9 



per inspection. These times are the Easter, Whitsun, 

 and Christmas Weeks, the 30th of January, Ash Wed-, 

 nesday, and Good Friday, the 5th of November, the 

 whole of September, and on every Fast and Thanksgiving 

 Day making the grand total of days on which the 

 public may view the British Museum to be 132 out of 

 365. But as the subject is now under the consideration 

 of Parliament, we add no more, leaving the visitor to 

 conjecture the reasons, and determine whether more 

 days ought in justice to be granted to officers for 

 cleansing, than to the public for inspecting the rooms of a 

 National Museum. 



The doors of this establishment being opened at 10 

 and closed at 4 o'clock, those who come with no in- 

 tention to renew their visit, as too many do ; or if they 

 have the intention, circumstances often arising to pre- 

 vent, should be within its walls early ; both on account 

 of its not being so crowded in the morning, as well as, 

 whatever his expectations may have been, the multi- 

 plicity and variety of interesting objects that await his 

 inspection ; for the moment the hour for closing arrives, 

 the voice of the porters, like speaking telegraphs, may 

 be heard from gallery to gallery, echoing from room to 

 room ; and let him not suppose that after this warning, 

 his exit will be slow, as though he were leaving the 

 rooms of Somerset House Exhibitions ; but rather like 

 that from the gallery of the House of Commons, before 

 a division, though with much more civility on the part 

 of its officers ; for visitors have never reason to complain 

 of the want of this essential qualification, any more than 

 than that of promptitude and punctuality. The wings 

 on each side as he enters the quadrangle, are the resi- 

 dences of the officers connected with the institution : a 

 passage through the East Wing, leads to the Reading 

 Room. On the right as he enters 



The Hall, 



is stationed an officer, to receive Sticks or Umbrellas, 

 which the visitor commits to his care while in the 



