THE FOUNDERS

OF THE

BRITISH MUSEUM;

WITH

NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS

AND OTHER BENEFACTORS.

1570-1870.

BY EDWARD EDWARDS.

RODLE

PART II.

LONDON:

TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1870.

(All rights reserved.)

258. a. 124

PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

CHAPTER III.

A GROUP OF BOOK-LOVERS AND PUBLIC

BENEFACTORS.

'If we were to take away from the Museum Collection
[of Books] the King's Library, and the collection which
George the Third gave before that, and then the
magnificent collection of Mr. Cracherode, as well as
those of Sir William Musgrave, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir
Richard Colt Hoare, and many others,-and also all the
books received under the Copyright Act,-if we were to
take away all the books so given, I am satisfied not one
half of the books [in 1836], nor one third of the value of
the Library, has been procured with money voted by the
Nation. The Nation has done almost nothing for the
Library.

Considering the British Museum to be a National
Library for research, its utility increases in proportion
with the very rare and costly books, in preference to
modern books.
I think that scholars have a right
to look, for these expensive works, to the Government of
the Country..

'I want a poor student to have the same means of in-
dulging his learned curiosity,-of following his rational
pursuits, of consulting the same authorities,-of fathom-
ing the most intricate inquiry,-as the richest man in the
kingdom, as far as books go. And I contend that Govern-
ment is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited
assistance in this respect. I want the Library of the
British Museum to have books of both descriptions..

When you have given a hundred thousand pounds,-in ten or twelve years,-you will begin to have a library worthy of the British Nation.'—

ANTONIO PANIZZI-Eridence before Select Committee

on British Museum, 7th June, 1836. (Q. 4785-4795.)

Notices of some early Donors of Books.-The Life and Collections of Clayton Mordaunt CRACHERODE.-William PETTY, first Marquess of Lansdowne, and his Library of Manuscripts.-The Literary Life and Collections of Dr. Charles BURNEY.-Francis HARGRAVE and his Manuscripts.-The Life and Testamentary Foundations of Francis Henry EGERTON, Ninth Earl of Bridgewater.

BOOK II,

Chap. III.

THE Reader has now seen that, within some twelve or fifteen years, a Collection of Antiquities, comparatively small BOOKand insignificant, was so enriched as to gain the aspect of a PUBLIC National Museum of which all English-speaking men might BENEFAC

LOVERS AND

TORS.

BOOK II,
Chap. III.

Воок

LOVERS AND
PUBLIC
BENEFAC-

TORS.

be proud, and mere fragments of which enlightened Foreign Sovereigns were under sore temptation to covet. He has seen, also, that the praise of so striking a change was due, in the main, to the public spirit and the liberal endeavours of a small group of antiquarians and scholars. They were, most of them, men of high birth, and of generous education. They were, in fact, precisely such men as, in the jargon of our present day, it is too much the mode to speak of as the antitheses of the People,' although in earlier days men of that strain were thought to be part of the very core and kernel of a nation.

But if it be undeniably true that the chief and primary merit of so good a piece of public service was due to the HAMILTONS, TOWNELEYS, ELGINS, and KNIGHTS of the last generation, it is also true that the Public, through their representatives, did, at length, join fairly in the work by bearing their part of the cost, though they could share neither the enterprise, the self-denial, nor the wearing toils, which the work had exacted.

Now that the story turns to another department of the National Museum, we find that the same primary and salient characteristic-private liberality of individuals, as distinguished from public support by the Kingdom-still holds good. But we have to wait a very long time indeed, before we perceive public effort at length falling into rank with private, in the shape of parliamentary grants for the purchase of books, calculated even upon a rough approximation towards equality.

AS COTTON, SLOANE, HARLEY, and Arthur EDWARDS, were the first founders of the Library, so BIRCH, MUSGRAVE, TYRWHITT, CRACHERODE, BANKS, and HOARE, were its chief augmentors, until almost ninety years had elapsed since the Act of Organization. Of the Collections of those

Chap. III.

LOVERS AND

ten benefactors, eight came by absolute gift. For the other BOOK II, two, much less than one half of their value was returned to Bookthe representatives of the founders. And that, it has been PUBLIC shown, was provided, not by a parliamentary grant, but out BENEFACof the profits of a lottery.

TORS.

The first important addition to the Library, subsequent to those gifts which have been mentioned in a preceding chapter as nearly contemporaneous with the creation of the Museum, was made by the Will of Dr. Thomas BIRCH, one BEQUEST OF of the original Trustees. It comprised a valuable series of BIRCH, manuscripts, rich in collections on the history, and espe- 1768. cially the biographical history, of the realm, and a considerable number of printed books of a like character.

Dr. BIRCH was born in 1705, and died on the ninth of January, 1766. He was one of the many friends of Sir Hans SLOANE, in the later years of Sir Hans' life. When the Museum was in course of organization, BIRCH acted not only as a zealous Trustee, but he occasionally supplied the place of Dr. MORTON as Secretary. His literary productions have real and enduring value, though their value would probably have been greater had their number been less. His activity is sufficiently evidenced by the works which he printed, but can only be measured when the large manuscript collections which he bequeathed are taken into the account. Very few scholars will now be inclined to echo Horace WALPOLE's inquiry-made when he saw the Catalogue of the Birch MSS.-' Who cares for the correspondence of Dr. BIRCH ?'

DR. THOMAS

January,

DAVID

Soon after the receipt of the BIRCH Collection, a choice BEQUEST OF assemblage of English plays was bequeathed to the Museum by David GARRICK. Its formation had been one of the January, favourite relaxations of the great actor. And the study of

1779.