2 
suggested the necessity of an additional building, 
rendered still more indispensable by the purchase of 
the Townley Marbles in 1805. A Gallery adequate 
to the reception of both was completed in 1807; 
after which, although the Trustees meditated, and 
had plans drawn for new buildings, none were un¬ 
dertaken till 1823, when, upon the donation from 
his Majesty King George IV. of the Library col¬ 
lected by King George III., the Government or¬ 
dered drawings to be prepared for the erection of an 
entire new Museum, a portion of one wing of which 
was to be occupied by the recently acquired Li¬ 
brary. This wing, on the Eastern side of the then 
Museum Garden, was finished in 1828; and the 
Northern, and a p'art of the Western compartment of 
a projected Square have been since completed. The 
Townley Gallery at present joins on to the centre of 
the Western compartment: and Montagu House, the 
old building of the Museum, continues to form the 
general front. 
On entering the Gate of the Museum from Great 
Russell Street, a quadrangle presents itself, with an 
Ionic colonnade on the South side, and the main 
building on the North; the side buildings being 
allotted for the dwellings of the Officers. 
The House itself measures two hundred and six¬ 
teen feet in length, and fifty-seven in height to the 
top of the cornice. The architect, Peter Puget, a 
native of Marseilles, and an artist of the first emi¬ 
nence in his time, was sent over from Paris by Ralph, 
first Duke of Montagu, for the sole purpose of con¬ 
structing this splendid mansion. It was the repe¬ 
tition of a building first designed in 1674 by Dr. 
Hooke, which was destroyed by fire in 1686. 
