1 Chap. 1. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH retaries of State, (10) the Lord Steward, (11) the BOOK II, ns. 26 Geo. II, c. 22, Clauses 4-8. e first three of these Official Trustees Parliament Act of following fifteen persons were the first elected , under the Act of 1753:-The Duke of Argyle, the Northumberland, Lord Willoughby of Parham, Lord Cavendish, the Honourable Philip Yorke, Sir George 1, Sir John Evelyn, James West, Nicholas Hardinge, Sloane, William Sotheby, Charles Grey, the ReDr. Thomas Birch, James Ward, and William Wathe first meeting of the Trustees under the Act was he Cockpit, Whitehall, on the 17th of December, rst 'Principal Librarian'* was Dr. Gowin KNIGHT, r of the College of Physicians, and eminent, in his rm 'Librarian,' as used at the British Museum, has never y special connection with the Books, printed or manuscript. epers of Departments were, originally, called 'Under LibraGeneral Superintendent or Warden has always been called Librarian.' Records of British MS. ADDIT., 6179. Воок ІІ, Chap. I. EARLY HISTORY OF THE BRITISH day, as a cultivator of experimental science. Some magnetic apparatus of his construction and gift was placed in the Museum soon after its opening, and attracted, in its day, much attention. He received the appointment after a keen competition with the more widely-known physician and botanist, Sir John HILL. The first three 'Keepers of Departments' were Dr. Matthew MATY, Dr. Charles MORTON, and Mr. James EMPSON. Dr. KNIGHT retained his post until 1772. MATY and MORTON Succeeded in turn to the office of Principal Librarian, and their respective services will have a claim to notice hereafter. EMPSON had been the valued servant and friend of Sir Hans SLOANE. He is the only officer whose name appears in SLOANE'S Will. He had served him as Keeper of the Museum at Chelsea for many years. There is, in one of the letters of Horace WALPOLE to Sir Horace MANN, an amusing account of an initiatory meeting of the original Trustees, held prior to their formal constitution by Parliament. It is marked by the writer's usual superciliousness towards all hobbies, except the dilettante hobby which he himself was wont to ride so hard. I employ my time chiefly, at present,' he wrote to MANN, in February, 1753, 'in the guardianship of embryos and cockle shells. Sir Hans SLOANE valued his Museum at eighty thousand pounds, and so would anybody who loves hippopotamuses, sharks with one ear, and spiders as big as geese. . . We are a charming wise set-all Philosophers, Botanists, Antiquarians, and Mathematicians-and adjourned our first meeting because Lord MACCLESFIELD, our Chairman, was engaged in a party for finding out the Longitude.' BOOK II, HISTORY OF ne of our number,' continues WALPOLE, 'is a Morawho signs himself Henry XXVIII, Count de The Moravians have settled a colony at Chelsea, Hans' neighbourhood, and I believe he intended to MUSEUM. ount Henry the Twenty-Eighth's skeleton for his m.' This distinguished foreigner does not appear parliamentary list. Chairman of the preliminary meeting so airily ed by WALPOLE, continued, under the definitive conon of the Trust, to take a leading part in its admion. It appears to have been by Lord MACCLESFIELD e original 'Statutes and Bye-laws' of the Museum, y of them, were drafted.' LATIONS FOR AND STUDY. 1759-1803. he form in which they were first issued, in 1759, THE REGU tatutes directed that the Museum should be kept ADMISSION ery day in the week, except Saturday and Sunday.' ⇒ greater part of the year the public hours were from clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afterOn certain days, in the summer months, the open were from four o'clock in the afternoon until eight— ■ meet the requirements of persons actively engaged ness during the early part of the day. But the pubas hampered by a system of admission-tickets which be applied for on a day precedent to that of every d visit. The application had first to be made, then ed; a second application had to follow, in order to the ticket; and the ticket could rarely be used at of receiving it. So that, in practice, each visit to seum had commonly to be preceded by two visits to MS. ADDIT., rter's Lodge.' visitors were admitted in parties, at the prescribed and were conducted through the Museum by its according to a routine which, practically and usually, 6179, ff. 36, seqq. BOOK II, HISTORY OF Statutes and allowed to each group of visitors only one hour for the inspection of the whole. Special arrangements, however, were made for those who resorted to the Museum for purposes of study. To such, say the statutes, a particular room is allotted, in which they may read or write without interruption during the time the Museum is kept open.' The aggregate number of persons admitted as visitors— MS. ADDIT, exclusive of students-was, for some years, restricted to sixty persons, as a maximum, in any one day. 6179, as above. In order to give the reader a definite and clear idea of what was seen, in 1759, by the earliest visitors to the British Museum, in its rudimentary state, some sort of ground plan is essential, but the merest outline will suffice for the purpose. There were at Montagu House two floors or stories of state apartments. The upper floor was that which was first shown, after the formation of the Museum. The visitor, having ascended the superb staircase painted by LA FOSSE, passed through a vestibule and grand saloon (A B) furnished with various antiquities, into the 'Cottonian Library' (C), and thence into the Harleian Library,' which occupied three rooms (D, E, and F). He then entered the 'Medal Room '-containing the coins and medals of the SLOANE and COTTON collections (G); the SLOANE Manuscript Room' (H); and the room containing the chief part of the antiquities (1)— |