THE BRITISH MUSEUM 



flight of steps leading to the central entrance is in itself 

 one hundred and twenty-five feet in extent; the front 

 as a whole covers three hundred and seventy feet. 

 Capping the portico is a sculptured tympanum by Sir 

 Richard Westmacott, representing the "Progress of 

 Civilization" not unworthily. As a whole, the build- 

 ing is one of the few in London that are worth visiting 

 for an inspection of their exterior alone. It seems ad- 

 mirably designed to be, as it is, the repository of one of 

 the finest collections of Oriental and classical antiqui- 

 ties in the world. 



There is an air of repose about the ensemble that is in 

 itself suggestive of the Orient ; and the illusion is helped 

 out by the pigeons that flock everywhere undisturbed 

 about the approaches to the building, fluttering to be 

 fed from the hand of some recognized friend, and 

 scarcely evading the feet of the casual wayfarer. With 

 this scene before him, if one will close his ears to 

 the hum of the great city at his back he can readily 

 imagine himself on classical soil, and, dreaming of 

 Greece and Italy, he will enter the door quite prepared 

 to find himself in the midst of antique marbles and the 

 atmosphere of by-gone ages. 



I have already pointed out that the turning-point 

 in the history of the British Museum came just at the 

 beginning of the century, with the acquisition of the 

 Egyptian antiquities. With this the institution threw 

 off its swaddling-clothes. Hitherto it had been largely 

 a museum of natural history; in future, without neg- 

 lecting this department, it was to become equally 

 important as a museum of archaeology. The Elgin 

 marbles, including the wonderful Parthenon frieze, con- 



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