The Evolution of Museums. 



119 



vast excavations on ancient sites, resulting- in the palaces being" 

 filled with antiquities unearthed in ancient Rome and its 

 vicinity. Later, we find coin collecting- is the craze, and to a 

 certain extent the intelligfence of the wealthy individual was 

 estimated by the collection of coins he had g-athered tog-ether. 

 Then the interest seems to change, and as time advances the 

 idea of a museum, or, more correctly speaking, a 'collection,' 

 changed. It was then the greatest number of rarities and 

 curios in the Natural History line that gave the most interest to 

 private and public collections. No museum was complete 

 without a Unicorn's horn, the egg of a Griffin, part of a 

 mummy, or the bones of a giant. 



Scores of mammoth bones and teeth were labelled and 

 exhibited as remains of ancient giants until someone proved 

 that the bones were of elephants and not of man, but even then 

 the specimens remained with their old labels for some consider- 

 able time. 



Following that period we find, perhaps, a little advance in 

 the nature of the collections in our museums, though not a very 

 great one. In the 'Art Journal' for 1872 is a description of 

 one of our Yorkshire museums, from which the following 

 extract is given : — ' The usual class of foreign ' curiosities ' 

 which characterise most museums are here perhaps more than 

 usually abundant and interesting, and there are also a consider- 

 able number of local and other relics of mediaeval and more 

 recent times, including a fine and highly-important collection of 

 Yorkshire seals. The miscellaneous character of the ' curiosities ' 

 of the collection may easily be estimated from the enumeration 

 of half a dozen of what are considered by some to be the 

 attractions of the place — ■'' a part of a walking-stick belonging 

 to Queen Elizabeth,' 'a pair of cavalier's boots worn by Sir E. 

 Varney, who bore the royal standard of Charles I. at the battle 

 of Edgehill,' 'some of the long corn among which the English 

 Guards stood upon the field of Waterloo,' 'a piece of the rock 

 against which General Wolfe leaned when mortally wounded at 

 the taking of Quebec,' ' some bar shot fired by Paul Jones,' 'a 

 lock of Napoleon's hair,' 'an autograph of Queen Victoria,' 

 and ' a piece of the tanned skin of Thompson the murderer ! ' 

 Such a collection was fairly typical of the contents of the average 

 provincial museum so recently as a quarter of a century ago. 



Mr. Murray's account of the beginning of the British 

 Museum is very interesting. In 1753 an Act was passed 

 accepting the custody of the collection made by Sir Hans Sloane 



3905 April I. 



