On arriving in front of the British Museum for the first time, the
visitor will not fail to notice the Grecian Ionic facade, ornamented
with forty-four columns, and rising at its extreme point to the height
of sixty-six feet. The sculpture which decorates the tympanum of the
portico is the work of Sir Richard Westmacott, and is an allegorical
representation of the progress of civilisation. The spiritual
influences that have successively worked upon the savage natures of
the dark ages, have here distinct types. Religion tames the savage;
Paganism makes him a crouching sensualist; the Egyptian sees a God in
the stars of heaven; and then the mathematician, the musician, the
poet, and the painter set to work, and these prophets of mysterious
beauties realise civilised mankind. The visitor enters the museum,
after ascending a noble flight of steps, by a massive carved oak door,
into a fine entrance hall, the ceiling of which is highly coloured,
and the general decoration of which is Grecian Ionic. Here he will
observe, in addition to one or two of the Nineveh sculptures, at once,
three statues: one of the aristocratic lady sculptor, the Honourable
Mrs. Damer; Chantrey's statue of Sir Joseph Banks; and Roubillac's
study of Shakspeare, presented to the museum by David Garrick. Before
entering the galleries of the museum the visitor should observe, that
the building faces the four points of the compass, and that the facade
forms the southern line. This observation will facilitate a careful
and regular examination of the interior. Branching westward from the
entrance hall, then eastward to the gallery, is a noble flight of
seventy steps, the walls of the staircase being richly inlaid with
marble. Having ascended this staircase, the visitor's attention is at
once arrested by two stuffed giraffes--the giraffe of North Africa,
and the giraffe of South Africa, given to the museum by the late Earl
of Derby. These striking zoological specimens at once introduce the
visitor to