DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING. 
105 
secj^uent contracts have been entered into by the Treasury, 
especially one for the erection of the towers, which in the 
first instance it was decided to omit. . 
" On looking at the exterior of the building, one of the first Exterior, 
points which strikes a spectator is that the site is lower than 
the street. This arises from the fact that the whole surface 
of the ground between the three roads was excavated for the 
Exhibition building of 1862, and it was not thought desirable, 
for economical considerations, to refill the space. The building 
is set back 100 feet from the Cromwell Eoad, and is approached 
by two inclined planes, curved on plan and supported by arches, 
forming carriage-ways. Between the two are broad flights of 
Craigleith stone steps, for the use of those approaching the 
building on foot. The extreme length of the front is 675 feet, 
and the height of the towers is 192 feet. The return fronts, east 
and west, beyond the end pavilions, have not yet been erected.* 
" On entering the main portal, the visitor has before him the Interior, 
great central apartment of the Museum (170 feet long, by 97 feet ^^""^"^^^ 
wide, and 72 feet high), which it is intended to use as an Index or 
Typical Museum. The double arch in the immediate foreground 
which spans the nave (57 feet wide), carries the staircase from 
the first to the second floor. O^^posite the spectator, at the end 
of the hall, is the first flight of the staircase, 20 feet wide, which 
rises from the ground to the first floor. The galleries over the 
side recesses form the connection between the two staircases, 
and are also intended for exhibition space, as are also the floor of 
the main hall and the side recesses under the galleries. The 
arches under the side flights of the main staircase at the end of 
the hall lead into anotlier large apartment, with an extreme 
length of 97 by 77 feet measured into the arms of the cross. 
Branching out of the Central Hall, near its southern side galleries, 
extremity, are two long galleries, each 278 feet 6 in. long by 
50 feet wide. These galleries are repeated on the first floor, and 
in a modified form on the second floor. They are divided into 
bays by coupled piers arranged in two rows down the length of 
* In judging the appearance of the exterior of the building, it should be 
remembered that these fronts are required to complete the design, as the 
externally unsightly brick galleries which run back from the main front, and 
are now conspicuous when the Museum is seen from either west or east, are 
intended to be concealed by them {sec Frontispiece). 
