I20 



The Evolution of Museums. 



Lipon the conditions he stipulated. The Act further authorised 

 the raising- of the funds required by means of a lottery, and in 

 this way ;£"95,ooo was obtained. The Sloane Collections and 

 others acquired about the same time became the British Museum, 

 which was opened to the public on the 15th January 1759. It is 

 interesting- to find that one of the most eminent benefactors to 

 the :British Museum was Sir Joseph Banks, whose collections 

 necessitated a special department being devoted to Botany, 

 in 1827. 



In Mr. Murray's work, being really the outcome of a paper 

 read to the Glasgow Archaeological Society, it is only natural 

 that Scottish museums and collections should take a prominent 

 part. Still there is nothing in the book but what must be of the 

 greatest value, not only to people particularly interested in 

 museums, but also to all educated people. As an appendix 

 Mr. Murray gives a list of the museums in the United Kingdom, 

 based upon the list prepared by the ' British Museum Associa- 

 tion ' in 1887. It would have been better, perhaps^ had Mr. 

 Murray checked his list with the Museum Directory now being- 

 issued by the Museums' Association in their Journal, which, at 

 any rate, would have supplied information to have enabled him 

 to have filled in some of the blanks in certain museums. 



With regard to Yorkshire, the information given in the list 

 of museums is hardly sufficiently up-to-date. Places enumerated 

 as possessing such institutions are : — Aldborough^ Bradford, 

 Giggleswick, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Kirkleatham, Leeds 

 (three of the museums here enumerated being owned and 

 supported by the Yorkshire College), Malton, Middlesbrough, 

 Richmond, Scarborough, Sheffield, Wakefield, Whitby, and 

 York. Of the Museums at Barnsley, Doncaster, Driffield, 

 Keighley, Grassington, and Selby no mention is made, though 

 some of those enumerated by Mr. Murray are much below the 

 standard of those omitted. These deficiencies, however, are 

 comparatively of slight nature, and do not detract from the 

 value of the work as a whole. 



The Second and Third Volumes of Mr. Murray's work are 

 devoted to a Bibliography of the literature dealing with the 

 various museums, a work which must have taken an enormous 

 amount of tinie and research in its preparation, and whicli, 

 though naturally deficient in certain directions, has, at any rate^ 

 supplied reference to certain literature of the museum under 

 the charge of the writer, of which he was previously in 

 ig-norance. T. S. 



Nat uratist. 



