2 
drawn for new buildings, none were undertaken till 1823, 
when, upon the donation from his Majesty King George 
IV. of the Library collected by King George III., the 
Government ordered drawings to be prepared for the erec¬ 
tion of an entirely new Museum, a portion of one wing of 
which was to be occupied by the recently-acquired Library. 
This wing, on the Eastern side of the Museum Garden, 
was finished in 1828; the Northern, Southern, and Western 
sides of the Quadrangle have since been progressively 
added. The last remain of the original building was re- 
moved in 1845 ; and the Gallery, built in 1807, as already 
stated, for the Townley and Egyptian antiquities, was 
removed during the winter of 1846, to admit of the com¬ 
pletion of the Western side. 
The order of architecture adopted throughout the ex¬ 
terior of the Building is the Grecian Ionic. The Southern 
Facade consists of the great entrance portico, eight columns 
in width, and two in tercelumniations in projection. On 
either side is an advancing wing, giving to the entire front 
an extent of three hundred and seventy feet; the whole 
surrounded by a colonnade, of forty-four columns, raised 
upon a stylobate five feet and a half high. The columns 
are five feet at their lower diameter, and forty-five feet 
high; the height from the pavement of the front court¬ 
yard to the top of the entablature of the colonnade, sixt}^- 
six feet and a half. 
The level of the principal floor of the building is reached 
by a flight of twelve stone steps at the foot of the Portico 
one hundred and twenty-five feet in width, terminating on 
either side with pedestals in ended to receive colossal groups 
of sculpture. 
The Tympanum of the Portico has recently been en¬ 
riched with allegorical sculpture, by Sir Richard Westmacott, 
typical of “ The Progress of Civilization/’ * 
* The following is Sir Richard Westmacott’s explanation of the Allegory; 
—“ Commencing at the Western end or angle of the Pediment, Man is 
represented emerging from a rude savage state through the influence of 
