TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION 1).— DEPT. ZOOLOGY AND EOTANT. 657 



Gardens, and that extent of space i3 now secured for actual and prospective re- 

 quirements of our National Museum of Natural History', 



I am lotli to trespass further on the time of the Section, but a few words may 

 he expected from me of the leading steps to the acquisition of the present edifice, 

 occupying a portion — about one-third — of that extent of ground. 



Mr. Gladstone, adhering to the convictions which led him to submit his 

 financial proposition of May, 1862, honoured me, at the close of that session of 

 Parliament, with an invitation to Hawarden to discuss my plans for the Museum 

 Building ; and, after consideration of every detail, he requested that they might 

 be left with him. lie placed them, with my written expositions cf details, in the 

 hands of Sir Henry A. Hunt, C.B., responsible adviser on buildings, &c., at the 

 Office of Works, with instructions that they should be put into working form, so 

 as to support reliable estimates of cost. I was favoured with interviews with Sir 

 Henry, resulting in the completion of such working plans of a museum, including 

 a central hall, an architectural front of two storeys, and the series of single- 

 storeyed galleries extending at right angles to the front, as shown in my original 

 Plan, I was assured that such plan of building, affording the space I had reported 

 on, would be the basis to be suomitted to the professional architect whenever the 

 time might arrive for Parliamentary sanction to the cost of such building. 



Here I may remark that experiments which preceded the substitution, in 

 1835, of the actual Museum of the Hunterian Physiology at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, for the costly, cumbrous, and ill-lit building, with its three-domed sky- 

 lights, which preceded it, had led to the conclusion that the light best fitted for a 

 museum was that in which most would be reflected from the objects and least 

 directly strike upon the eye ; and this was found to be effected by admittance of 

 the light at the angle between the wall and roof. But this plan of illumination 

 is possible only in galleries of one storey, or the topmost in a many-storeyed 

 edifice. Such system of illumination may be seen in every gallery of the museum 

 described to you last year at Swansea, save those of the storeys of the main body 

 below the skylit one, which necessitate side windows. 



I subjoin a copy of the letter from Sir Henry A. Hunt, conveying his con- 

 clusions respecting the plan of building discussed with him : — 



• 4 Parliament Street : September 25, 1862. 



' My dear Sir, — I return you the drawings of the proposed Museum of Natural 

 History at South Kensington. In May last I told Mr. Gladstone that the probable 

 cost of covering five acres with suitable buildings would be about 500,000/. or 

 100,000/. per acre. 



' The plan proposed by you will occupy about four acres, and will cost Jibout 

 350,000/., or nearly 90,000/. per acre. 



'Having prepared sketches showing the scheme suggested by you, I have been 

 able to anive more nearly at the probable cost than I had the means of doing in 

 May last. But, after all, the difference is not great ; although the present estimate 

 is a more reliable one than the other. It is right, however, to state that the 

 disposition of the building as proposed by you will give a greater amount of 

 accommodation, and admit of a cheaper mode of construction, than I had calculated 

 upon in May (relatively with the space intended to be covered), and therefore I 

 think your plan far better adapted for the Museum than the plan I took the 

 liberty to suggest to Mr. Gladstone. 



' Believe me, &c., 

 (Signed) 'Henry A. Hunt.' 



Sir H. A. Hunt had previously formed <in estimate of cost for the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer on inspection of the Report and Plan in the Parliamentary paper of 

 March 1859. The letter to which I refer I regard as an antidote to some previous 

 quotations from adverse members of Parliament. 



The working plans of Sir Henry A. Hunt were subsequently submitted for com- 

 petition, and the designs of the accomplished and lamented Capt. Fowke, R.E., 

 obtained the award in 1864. His untimely death arrested further progress or 

 practical application of the prize designs. 



1881. u u 



