useum walls continues, as of old, to be 'the King's BOOK II, name is the less appropriate from its tendency to inaccurate idea of the contents of the King's gift, as from its disregard of the origin of the Collection. acts' include the most ponderous theological quartos er came from an English press as well as the tiniest 1, or the fugitive circular which called together a ittee of Sequestrators' at Wallingford House. Chap. I. THE BRITISH THOMASON AND HIS LABOURS. ge THOMASON, its collector, was an eminent London GEORGE moment. He failed, of course, to secure everyut his endeavour was wonderfully successful, on the He also gathered many manuscripts which no printer and dared to put into type. And he obtained a nber of political and historical pieces, bearing on affairs, which had issued from foreign presses; thors being sometimes foreign observers of the but more frequently British refugees. LES THE FIRST Congratulated THOMASON on the his idea. More than once the King was able to HET” IS PICSE by bring some tract or other which my ur xilærar vis vi possess. The Parliament, nevile, vis är from wiring any literary sympathies Some of its leaders loved freedom of ETS VIM I vissa be a channel for urging forviri der peelar fretines and as, but had the gravest joutes stem is poly via i manifestly helped their sepedents and gre back bow for bow. The Thomason Collection" came 2 be viewed, at length, much in the light L with suders view an enemy's battery. If it could be aptured and scared off, some of the pieces might be mated ginst de enemy. If the attempt at complete apture send starry, a sudden sally might at least emble de silents to destroy what they had failed to Hence it was that the poor Collector came to be in such sure sent the possible fate of his treasures that he had them repeated y packed into cases, and, as the successes of the war veered to and in sent them, at one time, far to the south of London; sa mother me, as far to the east; now, smuggled them, concealed between the real and false tops of tables, inte a diir warehouse; and anon made a colourable sale of them to the University of Oxford. When the King enjoyed his own again, the Collection was offered, as fit to be made a royal one. It contained more than thirty-three thousand separate publications-bound in about 2.200 volumes-issued between 1640 and 1662 inclusive. But CHARLES THE SECOND was busied with pursuits having little to do with any kind of learning, and was ill inclined, as we have seen already, to burden his Treasury for the enrichment of his Library Sir Thomas BODLEY'S Trustees at Oxford refused the offer, in their turn, under a very different but scarcely less obstructive Chap. I. HISTORY OF e. Their excellent founder had formed peculiar Book II, ingent views about the literature worthy of a great EARLY ity. He had warned them against stuffing his THE BRITISH with 'mere baggage books.' And so future MUSEUM. n curators had, in another age, to buy with large otes many things which their predecessors could ught with small silver coins ;-just as in the story. it is said, refused His ultimate suc QUIREMENT infortunate Collection went a-begging. The books rom hand to hand, somewhat, it would seem, by pledge or mortgage. They had cost a large sum y, and a larger amount of toil. When his expectare at their best the first owner, housands of pounds for them. n the possession were glad, in 1762, to accept, at THE ACls of King GEORGE THE THIRD, three hundred The purchase was recommended to him by Thomas COLLECTION and also by Lord BUTE, as a serviceable addition wly founded Museum. As all readers now know, gely subserved our history already. It is not less hat the Thomason Collection' embodies a store of on yet unused. OF THE BY GEORGE 1762. BRANDER ext augmentor of the Museum was one of its THE Gustavus BRANDER, distinguished as a promoter Fossus. science, and more especially of mineralogy and logy in the early stages of their study in England. 1766. cable collection of fossils found in Hampshire, in on Clay, was given by Mr. BRANDER to the Public, ing been, at his cost, carefully examined and by Dr. SOLANDER. It was the first notable conto the grand series of specimens in paleontology their combination, have made the British Museum Воок ІІ, Chap. I. HISTORY OF MUSEUM. ACCESSIONS AGES OF DISCOVERY. 1760-1820. the most important of all repositories in that department of science. To the Zoological Collections, the additions made, whether by gift or by purchase-save as the result, more or less direct, of 'Voyages of Discovery,' which will be noticed presently—were for many years very unimportant. The first purchase worthy of record was a collection of stuffed birds, formed in Holland, and acquired, in 1769, for four hundred and sixty pounds. This purchase was made by the Trust. The reign of GEORGE THE THIRD is marked by very few characteristics which are more honourable, both to King and people, than is its long series of expeditions to remote countries made expressly, or mainly, for purposes of geographical and scientific discovery, and extending over almost the whole of the reign. Scarcely one voyage of the long series failed to bring, FROM VOY directly or indirectly, some valuable accession or other to the Collection of Natural History. Sometimes such accessions came to the Museum as the gifts of the navigators and explorers themselves. In this class of donors the name of Captain James Cook,* and that of Archibald MENZIES, occur both early and frequently. Sometimes they came as the gifts of the Board of Admiralty. Sometimes, again,— and not infrequently-as those of the King, who, in his best days, took a keen interest in enterprise of this kind, and delighted in talking with the captains of the discovery ships about their adventures, and about the marvels of the far-off lands they had been among the first to see. Nor did the King stand alone in his active encouragement of remote ex * One of Cook's many individual gifts was the first Kangaroo ever brought into Europe. Chap. I. THE BRITISH ns. Many of the great and wealthy nobles gave Book II, s furtherance to them, and were equally ready to EARLY wailable for scientific study the new specimens which TORTOS os brought home. In this way, for example, the MUSEUM. ss of ROCKINGHAM gave to the Museum a curious n of reptiles gathered in Surinam. e same manner was furnished that minor, but very and instructive, collection illustrating the rude arts des of life of the newly explored countries, which t among us can remember as occupying the 'South m' of the old house. In the course of years it be eclipsed by much better collections of the same ewhere, and so to wear a meagre and somewhat aspect. But it had rendered good service in its day, the germ of what will become, it may be hoped, in e, an ethnological collection worthy of a seafaring THE GROWTH OF THE TIONS. gards the Natural History Collections, the growth EPOCRS IN useum may be said to have been mainly dependent Voyages of Discovery for more than forty years. HISTORY rce of improvement seems to mark, distinctively, COLLEC epoch in the history of those collections. Then econd epoch, marked by some approach to systeprovement, in all branches, by means of the purentire private collections as opportunity offered. period may be dated from the acquisition of the and other gatherings of Sir Joseph BANKS in 1827. h's splendid gift was soon followed by so many s-sometimes as donations, more frequently as -that for many years the liberality of benefactors psed the liberality of Parliament. Only of late years said that the public support of the Natural History is has been worthy, either of the Nation or of their |
