ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 1J 



Our illustrious countryman, Ray, in passing through Basle, 

 visited Plater's Museum, which he describes as " a good 

 collection of minerals, stones, metals, dried fishes, and other 

 natural and artificial rarities," and he goes on to say that these 

 were "disposed in a good method, the names being set to each 

 one. 33 Plater had evidently the methodical instinct of the true 

 curator. 



Gesner's museum carries us back at least 350 years, but we 

 might pursue the history of museums to a much more remote 

 period, for we know that there were collections of natural 

 objects occasionally made by men in advance of their generation. 

 To us, however, it is more interesting to note the character of 

 the museums which satisfied the wants of our forefathers in 

 less remote times. 



During the eighteenth century, and even later, there were 

 several proprietary museums opened in London and elsewhere as 

 shows. Probably the most famous was that of Sir Ashton Lever. 

 Born at Alkrington, near Manchester, in 1729, he developed in 

 early life a great taste for collecting, and being possessed of ample 

 means, acquired a large collection. This he removed, in 1774, 

 from Alkrington Hall to London, and he then exhibited it at 

 Leicester House, in Leicester Square. He styled his exhibition 

 the " Holophysikon," and charged each visitor 5s. 3d. for 

 admission. Having spent a very large sum on his museum his 

 affairs became embarrassed and he offered his collection at a very 

 moderate price to the trustees of the British Museum. By them, 

 however,it was declined. Lever then obtained parliamentary power 

 to dispose of it by lottery, the value officially put upon it being 

 £53,ooo. At the lottery the prize fell to a certain James Parkinson, 

 who had been a law-stationer and estate agent. He not un- 

 naturally endeavoured to dispose of it, and seems to have entered 

 into negotiations with people of importance, like the Queen of 

 Portugal and the Empress of Russia; but these negotiations fell 

 through, and as the rent of Leicester House was considerable he 

 purchased a piece of ground in Albion Street, Southwark, in which 

 he erected a building that came to be known as the Rotunda. 34 To 

 this museum the admission was half-a-crown, and for some years 



33 " Travels through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France." 2nd ed., 1738,. 

 P- 85. 



34 A view of the interior of the Museum is engraved as a frontispiece to the Catalogue, 

 entitled A Companion to the Museum (late Sir Ashton Level's). Removed to Albion Street, the 

 Surrey End of Black Friars bridge. London, 1790. 



