THE DUBLIN MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART. 295 



THE DUBLIN MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART. 



The Dublin Museum is one of a great group of institutions surrounding a 

 fine old mansion known as Leinster House, for many years the town resi- 

 dence of the Marquises of Kildare, afterwards Dukes of Leinster. A great 

 part of the gardens on the east side are still kept up as a public recreation 

 ground, bounded on one side by the National Gallery of Ireland, and on the 

 other by the Natural History portion of the Museum ; whilst on the west 

 side lies the new Museum building containing the Art and Industrial Collec- 

 tions, and opposite to this the National Library of Ireland and the Metro- 

 politan School of Art. Thus these Institutions of Science and Art form, 

 from the architectural and picturesque, as well as from an educational point 

 of view, one of the most interesting centres of the city. The Museum has 

 to meet the wants which, in Edinburgh, are catered for by two Museums, 

 and in London by five, and the available space has to be economised to the 

 utmost, and every possible effort made to arrange all parts of the Collec- 

 tions in a very systematic manner, or they would soon become almost 

 useless masses of heterogeneous objects. The Collections may be regarded 

 under the following seven principal heads : — Architectural and Decorative 

 Art ; Ethnology ; Machinery and Mechanical Arts, usually classed as Indus- 

 trial ; Irish Antiquities ; Zoology ; Botany ; Geology and ]\Iineralogy. 



ARCHITECTURAL AND DECORATIVE ART. 



Egyptian Antiquities. — This collection, though small, contains many 

 objects of great interest, and readers of books on Ancient Egypt will find in 

 it examples of the Arts of tiiat country from prehistoric to Roman times, 

 which will enable them to understand better, and appreciate more fully, what 

 they read, and an inspection of them may take the place to some extent, of 

 an examination of the larger collections in the British Museum or the 

 Louvre. 



Greek and Roman Antiquities. — These collections are of very great 

 value, and modellers, jewellers, and workers in silver and bronze may derive 

 from their inspection many useful lessons ; while at the same time they 

 should, like the Egyptian Antiquities, enable classical students to take more 

 intelligent interest in their studies. 



Irish Architecture. — Of the very interesting Irish Romanesque which 

 flourished from the ninth to the twelfth century in this country, we have, 

 unfortunately, no examples, except photographs ; but models are now being 

 taken of the beautiful work in C-'ormac's Chapel at the Rock of Cashel. Of 

 the Great Irish Crosses there is a very good cast of one of the very best at 

 Monasterboice, and many others will be modelled shortly. 



