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CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

'A Museum of Nature does not aim, like one of Art, merely to charm the eye and gratify the sense of beauty and of grace.

'As the purpose of a Museum of Natural History is to impart and diffuse that knowledge which begets the right spirit in which all Nature should be viewed, there ought to be no partiality for any particular class, merely on account of the quality which catches and pleases the passing gaze. Such a Museum should subserve the instruction of a People; and should also afford objects of study and comparison to professed Naturalists, so as to serve as an instrument in the progress of Science.'RICHARD OWEN, On a National Museum of

Natural History, pp. 10; 11; 115.

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unting.—The Removal of the Sloane Museum from
helsea. Montagu House, and its History. The
arly Trustees and Officers.—The Museum Regulations.
-Early Helpers in the Foundation and Increase of
e British Museum.-Epochs in the Growth of the
atural History Collections.-Experiences of Inquiring
Esitors in the years
1765-1784.

Chap. I.

HISTORY OF
THE BRITISIL

practical good sense which had always been a Book II, characteristic in the life of Sir Hans SLOANE is EARLY st as plainly in those clauses of his Will by which es much latitude, in respect of means and agencies, MUSEUM. Hiscretion of his Executors and Trustees. It is seen, nple, when, after reciting some views of his own as methods by which his Museum should be maintained

BOOK II,
Chap. I.

HISTORY OF

MUSEUM.

for public use, he adds the proviso-'in such manner as EARLY they (the Trustees) shall think most likely to answer the THE BRITISH public benefit by me intended.' He had a love for the old Manor House at Chelsea, and contemplated, as it seems, with some special complacency, the maintenance there of the Collections which had added so largely to the pleasures of his own fruitful life. But he was careful not to tie down his Trustees to the continuance of the Museum at Chelsea, as a condition of his bounty. They were at liberty to assent to its removal, should the balance of public advantage seem to them to point towards removal.

Duke of

to Duke of Shrewsbury.

Chelsea was in that day a quiet suburban village, distant from the heart of London. As the site of a Museum it had many advantages, but it was, comparatively and to the mass of visitors and students, a long way off. The Trustees assented to a generally expressed opinion that whilst the new institution ought not to be placed in any of the highways of traffic, it ought to be nearer to them than it would be, if continued in its then abode.

One of the first places offered for their choice was the old Buckingham House (now the royal palace). It was already a large and handsome structure. The charm of its position, at that time, was not unduly boasted of in the golden letters of the inscription conspicuous upon its entablature

a

'Sic siti lætantur lares.'

Edmund, Its prospects, as described not very long before by the Buckingham, late ducal owner, 'presented to view at once a vast town, palace, and a cathedral, on one side; and, on the other sides, two parks, and a great part of Surrey.' Its fine gardens ended in a little wilderness, full of blackbirds and nightingales.' Yet it was close to the Court end of the town. But the price was thirty thousand pounds.

H

BOOK II,
EARLY

Chap. I.

HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH
MUSEUM.

HOUSE AND
ITS HISTORY.

other offer was that of Montagu House at Blooms-
Less charmingly placed, and architecturally less
g in appearance than was its rival, both its situation
s plan were better fitted for the purposes of a public
m. It stood, it is true, on the extreme verge of the MONTAGU
n of that day. Northward, there was nothing
en it and the distant village of Highgate, save an
e of fields and hedgerows. And for a long distance,
the east and the west, no part of London had yet
beyond it, except an outlying hospital or two. But
vere already indications that the town would extend
t northerly direction, more quickly than in almost
her. The house had seven and-a-half acres of garden
rubberies; and its price was but ten thousand, two
ed and fifty pounds.

tagu House had been built about sixty years before
ph MONTAGU, first Duke of Montagu. A spacious
separated the house from Great Russell Street,
s which it presented to view only a screen of pan-
brickwork, having a massive gateway and cupola in
ntre, and turreted wings, masking the domestic
at either end. The house itself was rather stately
eautiful, but its chief rooms and its grand staircase
aborately painted by the best French artists of the
And the appendant offices were more than usually

ve.

ood on the site of a structure of much greater archiI pretensions, erected for the same owner, only years before, from the designs of Robert HOOKE first Montagu House had been burned to the

offer of Montagu House was accepted by the Trusid approved by the Government. It was found

BOOK II,
Chap. I.
EARLY

HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH
MUSEUM.

CONSTITU

MUSEUM

TRUST.

needful to make considerable alterations in order to adapt the building to its new uses. This outlay increased the eventual cost of the mansion, and of its appliances and fittings, to somewhat more than twenty-three thousand pounds. The adaptation, with the removal and re-arrangement of the Collections, occupied nearly five years. It was not until the beginning of the year 1759 that the Museum was opened for public inspection. When removed to Bloomsbury, it was but brought back to within a few hundred yards of its first abode.

We have seen that according to the plan for the governTION OF THE ment of the institution which SLOANE had sketched in his Codicil of July, 1749, there would have been a Board of Visitors as well as a Board of Trustees. But, by the foundation Statute, enacted in 1753, both of these Boards were incorporated into one. Forty-one Trustees were constituted, with full powers of management and control. Six of these were representatives of the several families of COTTON, HARLEY, and SLOANE, the head, or nearest in lineal succession, of each family having the nomination, from time to time, of such representatives or 'Family Trustees,' when, by death or otherwise, vacancies should occur. Twenty were 'Official' Trustees, in accordance, so far, with SLOANE's scheme for the constitution of his Board of Visitors; and by these two classes, conjointly, the other fifteen Trustees were to be elected.

The Official Trustees were to be the holders for the time being of the following offices :-(1) The Archbishop of Canterbury, (2) the Lord Chancellor, (3) the Speaker of the House of Commons, (4) the Lord President of the Council, (5) the First Lord of the Treasury, (6) the Lord Privy Seal, (7) the First Lord of the Admiralty, (8 and 9)

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