effective in sculpture." The crocodile is emblematic of the cruelty of man in savage life, the tortoise of his slow progress to civilisation. The figure of Astronomy is 12 feet high, and weighs between 7 and 8 tons. The several figures are executed in Portland-stone, and the decorative accessories are gilt.

The ornamental gates and railing inclosing the courtyard were commenced in model by Lovati, who died before he had made much progress; they were completed by Mr. Thomas and Messrs. Collmann and Davis. The railing-spears painted dark copper, with the heads gilt, and with an ornamented band-is raised upon a granite curb. In the centre of the railing is a grand set of carriage-gates and footentrances, strengthened by fluted columns with composite capitals, richly gilt, surmounted by vases. The frieze is wholly of hammered iron the remainder of the iron-work is cast from metal moulds, and was chiefly piece-moulded, in order to obtain relief. The carriage-gates are moved by a windlass, both sides opening simultaneously. Each half of these gates weighs upwards of five tons. The height of the ironwork is 9 feet to the top rail: the length of the whole palisade is about 800 feet. The metal-work was contracted for by Walker, of York, and cost nearly 8000l. Upon the granite gate-piers are to be placed sitting statues of Bacon and Newton, and upon the two end piers Milton and Shakspeare; the four statues by Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A. The buildings have cost upwards of 800,000l.

As you stand beneath the portico, the effect is truly majestic, and you are impressed with the feeling that this is a noble institution of a great country. The principal entrance is by a carved oak door, 9 feet 6 inches in width, and 24 feet in height. The hall is Grecian-Doric. The ceiling, trabeated and deeply coffered, is enriched with Greek frets and other ornaments in various colours, painted in encaustic. Here are three marble statues: the Hon. Mrs. Damer, holding a small figure of the Genius of the Thames; Shakspeare, by Roubiliac; and Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., by Chantrey. The statue of Shakspeare was bequeathed by Garrick to the Museum after the death of his widow; the statue of Sir Joseph Banks was presented by his personal friends.

East of the hall is the Manuscripts Department; west, the principal staircase (with carved vases of Huddlestone stone), and a gallery which forms the approach to the Collection of Antiquities.

At the top of this staircase commence the Natural History Rooms, which occupy the upper eastern portion of the south front, and the whole of the eastern and northern sides of the quadrangle. In the remainder of the upper floor are the smaller Egyptian Antiquities; Greek Vases and Bronzes; the Ethnographical Collection; and the Coins and Medals.

On the lower floor, the eastern portion of the south front, and part of the east wing, is the Library of Manuscripts. The remainder of the east side, and the whole of the northern side of the quadrangle, are occupied by the Printed Books.

In the ground-floor of all the buildings to the west of the quadrangle are the more massive Egyptian Antiquities; the Greek and Roman Marbles, including the Towneley, Elgin, and Phigaleian; the Assyrian Sculptures; the Lycian Antiquities; and the Canning Marbles.

In the basement of the north-west corner is the general Collection of Insects; and in the apartments above are Prints and Drawings. All that we shall attempt here will be to describe the leading Curiosities of the several collections.

ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS, only second to that in the Museum at Paris, are contained in three galleries: the beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, in the wall-cases; shells, corals, sea-eggs, star-fish, crustacea, and insects, in the table-cases.

Central Saloon-Antelopes, goats, and sheep; horns of oxen; on the floor are giraffes from North and South Africa, the African rhinoceros, Manilla buffalo, and the walrus.

Southern Zoological Gallery-Oxen, deer, camels, llamas, horses, swine, armadillos, manises, and sloths; horns of antelopes; elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and wild oxen. The aurochs, or shaggymaned Lithuanian bison, presented by the Emperor of Russia, is said to be the finest specimen of stuffing in the Museum. Above the bison of the prairies is the ornithorhyncus, with a bird-like bill,—the watermole of Australia.

Mammalia Saloon-Old World monkeys, including the chimpanzee, closely resembling man; New World monkeys, including the howlers; lemurs; feræ, a black leopard, which killed its keeper; the bear tribe; a Mexican lapdog, very minute; marsupials, or pouched animals, from Australia; cete, or whale-like animals. Corals in the table-cases; above are the sword-fish, sturgeon, and conger.

Eastern Zoological Gallery, 300 feet long and 50 feet wide, contains a magnificent collection of stuffed birds in the wall-cases, and their eggs in table-cases; horns of deer, and a fine collection of shells. Here is a Reeves's Chinese pheasant (tail-feathers 5 ft. 6 in. long); and next the ostriches are a Dutch painting of the extinct dodo, a foot of the bird supposed to be more than two and a half centuries old, and a cast of the head; also, a specimen of the rare apteryx, or wingless bird of New Zealand.

Above the wall-cases are 116 portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, heroes, travellers, and men of science,-a few from the Sloanean and Cottonian collections: including two portraits of Oliver Cromwell (one a copy from an original possessed by a great-grandson of Cromwell; the other an original presented by Cromwell himself to Nath. Rich, a colonel in the parliamentary army, and bequeathed to the Museum, in 1784, by Sir Robert Rich, Bart.); three portraits of Mary Queen of Scots; Richard II., Edward III., Henry V., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and II., &c.; three portraits of Sir Hans Sloane; Peter I. of Russia, Stanislaus Augustus I. of Poland, Charles XII. of Sweden, and Louis XIV. of France; Lord Bacon; the poets Pope and Prior; Dr. John Ray, the first great English naturalist; George Buchanan, 1581, on panel; Sir Francis Drake and Captain Dampier; Martin Luther, 1546, on panel; Guttenberg, the inventor of printing; Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist; Vesalius, by Sir Antonio More; Mary Davis, 1688, "ætatis 74," with a horn-like wen on her head; Sir Robert Cotton, Dr. Birch, Humphrey Wanley, Sir H. Spelman, and Sir H. Dugdale; Camden, on panel; Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal-man; Andrew Marvell, said to be the only portrait extant of him; &c. This is, probably, the largest collection of portraits in the kingdom: many are ill-painted, others very curious, and some unique; the majority of them had long lain in the lumber-lofts of the old Museum, when they were hung up, chiefly at the suggestion of the late Mr. William Smith, print collector, of Lisle-street. A very interesting catalogue raisonnée of these pictures appeared in the Times, Nov. 27 and Dec. 8, 1838.

Northern Zoological Gallery contains five rooms. 1. Bats, and nests of birds and insects; annulose animals; and shells. 2. Lizards, snakes and serpents, tortoises and turtles, crocodiles and amphisbænas, batrachian animals, sea-eggs, star-fish, &c. 3. The British zoological collection. 4. Exotic bony fish, insects, and crustacea (to be seen every Tuesday and Friday): here are the praying-mantis, walking-leaf, and a Brazilian wasp's-nest. 5. Sharks, torpedoes, rays. sponges, &c. The Collection of Insects is as extensive as the entomological collection at Paris. Over the wall-cases are the Herschel pike-fish, from the Cape of Good Hope; the sudia, from Berbice; and the bony pike, from North America.

MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.-North Gallery-General collection of Minerals (mostly on Berzelius's system), in four rooms: mass of

meteoric iron (1400lbs.) from Buenos Ayres; native silver from Konsberg; trunk of a tree converted into semi-opal; large mass of Websterite from Newhaven; tortoise sculptured in nephrite, or jade, from the banks of the Jumna; Esquimaux knife and harpoon, of meteoric iron; a large collection of meteoric stones chronologically arranged. Here, also, are diamonds of various forms, and models of celebrated diamonds. The collection is superior to any in Europe, and includes a splendid cabinet of minerals from the Harz Mountains, formerly preserved in the Observatory at Richmond.

Fossils, in six rooms: 1. Vegetables; ferns and palmæ, fossil wood and sandstone, with supposed footmarks of animals when the stone was in a semi-fluid state. 2. The megatherium from Buenos Ayres, gigantic tortoise, and bones of extinct dinornis. 3. Frog, tortoise, and crocodile fossils: gigantic salamander, mistaken for a human skeleton; remains of iguanodon, 70 feet long, from Tilgate Forest, Sussex; of the hylæosaurus, or wealden lizard; and the plesiosaurus. 4. Large specimens of ichthyosaurus; hyena remains from the Torquay and Kirkdale caverns; phlascotherium Bucklandi, from the great oolite, Stonesfield, Oxon. 5. Fossil fishes, arranged after Agassiz; skull of the sivatherium; teeth of rhinoceros, found in Essex; complete skeleton of the large extinct Irish elk. 6. Remains of dinotherium (18 feet high), mastodon, and elephant; cast of the skeleton of the megatherium Americanum, found in Buenos Ayres; fossil human skeleton from Guadaloupe, &c. In Saurian Fossils the Museum is eminently rich; as well as in gigantic osseous remains, and impressions of vegetables, fruit, and fish.

THE BOTANICAL OR BANKSIAN DEPARTMENT contains the Herbaria of Sir Hans Sloane (336 volumes bound in 262); the Herbaria of Plukenet and Petiver; collections from those of Merret, Cunningham, Hermann, Bobart, Bernard de Jussieu, Tournefort, Scheuchzer, Kamel, Vaillant, Kaempfer, Catesby, Houston, and Boerhaave; the plants presented to the Royal Society by the Company of Apothecaries from 1722 to 1796, as rent paid by the Company for the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. Also the Herbarium of the Baron de Moll; the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, mostly in cabinets, nearly 30,000 species, including Sir Joseph's collections upon his voyage with Captain Cook, and the plants collected in subsequent voyages of discovery; Loureiro's plants from Cochin China; an extensive series presented by the East India Company; Egyptian plants, presented by Wilkinson, &c. The flowers and fruits preserved in spirits, and the dried seeds and fruits, are fine.

GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES.-Assyrian Sculptures, collected by Layard: fragments of the disinterred Assyrian palaces of Nimroud (Nineveh) and Kouyunjik; cuneiform (arrow-headed) and other writing; gypsum or alabaster bas-reliefs that lined the interior walls; detached sculptures; ivories and other ornaments; winged lions, weighing 15 tons each; winged bulls, each 14 feet high; sculptured slabs of battle-pieces and sieges, combats, treaties and triumphs, lion and bull hunts, armies crossing rivers; winged and eagle-headed human figures; religious ceremonies; sculptured obelisks; inscription on a bull, connecting the Assyrian dynasty of Sennacherib with Hezekiah of the Bible; fragments of a temple built by Sardanapalus; and a basalt Assyrian statue, closely resembling the Egyptian style; costumes, field-sports, and domestic life of 2000 years since. Here also are a few stones with cuneiform inscriptions, excavated by Mr. Rich from the presumed site of Nineveh, near Mosul; but previous to Mr. Layard's researches, "a case scarcely three feet square enclosed all

that remained not only of the great city Nineveh, but of Babylon itself!" (See Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, Monuments, &c.)

Phigaleian Saloon-Bas-reliefs of the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, and the combat of the Greeks and Amazons, from among the ruins of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigaleia; built by Ictinus, contemporary with Phidias, and architect of the Parthenon (Pausanias). Their historical value, representing the art of the Praxitelian period, is scarcely less than that of the Parthenon marbles. In two model pediments from the eastern and western ends of the Temple. of Jupiter Parhellenius, in the island of Ægina, are, west, 10 original statues, representing Greeks and Trojans contesting for the body of Patroclus; east, 5 figures, expedition of Hercules and Telamon against Troy, these statues being the only illustration extant of the armour of the heroic ages. In this saloon, also, are the Canning Marbles, or Bodroum Sculptures, from Bodroum, in Asia Minor, the site of Halicarnassus; 11 bas-reliefs (combat of Amazons and Greek warriors), formerly part of the celebrated Mausoleum erected in honour of Mausolus, King of Caria, by his wife Artemisia, B.C. 353: it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These, and other sculptures from Bodroum, were presented by the Sultan to Sir Stratford Canning (whence their name), and by him to the British Museum.

British and Anglo-Roman Remains-Tesselated pavements, Roman altars, sarcophagi, Roman pigs of lead; tesselated pavements from the Bank of England and Threadneedle-street and other parts; Roman mill fragments from Trinity-House-square, and a sarcophagus from Haydon-square.

Greek and Roman Sculptures-Statues and bas-reliefs by Greek artists, or from Greek originals; busts of mythological, poetical, and historical personages; statues and busts of Roman emperors; architectural and decorative sculptures and bas-reliefs; sepulchral monuments, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman; Roman altars; pavement from Carthage; bas-relief of Jupiter and Leda; the group of Mithra; the Rondini Fawn; torso of Venus, from Richmond House; bas-relief of the Apotheosis of Homer, cost 10007.; Persepolitan marbles, presented by Sir Gore Ouseley and the Earl of Aberdeen; a Venus of the Capitol; and other high-class marbles from the collections of Sir W. Hamilton, R. Payne Knight, and Edmund Burke, including, from the latter, the copy of the Cupid of Praxiteles, presented by the painter Barry to Burke. Here also are a sarcophagus from Sidon, sculptured with combats of Greeks, Amazons, and Centaurs; and a magnificent marble tazza 4 feet 3 inches high, and 3 feet 7 inches diameter.

The Towneley Collection of bas-reliefs, vases, statues and groups, heads and busts, includes 83 terra-cottas: the famed Discobulus, or Quoit-thrower, in marble, from the bronze of the sculptor Myron; Venus, or Dione, the finest Greek statue seen by Canova in England; Venus Victrix, of the highest style of art; busts of Pallas, Hercules, Minerva, and Homer; bust of "Clytie rising from a sunflower;" and busts of Greek poets and philosophers. The Bacchus is finest-so beautiful, self-possessed, and severe; Bacchus, the mighty conqueror of India-not a drunken boy-but the power, not the victim of wine.

These stores of Greek and Roman art were collected by Mr. Charles Towneley, chiefly at Rome, between 1765 and 1772; and were arranged by him at No. 7 Park-street, Westminster, with accompaniments so classically correct, that the house resembled the interior of a Roman villa. The dining-room had walls of scagliola porphyry; and here were placed the largest and most valuable statues, lighted by lamps almost to animation. Mr. Towneley died in 1805; and his collection of marbles and terra-cottas was purchased by the British Museum for