Xll 
INTRODUCTION. 
Museum was freely accessible to the general public, for three days in 
the week, from ten till four o'clock. The present arrangement, by 
which it is opened daily, and only particular rooms are closed alter- 
nately on four days in the week, dates from the month of February in 
the current year. 
For a long period Montagu House was made to accommodate the 
Library and Museum with the collections which bad subsequently 
accrued to them, and in the year 1816 accommodation for the Elgin 
Marbles had been obtained by temporary additions to the old build- 
ing ; but in the year 1853 space was demanded for George the 
Third's extensive Library, then become public property. It had now, 
to some extent, become apparent to what dimensions a combined 
National Library and Museum of art, archaeology, and natural history 
Enlarge mi g nt De expected to attain. It was determined therefore to erect a 
ment of special gallery for the reception of the Royal Library, and to make 
building it a portion of a new building designed for the other collections, in 
place of Montagu House. By the year 1845 the four sides of the 
present Museum were erected, and Montagu House had, to the regret 
of many, been removed. 
Eeadincr As time went on it was found necessary to make additions to the 
Room. new buildings as designed by Sir Robert Smirke, and in 1857 the 
important feature of the present magnificent Heading Room, with its 
surrounding galleries for books, was added by Mr. Sidney Smirke, 
from designs suggested by the late Sir Anthony Panizzi, at that 
time keeper of the printed books. 
Of the several departments which constitute the present Museum, 
some have been only gradually developed. Originally there were only 
three, viz. : Manuscripts, Printed Books, and Natural History ; the 
Coins and Medals, and Prints and Drawings being united with the 
Printed Books. 
Antiquities. The Department of Antiquities took its rise from the purchase, in 
177*2, of the collection formed by Sir William Hamilton, while ambas- 
sador at the Court of Naples, the foundation of which was the collec- 
Vases, &c. tion of fictile vases belonging to the family of Porcinari. It included 
in addition numerous objects in terracotta and in glass, very many 
coins and medals, together with bronzes, sculptures, gems and miscel- 
laneous antiquities, and was purchased from a special parliamentary 
vote of £8,40*0. A large portion of a second collection, of equal extent 
Egyptian to the first, was lost by shipwreck. The foundation of the Egyptian 
Antiquities. sec ti 0 n of the department was laid by the acquisition, in August, 1802, 
of the antiquities acquired by the capitulation of Alexandria. 
In the years 1805 and 1814, the department was further enriched 
by purchases of classical sculpture and other objects collected by 
Townlej Charles Townley, of an ancient family of Lancashire. The collec- 
Marbles. tion includes the majority of the finer single statues now in the 
Museum. The chief of them came from excavations at Hadrian's villa, 
near Tivoli ; from the Mattei collection at Rome ; from excavations 
at the Villa of Antoninus Pius at Monte Cagnuolo, near the aucient 
Lanuvium, and from the Villa Montalto at Rome ; or were acquired 
