19th [FIGURE] I wrote two letters one to Elder
& the other to Elder I spent several
hours in visiting the British Museum the accou
nt of which is as follows A Visit to the
BRITISH MUSEUM
Oct 19th 1840. In company with
Elder I purchased a Book from which
I make an extract of the following SYNOPSIS
of the contents of the BRITISH MUSEUM
FORTY SECOND EDITION London 1840
("The foundation of the British Museum originat
ed with the will of Sir , who accu-
mulated, in addition to a considerable Library of
Books & Manuscripts, the largest collections of
objects of natural History & works of art of his time.
These he directed should be offoered after his death,
which took place in 1753, to Parliament. The offer
was accepted: & the Act of 26 Geo. II, which directed
the purchase, also directed the purchase of the
Harleian Library of Manuscrips & enacted
that the Cottonian Library which had been
given to the Government for public use in the
reign of Will. III, should, with these, form
one General collection.
In the Spring of
1754 the mansion in Great Russell Street,
then known as Montagu House, was purchased
as a repository for the whole. Between 1755
& 1759 the different collections were removed
into it, & it was determined that the new instit-
ution should bear the name of BRITISH
MUSEUM. Till the arival of the Egypt-
ian Antiquities from in 1801
Montague House was competant to the reception
of all its acquisitions. The Egyptian Monumen-
ts, most of them too massive a character for
the floors of a private Dwelling, fir[s]t suggested the
necessity of an additional building, rendered still
more indispensible by the purchase of the Townley
Marbles in 1805. A Gallery adequate to the
reception of both was completed in 1807; after
which, although the Trustees meditated, & had
plans drawn for new buildings, none were under-
taken till 1823, when, upon the donation from his
Majesty of the Library collected
by King George III, the Government orderd drawings
to be prepared for the erection of an entire no Museum
a portion of one wing of which was to be occupied
by the recently acquired Library. This wing on the
Eastern side of the then Northern, & a part of the
western compartment of a projected Square have
been since completed. The Townly Gallery at pre-
sent joins on to the centere of the western compartment
& Montagu House, the old building of the Museum,
continued to form the general front. On entering
the Gate of the Museum from Great Russel Street, a
quadrangle presents itself, with an Ionic colonnade on
the South side, & the main building on the North; the
side buildings being allotted for the dwellings of
the officers. The house itself measures two hun-
dred & sixteen feet in length, & fifty seven in hight
to the top of the cornic[e]. The architect, ,
a native of , & an artist of the first eminence
in his time, was sent over from by , for the sole purpose of construc
ting this Splended mansion. It was the repetition
of a building first designed in 1674 by Dr. ,
which was destroyed by fire in 1686.")
I again visited this Museum & went through
evry appartment of it on the 9th of Dec in company
with Elders & , The forego-
ing account, of this Museum is ownly its origen, they
have continued to build & add thereto untill it cover[s]
or surrounds five acres of ground, & it now cont
ains a vast number of rooms sum of them sev
eral hundred feet in length, & this Museum now con
tains the greatest variety of curiosityes of evry
kind name & nature Ancient & Modern, consisting
of all Natural History, Beast, Fowl, Birds, Fish, serpe-
nts, ores, minerals, Antiquities, of all nations—
sculptures, Mummies, hieroglyphics & Papyrus
Though I felt interested in a visit to evry apart-
ment of this Museum which is considerd the grea-
test collection in the world & open to the free
inspection of the publick, yet I felt the more
deeply interested in that Part called the gallery
of Antiquities esspecially the Egyptian. The
Antiquities consists mostly of Greek, Roman Jewish
& Egyptian, & some british. Among the vast
number of sculptures, was ,
The God , , , ,
, , , , , &
hundreds of others. An article called the
Portland Vase is the choiceest article of any
one thing among the Antiquities as it is the ownl[y]
thing of the Kind known in the world. This celeb
rated Barberini vase was more than two centuries
the principal ornament of the
it was found about the middle of the sixteenth
century two miles & a half from in the road
leading from . [FIGURE] The materi[al] of whi[ch]
the vase is formed is glass, the figures which are
executed in relief are of a beautiful opake white
& the ground is in perfect harmony with the figu[re]
& of a dark transparent blue. This superb specim[en]
of greek art was deposited in the British Muse[um]
in 1810 by the . Among the
Egyptian Antiquities, is a large number of Tombs
coffins, mumies, Hieroglyphics & Papyri enough
if translated into the English language to mak[e]
one hundred volums as large as the Bible. I felt
more interested in this part than any thing I
saw as they were from three to four thousand
years of age, & would no doubt if translated
have revealed many glorious things sacred &
historical concerning the early ages of the worl[d]
& the Prophets &c. Having formed an
intimate acquaintance with one of the over-
seers of the gallery of Antiquities, He explained
many things to us concerning these things
which were interesting unto us, we saw a
Tomb said to be that of , & among many thousands of other things
was private snuff box
which cost 300 guineas, A piece of the Tower
of Babel, many lamps from Babylon, & many
relics from the ruins of &
. Many articles in Bronze, Roman
Lamps, Dice & tali, stamps, for sealing casks,
Roman weights, Mirrors with engravings,
Celts, Bracelet[s], cups of crystal, agate &c
Hinges & nails, Brooches, Buckeles, locks & keys
spears & knives, Bits, spurs, ornaments for harness
fragmants of chains, A Bronze statue of Nero
when he was Young. though some of these ar[e]
vary ancient they do not vary much in shape from
