194 Notes and Comments. 



LORD SUDELEY ON MUSEUMS. 



Lord .Sudcley, who has taken such a prominent part in 

 the popularisation of Museum collections, has favoured us 

 with a copy of his remarks on l*ublic Museums and Galleries, 

 and the discussion thereon, appearing in ' Parliamentary 

 Debates, House of Lords, Wednesday, 9th March, 1921, 

 Vol. 44, No. IL, Official Report.' In this the noble Lord 

 gives an admirable summary of the various ways in which the 

 different national institutions are, by the aid of lectures 

 and the publication of postcards, etc., doing excellent work. 

 He also shows that, taken collectively, this great educational 

 work is entirely defrayed from these publications and sales. 

 Last year no fewer than 360,000 picture postcards were sold 

 at the British Museum. 



KEW GARDENS. 



That the popular lecturing scheme is not always a success 

 is shown from the following extract from his Lordship's 

 speech : — ' Now consider the case of Kew Gardens. As your 

 Lordships know, the guide system was in force there for a 

 short time. I brought the matter forward last year, and 

 showed that it was supposed to be a failure simply because 

 it was not carried out in the right way. I should like to 

 mention that in any further arrangement made for guide 

 lectures in other musuems I hope they will follow the example 

 of the British Museum, where the thing is done in a proper 

 way. There people go and are absolutely free. There is no 

 attempt to make any charge, and visitors can do exactly as 

 they like. They can come and go, with the result that they 

 are very much interested. At Kew Gardens it is exactly 

 the opposite. There is a heavy charge. They commenced 

 with a fee of 2s. 6d., though no doubt it was reduced after 

 the first year to 6d., and the whole system was so framed 

 as to make it as disagreeable as possible. People were made 

 to write their names, and a constable went round with them, 

 and the difficulty of finding the place was so terrible that many 

 people gave it up in despair. Not only that, but, as I 

 mentioned last year, the pathway to the place of meeting 

 was marked by the word " Private," and many people went 

 away thinking it was a lavatory. I know people who came 

 from Sheffield and went away again. Those are the two 

 systems, one good and the other distinctly bad, and I hope 

 that the Government will not reintroduce the system which 

 was in force at Kew Gardens until they are able to do ii in 

 a proper way.' 



THE BRENT VALLEY BIRD SANCTUARY. 



The Selborne Society has been most successful in carrying 

 out the first part of its scheme to celebrate the bicentenary 



Naturalist 



