June 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 525 



the Eev. J. Sheepshanks. A further development of the system of 

 loans has taken place in this class of art through the liberality of Mr. 

 Walter M.P., who has lent a collection of fifty-seven pictures by the old 

 masters, principally of the Dutch school. They have been exhibited 

 together in one of the rooms contiguous to the Sheepshanks Gallery. 

 But in the new galleries the whole water-colour collection will be 

 arranged chronologically ; it will form a most interesting and historical 

 series. A number of valuable additions have been made to the art 

 collections. The principal purchases of the year have been a Spanish 

 " retable " or altar-piece, a work of great size and importance, of the date 

 of the first half of the fifteenth century, originally in a church at Valencia, 

 now destroyed ; a casket in coloured enamel, the work of Jean Limousin ; 

 a missal-case in gold, ornamented with translucid enamel, said to have 

 been formerly the property of Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I. ; a 

 candlestick of Henry II. ware ; the Syon cope, a remarkable example of 

 early English needlework ; and a collection of objects illustrative of 

 Spanish work in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the gifts 

 of the year should be mentioned a collection of articles, such as watches, 

 needlework, wearing apparel, &c, illustrative of the manners and tastes 

 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, presented by the Rev. R. 

 Brooke. The regular collection of objects on loan continues also to be 

 well supported. Many valuable and interesting objects have been "con- 

 tributed by Mr. Gladstone, M.P., and others. Considerable progress has 

 been made in the arrangements for the systematic interchange of repro- 

 ductions of works of art with foreign Governments. An understanding 

 has been come to with the trustees of the British Museum in relation to 

 the purchase of works of art ; those which belong to classical epochs are 

 to be considered as the especial province of the British Museum. The 

 necessary works which have been going on at South Kensington have 

 caused some inconvenience to visitors, but this is unavoidable while the 

 new buildings are in progress ; at the present rate of proceeding about 

 eight more years will be required to carry out the plan of building which 

 was submitted to the Select Committee in 1860. Attention iscalledto the 

 approaching loan exhibition of miniatures, and the exhibition (likely to 

 be annual) of stained glass and English mosaics. The visitors to the 

 Art Library have increased in number. All the collections have been 

 improved in the course of the year. The responsibility for the lighting 

 and custody of the museum at night increases with its growth ; the 

 organization and arrangements for preventing accidents and remedying 

 them are as complete as possible. The cost for the consumption of gas 

 for the Museum only is a shilling a minute. The attendance of the 

 public in Easter week (1864) was 27,518 ; "Whitsun week, 16,005 ; 

 Christmas wuek, 35,984 ; the whole year, 653,069. This number much 

 exceeded that of any previous year, except that of 1 862, the Exhibition 

 year, and 1863, when the wedding presents, of the Princess of Wales 

 were shown, and attracted 229,425 persons in seventeen days. « The 



