Chap. III. and are gladly made available, by their owners for BOOK II, me being, to the use of persons able and willing to by them. He also founded a Library, likewise by f heirloom, at Ashridge. ilst the National Library was thus being gradually im1, both by increased liberality on the part of Parliaand, far more largely, by the munificent gifts of duals, other departments of the Museum had not been ted. Book- BENEFAC- SITION OF GREVILLE MINERALS; rles GREVILLE, the nephew of Sir William HAMILTON, THE ACQUIollected, in his residence at Paddington Green, a THE cabinet of minerals. It was the finest assemblage of d which had yet been seen in England. For the se of this Collection Parliament made a grant, in the 310, of thirteen thousand seven hundred and twentyounds. OF THE MON- SEUM ; 1816, a valuable accession came to the zoological ment, by the purchase, for the sum of eleven hundred , of a Collection of British Zoology, which had been at Knowle, in Devonshire, by Colonel George III, c. I.] The Montagu Collection was especially rich in GU. years later, the Library was further benefited, in the gift, by a choice Italian Collection, gathered and y Sir Richard Colt HOARE, of Stourhead; and, in of Parliamentary grant, by the acquisition of the n of manuscripts, coins, and other antiquities, which n made in the East, during his years of Consulship dad, by Claudius James RICH. ichard HOARE was not less distinguished for the d judgment with which he had collected the histerature of Italy, than for the zeal and ability with after, Book AND OF THE COLLEC R. C. HOARE BOOK II, LOVERS AND TORS. COLLECTIONS OF CLAUDIUS RICH. [See, hereafter, Book III, c. 3.] which he cultivated, both as author and as patron, the-in Britain too much neglected department of provincial topography. He had spent nearly five years in Italy-partly during the reign of NAPOLEON-and amassed a very fine collection of books illustrative of all departments of Italian history. In 1825, Sir Richard presented this Collection to the Trustees of the British Museum in these words :-Anxious to follow the liberal example of our gracious monarch GEORGE THE FOURTH, of Sir George BEAUMONT, . and of Richard Payne KNIGHT (though in a very humble degree), I do give unto the British Museum my Collection of Topography, made during a residence of five years abroad; and hoping that the more modern publications may be added to it hereafter.' The Library so given included about seventeen hundred and thirty separate works. Sir Richard did something, himself, to secure the fulfilment of the annexed wish, by adding to his first gift, made in 1825, in subsequent years. The researches of Claudius RICH merit some special notice. He may be regarded as the first explorer of Assyria. Had it not been for his early death, it is very probable that he might have anticipated some of the brilliant discoveries of Mr. LAYARD. But his quickly intercepted researches will be best described, in connection with the later explorations in the same field. Here it may suffice to say that from Mr. RICH's representatives a Collection of Manuscripts, extending to eight hundred and two volumes— Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish-was obtained, by purchase, in 1825, together with a small Collection of Coins and miscellaneous antiquities. To the Oriental Manuscripts of RICH, an important addition was made in the course of the same year by the Herr's Our bequest of Mr. John Fowler HULL-another distinguished HULL'S ORI Chap. III. talist who passed from amongst us at an early age- BOOK II, lso bequeathed a Collection of Oriental and Chinese BOOKed books. Mr. HULL's legacy was the small beng of that Chinese Library which has now become so LOVERS AND PUBLIC TORS. POLITAN was also in the year 1825 that Sir Gore OUSELEY THE PERSE ted a Collection of Marbles obtained from Persepolis. MARBLES. will be mentioned hereafter in connection with the arian explorations of Claudius RICH and his sucs. The donor of the Persepolitan Marbles died on ghteenth of November, 1844. OF THE addition to these many liberal benefactions made HISTORY the earlier years of the present century, a smaller PORTLAND irtually a gift, though in name a deposit') of the VASE." period claims brief notice, on account both of its è value and of its curious history. I refer to that te monument of ancient art known, for many years, 'Barberini Vase,' but now more commonly as the and Vase,' from the name of its last individual sor. vase is one of the innumerable acquisitions which intry owes to the intelligent research and cultivated f Sir William HAMILTON. It had been found more century before his time (probably in the year 1640), the Monte del Grano, about three miles from on the road to Tusculum. The place of the diswas a sepulchral chamber, within which was found a agus containing the vase, and bearing an inscription nemory of the Emperor ALEXANDER SEVERUS (4.D. 5) and to his mother. About this sarcophagus and ription there have been dissertations and rejoinders, and commentaries, illustrative and obscurative, in Book II, PUBLIC Correspondence of Mrs. Delany, vol. ii (in many places). sufficient number to immortalise half a dozen Jonathan OLDBUCKS and 'Antigonus' MAC-CRIBBS. And the controversy is still undetermined. After having been long a conspicuous ornament of the Barberini Palace, the 'Barberini Vase' was bought by HAMILTON. When, in December, 1784, he paid one of his visits to England, the vase came with him. Its fame had previously excited the desires of many virtuosi. By the Duchess of PORTLAND it was so strongly coveted, that she employed a niece of Sir William to conduct a negotiation with much more solemnity and mystery than the ambassador would have thought needful in conducting a critical Treaty of Peace. The Duchess's precautions foiled the curiosity of not a few of her fellow-collectors in virtû. 'I have heard,' wrote Horace WALPOLE, that Sir W. HAMILTON's renowned vase, which had disappeared with so much mystery, is again recovered; not in the tomb, but the treasury, of the Duchess of PORTLAND, in which, I fancy, it had made ample room for itself. Sir William told me it would never go out of England. I do not see how he could warrant that. The Duchess and Lord Edward have both shown how little stability there is in the riches of that family.' As yet, Lady Upper- the reader will remember, that Portland Estate,' which August, 1785. was so profitably to turn farms into streets, was but in expectancy. H. Walpole to Ossory, 10 (Cunn. Edit., vol. ix, p. 3.) And then WALPOLE adds: My family has felt how insecure is the permanency of heir-looms,'—the thought of that grand 'Houghton Gallery,' and its transportation to Russia, coming across his memory, whilst telling Lady UPPER-OSSORY the story of the coveted vase, just imported from the Barberini Palace at Rome. The Duchess of PORTLAND enjoyed the sight of her beautiful purchase only during a few weeks. It was bought Chap. III. LOVERS AND the family (at the nominal price of £1029*) at the BOOK II, of her famous museum of curiosities-a sale extending Bookore than four thousand lots-and twenty-four years PUBLIC vards, it was lent, for exhibition (1810), by the third BENEFACe of PORTLAND, to the Trustees of the British Museum, e it has since remained. the hen WEDGWOOD set about imitating the Portland in his manufactory at Etruria-for which purpose Duke liberally lent it to him--he discovered that the had been broken and skilfully put together again. it had been publicly exhibited during almost thirtyears in London, the frenzy of a maniac led-as it ed at the moment-to its utter destruction. But, y by the singular skill and patience of the late John LEDAY (a craftsman attached to the Department of uities for many years), it was soon restored to its priseauty. That one act of violence in 1845 is the only ce of very serious injury arising from open exhibition. comers which the annals of the Museum record. race Walpole, at this sale, purchased the fine MS., with drawings TORS. |