How to See the British Museum in Four Visits | Page 3

over the mummies, and no
official suppresses his professional objections to the coffins. The
weaver observes the looms of the olden time: the soldier compares the
Indian's blunt instrument with his own keen and deadly bayonet. The
poor needlewoman enjoys her laugh at the rude sewing-instruments of
barbarous tribes: the stone-mason perhaps compares his tombs with the
sarcophagi of ancient masters. No attendant is deputed to dog the heels
of five visitors and to watch them with the cold eye of a gaoler; no bell
warns the company from one spot to another: all is open--free!
Through the bright new galleries of Sir Robert Smirke, crowded with
the natural productions of every clime, the printed thoughts of the
greatest and best men, the marvellous art of forgotten ages, and the
poor barbarisms of savage life, we propose to conduct the visitor, in
FOUR DISTINCT VISITS.

VISIT THE FIRST.

On arriving in front of the British Museum for the first time, the visitor
will not fail to notice the Grecian Ionic facade, ornamented with
forty-four columns, and rising at its extreme point to the height of
sixty-six feet. The sculpture which decorates the tympanum of the
portico is the work of Sir Richard Westmacott, and is an allegorical
representation of the progress of civilisation. The spiritual influences
that have successively worked upon the savage natures of the dark ages,
have here distinct types. Religion tames the savage; Paganism makes
him a crouching sensualist; the Egyptian sees a God in the stars of
heaven; and then the mathematician, the musician, the poet, and the
painter set to work, and these prophets of mysterious beauties realise
civilised mankind. The visitor enters the museum, after ascending a
noble flight of steps, by a massive carved oak door, into a fine entrance
hall, the ceiling of which is highly coloured, and the general decoration
of which is Grecian Ionic. Here he will observe, in addition to one or

two of the Nineveh sculptures, at once, three statues: one of the
aristocratic lady sculptor, the Honourable Mrs. Damer; Chantrey's
statue of Sir Joseph Banks; and Roubillac's study of Shakspeare,
presented to the museum by David Garrick. Before entering the
galleries of the museum the visitor should observe, that the building
faces the four points of the compass, and that the facade forms the
southern line. This observation will facilitate a careful and regular
examination of the interior. Branching westward from the entrance hall,
then eastward to the gallery, is a noble flight of seventy steps, the walls
of the staircase being richly inlaid with marble. Having ascended this
staircase, the visitor's attention is at once arrested by two stuffed
giraffes--the giraffe of North Africa, and the giraffe of South Africa,
given to the museum by the late Earl of Derby. These striking
zoological specimens at once introduce the visitor to
THE SOUTHERN (CENTRAL) ZOOLOGICAL ROOM,
which is devoted, together with the next room to the east, to Hoofed
Animals. Looking eastward from the western side of the room he will
observe at once that his way lies down a passage, marked on either side
by formidable zoological specimens, which he would rather meet, with
their present anatomy of hay, than in their natural condition. In the first
room, near the giraffes, stand the walrus of the North Sea; the African
rhinoceros; and the Manilla buffalo. He will next observe, that the
walls of the room are lined with glass cases, about twelve feet in height,
and that in these cases various stuffed animals are grouped. The groups
in this room include the varieties of the Antelope, Sheep, and Goats.
Grouped together in two or three cases, are the sable and other
antelopes from the Cape of Good Hope; the algazelle, and the addax
and its young from North Africa; the sing-sing, and the koba from
Western Africa; the sassaybi; the chamois of the Alps--the subject of
many a stirring mountain song; the goats of North Africa; the strange
Siberian ibex; the grue and gorgon from the Cape; varieties of the
domestic goat, and the beautiful Cashmere goat. Here also are
specimens of sheep, including the wild sheep from the Altai; the
bearded sheep of North Africa; the American arguli; the nahorr and
caprine antelopes from Nepal; and upon the higher shelves of the cases
are grouped the gazelles from Senegal, Nepal, and Madras, whose
praises have been sung more than once. The beauty and grace of these

delicate creatures, with their taper active limbs, and the soft expression
of their heads, may be faintly gathered even from these inanimate
stuffed skins with the glassy eyes instead of "the soft blue" celebrated
by the poet. Grouped hereabouts are also the four-horned antelope of
India; the pigmy antelope from the coast of Guinea; and the madoka
from Abyssinia.