THE MAGNIFICENT LIBRARIES.

413

tiquities, Art, Botany, Prints, and Drawings, Zoology, Paleontology, Mineralogy, and Sculpture, each under the charge of an "Under-Librarian."

There are five Zoological galleries or saloons, embracing everything in the schedule of serpents, monkeys, lizards, tortoises, crocodiles, toads, antelopes, rhinoceri, elephants, and hippopotami, giraffes, buffaloes, oxen, lions, tigers, bears, otters, kangaroos, apes, squirrels, whales, sharks, porpoises, and all kinds of fish and mollusca.

There is also a gallery of Fossils, Zoological and Geological, and a Gallery of Minerals. In these galleries are eight saloons. Then follow the Departments of Botany, and the Department of Antiquities, containing vases, terra cottas, bronzes, coins, and medals. There are also three saloons of Anglo-Roman Antiquities, of Roman Iconography, three Greco-Roman saloons, the Greco-Roman Basement Room, the Lyceum Gallery, and the Elgin Rooms, in which are the splendid marbles collected by Lord Elgin at Athens, and which were bought for £35,000 by Parliament.

There are also the Hellenic Galleries of Marbles, the second. Elgin Room, the Assyrian Galleries, 200 feet in length, and thirty other galleries, and innumerable saloons crowded with the most wonderful and valuable objects of art and science.

There is a Newspaper Saloon with the finest collection of newspapers in England. The catalogues of the libraries and collections of the Museum alone amount to 620 volumes. The collections are valued at £15,000,000. By act of Parliament, a copy of every book, pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, sheet of music, chart, plan or map, issued in Queen Victoria's dominions must be delivered to the British Museum. There are three libraries in the Muscum: the King's Library, presented by George IV, consisting of 80,000 volumes; the Greenville Library, 21,000 volumes; and the General Library of 730,000 volumes, and which is inferior only to those of Munich and Paris.

Magna Charta, if not the original, a copy made when King John's seal was affixed to it, was acquired by the British Mu

seum with the Cottonian Library. It was nearly destroyed in the fire of Westminster in 1731; the parchment is much shriveled and mutilated, and the seal is reduced to an almost shapeless mass of wax. The MS. was carefully lined and mounted; and in 1783 an excellent fac-simile of it was published by John Pine, surrounded by inaccurate representations of the armorial ensigns of the twenty-five barons appointed as securities for the due performance of Magna Charta.

An impression of this facsimile, printed on vellum, with the arms carved and gilded, is placed opposite the Cottonian original of the Great Charter, which is now secured under glass. It is about two feet square, is written in Latin, and is quite illegible. It is traditionally stated to have been bought for fourpence, by Sir Robert Cotton, of a tailor, who was about to cut up the parchment into measures! But this anecdote, if true, may refer to another copy of the Charter preserved at the British Muscum, in a portfolio of royal and ecclesiastical instruments, marked Augustus II, art. 106; and the original Charter is believed to have been presented to Sir Robert Cotton by Sir Edward Dering, Lieut.-Governor of Dover Castle; and to be that referred to in a letter dated May 10, 1630, extant in the Museum Library, in the volume of Correspondence, Julius C. III. fol. 191.

In the Museum, also, is the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope Innocent III, receiving the kingdoms of England and Ireland under his protection, and granting them in fee to King John and his successors, dated 1214, and reciting King John's charter of fealty to the Church of Rome, dated 1213. Also, the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope Leo X, conferring the title of Defender of the Faith upon Henry VIII.

The Reading Room is open every day, except on Sundays, on Ash Wednesdays, Good Fridays, Christmas-day, and on any Fast or Thanksgiving days ordered by authority; except also between the 1st and 7th of May, the 1st and 7th of September, and the 1st and 7th of January, inclusive. The hours are from 9 till 7 during May, June, July, and August (except on Saturdays, at 5), and from 9 till 4 during the rest of the year. To

ADMISSION TO THE MUSEUM.

415

obtain admission, persons are to send their applications in writing, specifying their Christian and surnames, rank or profession, and places of abode, to the principal Librarian; or, in his absence, to the Secretary; or, in his absence, to the senior Under-Librarian; who will either immediately admit such persons, or lay their applications before the next meeting of the Trustees.

Every person applying is to produce a recommendation satisfactory to a Trustee or an officer of the establishment. Applications defective in this respect will not be attended to. Permission will in general be granted for six months, and at the expiration of this term fresh application is to be made for a renewal. The tickets given to readers are not transferable, and no person can be admitted without a ticket. Persons under eighteen years of age are not admissible.

The Reader having ascertained from the Catalogue the book he requires, transcribes literally into a printed form the pressmark, title of the work wanted, size, place, and date, and signs the same. Readers, before leaving the room, are to return the books or MSS. they have received to an attendant, and are to obtain the corresponding ticket, the reader being responsible for such books or MSS. so long as the ticket remains uncanceled. Readers are allowed to make one or more extracts from any printed book or MS.; but no whole or greater part of a MS. is to be transcribed without a particular permission from the Trustees. The transcribers are not to lay the papers on which they write on any part of the book or MS. they are using, nor are any tracings allowed without special leave of the Trustees. No perscn is, on any pretence whatever, to write on any part of a printed book or MS. belonging to the Mu

seum.

The persons whose recommendations are accepted are Peers of the Realm, Members of Parliament, Judges, Queen's Counsel, Masters in Chancery or any of the great law-officers of the Crown, any one of the forty-eight Trustees of the British Museum, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, rectors of parishes in the metropolis, principals or heads of colleges, emi

nent physicians and surgeons, and Royal Academicians, or any gentleman in superior position to an ordinary clerk in any of the public offices.

Some idea of the magnitude of this great Museum may be formed when I state that the clerical and literary force connected with the institution is larger than that of any similar foundation in Europe but one-the Imperial Library at Paris.

There is first a Principal Librarian, a Secretary, fifteen keepers of departments, beside a little army of attendants, messengers, bookbinders, watchmen, and doorkeepers, numbering over one hundred persons. Beside there are fifty or sixty persons of literary eminence and celebrity connected with the Museum, and employed to perfect the collection, to collate and arrange the books and to classify subjects. In this way alone the expenses of the establishment amount to £40,000 yearly. The average number of visitors to the Museum yearly is over one million, and the galleries are entirely free to the public.

NELSON'S MONUMENT.

Next to the British Museum, the most frequented place in London is the National Gallery of Art, in Trafalgar Square, facing Nelson's Monument. This lofty monument fills the eye of the spectator as it takes in the range of one of the finest squares in Europe. The column is a circular one, 145 feet high, and the figure of the great naval hero, Nelson, on the top, is 17 feet high. The monument was built in 1840-43, and is placed on an elevated pedestal of granite. The Emperor Nicholas of Russia gave £500 toward the erection of the monument, and the rest was raised by public sub

scription. The two immense lions of bronze who lie couchant

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

417

at the base of the monument, were modeled in iron from visits made by Sir Edwin Landseer to the live lions at the Zoological Gardens.

There are also statucs of Sir Henry Havelock and of Sir Charles Napier, on each side of the inclosure which fronts the Nelson column, twelve feet high and of bronze, and just below in an angle of the square is a bronze statue of George IV, which cost £10,000. These three statues, which are all equestrian, were paid for by public subscription.

On one side of the square is the church of St. Martin, an imposing looking building, built by Wren, and on the lofty steps of this church the crossing sweepers and bootblacks of the Metropolis have their daily rendezvous, and here divide their earnings with each other.

The National Gallery is, therefore, in a most commanding site, and from its broad steps a very fine view can be obtained of the Strand, Charing Cross, Parliament Street, and the Houses of Parliament.

The edifice was finished in 1838, and is 461 feet in length, and its greatest width across the saloons of painting is 56 feet. The stones were taken to construct it entirely from the King's Stables or Mews, and the building has a peculiarly sombre and solid effect. In it are a range of spacious galleries, whose walls are covered with the greatest works of the old masters and modern painters. It is the chief collection of paintings in the British Islands, and the number of subjects amount to 1,600. The number of pictures in the National Gallery, as compared with the number in the Continental galleries, is as follows: National Gallery, 1,600; Dresden Gallery, 2,000; Madrid, 1,833; Louvre, 2,500; Vienna, 1,500; The Vatican, 37; the Capitol, Rome, 250; Bologna, 280; Milan, 503; Turin, 563; Venice, 688; Naples, 700; Frankfort, 380; Berlin, 1,350; Munich, 1,300; Florence, 1,200; Pitti Palace, 500; Amsterdam, 386; Hague, 304; Brussels, 400; and Versailles, 4,000.

The pictures in the National Gallery are divided into the British and Foreign Schools. Of the British School there are