Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/867

 CHURCHES.] LONDON 837 cost of over 80,000. The collection lias received many additions both by purchase and bequest, and besides many noble examples of the old masters, contains some of the finest picture^ of the English school, including the magnificent Turner collection. The National Portrait Gallery, the nucleus of which was formed in 1858, was removed to Exhibition Road, South Kensington, in 1870. In the Grosvenor Gallery, New Bond Street, erected by Sir Coutts Lindsay in 1877, there are annual exhibitions of works of art, and occasionally other special exhibitions. Several of the mansions of the nobility contain art galleries, which are open to the public on certain conditions. The most famous of these are perhaps the Grosvenor Gallery in the residence of the duke of Westminster, and the Bridgewater Gallery in the residence of the earl of Elles- mere. British The British Museum, Bloomsbnry, originated in the purchase by Museum. Government in 1753 of the collection and library of Sir Hans Sloane, and occupies the site of Montague House. For the recep tion of the Egyptian antiquities presented by George I. (1801), of the Towiiley marbles (1805), and of the Elgin marbles (1816), a new wing was added to the building in 1823, but after the present ation of the king s library by George IV. in the same year, it was resolved gradually to reconstruct the whole building, the first portion being finished in 1828, and the work (except the new reading-room) completed in 1852. The exterior of the building is plain, with the exception of the massive Ionic portico at the principal entrance. The contents of the museum are divided into departments, which are under the charge of a keeper and one or more assistant keepers. The departments still at Bloomsbury are those of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Oriental MSS., Zoology, Oriental Antiquities, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Coins and Medals, British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography, and Prints and Drawings. The collection both as a whole and in several departments especially Greek and Roman Antiquities and Engravings is unequalled in the world, and in all the departments a very high degree of com pleteness has been attained. For the library and reading-room, see LIBRARIES, p. 515. South South Kensington Museum, which is under the direction of the Ken- Committee of Council on Education, was originated by the late sington Prince Consort in 1852. The present building, to which the collec- Museuni. tion was removed from Marlborough House in 1857, is erected of red brick and terra cotta in the Italian Renaissance style, and, though still in process of construction and development, includes a fine range of apartments, the interior consisting of courts and corridors of graceful proportions, and decorated with various designs. It contains a collection of objects of ornamental art, both ancient and modern, as applied to manufactures, a national gallery of British art, in addition to the Foster and Dyce collections, and a fine collection of water-colour paintings, an extensive art library, a collection of sculpture chiefly of the Renaissance period, reproductions of ancient sculptures and paintings, and collections of animal products em ployed in the arts, of substances used for food, and of materials used for building and construction. Some of the rooms are occupied chiefly by articles on loan. In connexion with the institution there is a National Art Training School, as well as a School of Other Science and a School of Cookery. The Bethnal Green Museum, museums, a branch of South Kensington Museum, opened in 1872, besides a permanent food collection, and a collection of animal products, is occupied with various collections on loan. The India Museum, which was removed in 1 880 from the India Office to a building in Exhibition Road, South Kensington, and placed under the care of the South Kensington Museum directors, contains a magnificent collection of every variety of Indian art and manufacture. The Soane Museum, Lincoln s Inn Fields, bequeathed to the nation by Sir John Soane in 1837, contains an architectural library, various models of famous ancient buildings, antique sculptures, gems, vases, and bronzes, and several fine paintings. The Royal Architectural Museum, Westminster, founded in 1851, is intended specially to advance the art of architecture by examples of the works of various nations and times, and by courses of lectures, and drawing and modelling classes. CLUBS. See CLUB, vol. vi. p. 41. Churches. ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. Fitzstephen states that in his time there were in London and its suburbs thirteen larger conventual churches besides one hundred and twenty- six lesser parochial ones. Stow gives a list of churches existing when he wrote, mentioning those which he knew to be suppressed or united to others. He gives the names of 125 churches, including St Paul s and Westminster Abbey ; 89 of these were destroyed by the great fire, and only 45 were rebuilt. rail s. St Paul s cathedral occupies the site of a church founded in G10 by Ethelbert. After the destruction of the church by fire in 1087, a new edifice in the Norman style was commenced, which was forty years in building, and accord ing to William of Malmesbury &quot; could contain the utmost conceivable multitude of worshippers.&quot; In 1240 a new Pointed Gothic choir was added, and the erection of a lofty tower begun. The work of renovation and adornment was continued until 1315, when the cathedral was declared com plete. Its dimensions as given by Stow were as follows : height of steeple 520 feet ; total length of church 720 feet ; breadth 130; and height of the body of the church 150 feet. In 1561 the spire was struck by lightning, and the roof of the church partly destroyed by the fire that ensued. From this time it remained in a dilapidated condition until the reign of Charles I.; and the work of restoration under the direction of Inigo Jones, who added to the west front a Corinthian portico, had not been completed when the building was destroyed by the great fire of 16G6. St Paul s cross, which stood at the north-east corner of the cathedral, was rebuilt by Bishop Kemp in the 15th century, but was removed in 1643, its place being now occupied by a fountain. At the cross great religious disputations were held and papal bulls promulgated, and in its pulpit sermons were preached before the court. The present St Paul s, erected in 1675-97 from the designs of Sir Christo pher Wren at a cost of 747,954, is built in the form of a Latin cross, the length being 500 feet, the breadth at the transepts 250 feet, and of the choir and nave 125 feet. The dome, which separates the two transepts and the nave and choir, rises to a height of 365 feet, or of 404 feet to the top of the cross by which it is surmounted, the height of the interior dome being 225 feet. The principal front to the west consists of a double portico of Corinthian pillars flanked by campanile towers 120 feet in height. The transepts are bounded by semicircular rows of Corinthian pillars. St Paul s is remarkable chiefly for its massive simplicity and beautiful proportions. The interior is im posing from its vastness, but the designs of Wren for its decoration were never carried out. Some of the monuments of the old building are preserved in the crypt, where are also the tombs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr Samuel Johnson, J. M. W. Turner, Lord Nelson, the duke of Wellington, and other distinguished men, especially admirals and generals. Westminster Abbey, as the coronation church of the West- sovereigns of England from the time of Harold, and on minste account of its proximity to the seat of English government, Ab &quot; ev - has acquired a fame and importance which in a certain sense outvie those of St Paul s. It occupies the site of a chapel built by Siebert, in honour of St Peter, on a slightly elevated spot rising from the marshy ground bordering the Thames. A church of greater pretensions was erected by King Edward about 980 ; but, this church being partly demolished by the Danes, Edward the Confessor founded within the precincts of his palace an abbey and church in the Norman style, which was completed in 1065, and of which there now only remain the pyx house to the south of the abbey, the substructure of the dormitory, and the south side of the cloisters. The rebuilding of the church was commenced by Henry III. in 1220, who erected the choir and transepts, and also a lady chapel, which was removed to make way for the chapel of Henry VII. The building was practically completed by Edward I., but the greater part of the nave in the Transition style, and vari ous other improvements, were added down to the time of Henry VII., including the west end of the nave, the deanery, portions of the cloisters, and the Jerusalem chamber ; while the two towers at the west end were erected by Wren, who had no proper appreciation cf Gothic. The length of the church, including Henry VII. s chapel, is 531 feet, or, excluding it, 416 feet, the breadth of the transepts 203 feet, the height of the church 102 feet, and of the towers 225 feet. The choir, where the coronation of