on the Study of Natural History. 239 



can expect our national museum to equal, much less to excel, 

 those of other nations, till a more liberal and rational policy 

 is pursued by the trustees of the museum. Over every branch 

 of natural history there should be some one placed, learned, 

 zealous, and respected ; not one who has to commence the 

 rudiments of science (however respectable he may be in other 

 respects), but a man already celebrated for his acquirements, 

 and well able to make known to his countrymen the treasures 

 placed under his care, as well as to arrange them for public in- 

 struction. It is a lamentable fact that, for many years, while 

 large sums were expended on the national collection, the zoo- 

 logical part with little exception was all confusion. The labours 

 of Dr. Leach, valuable and constant as they were, could not 

 effect that which would require the undivided attention of many 

 able men ; and the museum was, in consequence, an object 

 of just ridicule to every foreigner who visited the capital. 

 Something has lately been done, by the very proper appoint- 

 ment of Mr. Gray and others, to remove the stigma, but there 

 is even yet little prospect of our equalling our Parisian 

 neighbours. Without calling in the aid of foreign naturalists, 

 how many able men are there in England who would accept 

 offices in the institution, did the trustees apply for proper 

 funds for their support, and make the situations not matters of 

 favour, but objects of contest among the learned ! 



There can be no doubt the time is near at hand when the 

 present crowded building will be totally insufficient for the 

 display of the treasures of the museum, if it be not so at the 

 present moment. How desirable would it be to give up the 

 whole of the present building for works of art, and to erect a 

 museum more worthy of the nation, in the Regent's Park, 

 which might be solely devoted to natural history, and the 

 library of works directly illustrating the study of this branch 

 of science. — Lansdown Guilding. St. Vincent, May I. 1830. 



The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (I. 16.) — I can speak 

 from examination of the scandalous and defective state of the 

 Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, so late as 1817. This col- 

 lection, one of the first which had been formed in England, 

 and which the university should have prized as one of its 

 greatest ornaments and most valuable possessions, seems for 

 many years to have been perfectly neglected ; while admission 

 fees were demanded by an illiterate keeper, for the purpose, 

 one would suppose, of deterring the curious traveller and 

 the scientific student from entering this Augean stable. The 

 office of curator, too, at that period was conferred on persons 

 totally ignorant of every branch of natural history ; and while 

 every thing was going to decay, the more valuable specimens 



