viii Introduction. 



maintained, not only for the inspection and entertainment of 

 the learned and the curious, but for the general use and benefit 

 of the public to all posterity." 



The valuable collection of manuscripts formed by Sir Robert 

 Cotton at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seven- 

 teenth centuries was already the property of the nation, having 

 been presented by his grandson, Sir John Cotton, in the year 

 1700. The Harleian Collection was obtained by purchase at 

 the same time as the Sloanian, and the three were brought 

 together under the designation of " the British Museum," placed 

 under the care of a body of trustees,* and lodged in Montagu 

 House, Bloomsbury, purchased for their reception in 1754. The 

 Museum was opened to the public on the 15th of January, 1759. 

 Admission to the galleries of antiquities and natural history was at 

 first by ticket only, issued on application in writing, and limited to 

 ten persons, for each of three hours in the day. Visitors were not 

 allowed to inspect the cases at their leisure, but were conducted 

 through the galleries by officers of the house. The hours of 

 .admission were subsequently extended ; but it was not until the 

 year 1810 that the Museum was freely accessible to the general 

 public for three days in the week, from ten to four o'clock. 

 The present daily opening, with longer hours in summer, dates 

 only from 1879. 



At the time of the foundation of the Museum, the site allotted 

 seemed amply sufficient for its purposes ; but gradually, as the 

 collections of all kinds increased, they outgrew the limits, not 

 only of the original Montagu House, but even of its successor, 

 the present classical building, completed in 1845 from the 

 designs of Sir Robert Smirke. The erection of the magnificent 

 reading-room in 1857 disposed for a time of the difficulty of 



* The Trustees under the Act of Incorporation were the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, 

 the Bishop of London, and the principal Officers of State for the time 

 being ; six representatives of Founders' families ; the Presidents of the 

 Royal Society and College of Physicians; and fifteen other Trustees to 

 be elected by them. Subsequently, the Presidents of the Society of 

 Antiquaries and of the Eoyal Academy of Arts, a Trustee by special 

 nomination of the Sovereign, and three more family Trustees were added 

 to the Board. 



