The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

190 THE BRITISH ISLES.
irrespective of the locality assigned to it. Even Florence might envy South
Kensington the possession of some of the best examples of Italian Renaissance,*
most prominent amongst which are seven admirable cartoons by Raffael, which
produce almost the effect of fresco paintings. In addition to the articles which are
the property of the museum, there is exhibited at South Kensington a most
Taluable "loan collection," intrusted to the authorities by wealthy amateurs, in
order that artists and the public may study its contents. Quite recently the
museum has been enriched by the acquisition of the larger portion of the contents
of the old India Museiim. These are exhibited in a series of rooms overlooking
the gardens of the Horticultural Society, and nowhere else in Europe is it possible
to meet with a larger collection of objects illustrating the history and private life
of the inhabitants of the Ganges peninsula. South Kensington is, indeed, becoming
a " town of museums." The straggling galleries which surround the gardens of
the society just named are filled with all kinds of objects, including huge cannons,
ships' models, educational apparatus, portraits of eminent Englishmen, an anthro-
pological collection, and majDs. The new Natural History Museum occupies an
adjoining site. It has recently received the precious mineralogical, geological,
botanical, zoological, and anthropological collections of the British Museum,
which are the dehght of the student, and some of the objects in which—as, for
instance, the fossilised Caraib found on Guadaloupe—are of priceless value. The
Patent Office Museum adjoins the museum of South Kensington, and contains, in
addition to numerous models, several objects, such as the earliest machines and
engines constructed by Arkwright, "Watt, and Stephenson, which no mechanician
can behold without a feeling of veneration. Parliament has at all times shown
favour to the museum in South Kensington, by willingly granting the large sums
demanded on its behalf by Government. During the first years of its existence
the Department of Science and Art was enabled to spend annually between
£160,000 and £200,000 in enlarging its collections.! It is nevertheless to
be regretted that a museum like this, which is at the same time a school of
art and science, should have been located in one of the aristocratic -suburbs
of London, far from the centre of the town and the homes of the artisans
who were primarily intended to profit bj^ its establishment. In order to obviate
this disadvantage, a branch museum has been opened in the industrial suburb of
Bethnal Green, and, besides this, the art schools throughout the country are
supplied with loan collections.
London is particularly rich in special museums, some of which have already
been referred to. Amongst others which contribute most largely to the progress
of science we may mention the Geological Museum in Jermjni Street, founded by
De la Beche, and John Hunter's Anatomical Museum in the College of Surgeons,
* Perrot, Revue des I)eux-Mondes, Slai 1, 1S78.
t The Science and Art Department of South Kensington expends annually ahout £330,000, in
addition to which £40,000 are voted for the maintenance of the museum, and a considerahle sum (in 1879
£8,000) for buildings in coui-se of construction. The expenses of the National Portrait Gallerj' and
Patent Museum, though popularly supposed to form part of the South Kensington Museum, are defrayed
from other sources.