the training colleges for schoolmasters and mistresses may be named
the _National Society’s_ at Battersea; _St. Mark’s Training College_,
Fulham Road; the _Training Institution_ for schoolmistresses, King’s
Road, Chelsea; the _British and Foreign_ in the Borough Road; and the
_Home and Colonial_ in Gray’s Inn Road. At Islington is a Church of
England Training College for missionaries. The _College of Preceptors_,
in Queen Square, resembles the London University in this, that it confers
a sort of degree, or academical rank, but does not teach. Many so-called
colleges are either proprietary or private schools.