NEW NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 133 



German town ; but it was not till the Easter of this year that the 

 general public could be admitted to their latest treasure-house. The 

 front may be briefly described as containing tiers of windows for a 

 basement and three upper floors, the topmost being a series of gabled 

 dormers, between which sit boldly-modelled Carnivora, statuesquely 

 massive and erect. The east and west extremities are occupied by two 

 grandly proportioned towers, which give in the interior an effective 

 termination to the long galleries, except where, on the second floor, the 

 lighting has been somewhat unfortunate. These are crowned by 

 steeply-pitched slate roofs, as is the remainder of the front ; and two 

 smaller towers, terminating in lanterns lacking, perhaps, in dignity, 

 flank the great entrance in the centre. The approach is by a curved 

 and rising roadway, paved with red and grey granite between asphalt 

 margins, and the effect as the deeply-moulded arch is reached, 

 with its succession of Romanesque columns on either side of the divided 

 doorway, the long front foreshortened to right and left, rich in orna- 

 ment, yet never finical, is assuredly impressive, whatever one's opinion 

 of the style. That Mr. Alfred Waterhouse has utilised for museum 

 purposes so capable a style as Romanesque, which will give broad light 

 by its arched windows and yet the requisite massiveness in its piers, 

 will probably cause no regret ; the only faults that may be discovered 

 will be in the breaking of the front by horizontal lines of black — which 

 perhaps might have been more sparingly employed — and in certain 

 eccentricities of detail. Both without and within, the entire wall 

 surface is constructed in terra-cotta blocks, giving a gentle warmth of 

 colour and — let us hope — continued cleanness ; while the material has 

 afforded happy scope for the abundant ornament drawn from animal 

 and vegetable life. 



The great hall, intended to receive a type-collection, opens in 

 almost cathedral-like proportions immediately from the stately 

 entrance. At the north end, across the spacious tesselated floor, rise 

 the steps tc galleries on either hand ; while the vestibule portion is 

 boldly spanned by a bridge springing from side to side, from wbose 

 centre a minor one at right angles leads upward to the second floor. 

 The conception of this novel feature is masterly in itself, though 

 probably more suited to an exterior than to what is in reality a room. 

 The vestibule itself, where small monkeys appear in the decorations, 

 has that welcome rarity, a groined roof ; but the Typical Museum is 

 suitably covered in with painted wood and glass, its ninety-six large 

 panels and forty-eight smaller ones being adorned with decoratively- 

 treated plants. These drawings, from sixty to seventy feet above our 

 heads, are admirable examples of the care given to every portion of 

 the building. 



At tbe north end of the hall is a cross-shaped room for a purely 

 British series of specimens, access being given by a door on each side 

 of the steps ; and the picturesque corridors, to which we may at once 

 ascend, lighted on the one hand by tinted glass and on the other open, 



