Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/686

664 6G4 EDINBURGH moreover, have now come to occupy a no less important relation to the researches of science thau to the study of history ; and in many of the capitals of Europe similar collections are promoted as objects of national importance. Negotiations were accordingly entered into with the Government in 1849 and subsequent years, which resulted in the appropriation of the galleries in the Royal Institution, formerly devoted to the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, to the reception of the collections of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland as a National Museum of Antiquities. The council of the society, with the addition of two members of the Board of Trustees as representatives of the Crown, continue to have the charge of the collections, which are open to the public, like the British museum and other national collections. The museum is specially rich in Scottish antiquities, illustrative alike of prehistoric archaeology, of Roman, Celtic, and Teutonic remains, and of mediaeval civil and ecclesiastical art; and its native and foreign collections of primitive antiquities are arranged with a view to illustrate modern archseological science, by the comparative classification of numerous examples of primitive flint, stone, and bronze relics, sepulchral pottery, implements and weapons, and of personal ornaments of gold, silver, and bronze. The society publishes its pro ceedings annually, and from time to time issues its transactions, embodying the more important historical and archaeological treatises submitted to its meetings, in the quarto volumes of the Archceologia Scotica. The Royal Society of Edinburgh was incorporated by royal charter in 1783, for the encouragement of philosophical inquiry and scientific research. Its extensive library and other collections are accommodated in the apartments occupied by it in the Royal Institution buildings ; and its proceedings and transactions are now voluminous, and embody many important scientific papers. The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, was instituted In 1826, and incorporated by royal charter in 1838, on the model of the Royal Academy of London. Subsequent to the completion of the Royal Institution buildings the central range of galleries was appropriated to the annual exhibitions of the Academy ; but in August 1850 Prince Albert laid the foundation-stone of the National Gallery, a building exclusively devoted to the promotion of the fine arts in various ways, including the accommodation of the Royal Scottish Academy, and which has also greatly contributed to the architectural beauty of the city. The low valley, or ravine, which separates the Old from the New Town, is not only spanned by the North and Waverley Bridges, but is also crossed midway by a huge earthen viaduct, formed by depositing the materials excavated for the foundation of the houses erected on the neighbouring terrace of Princes Street. This, which long formed an unsightly blemish, was at length utilized for the improvement of the city, as the site of the Royal Institution building. But there still remained in the rear a huge excrescence styled the Earthen Mound, cumbered with temporary buildings, and an eyesore to all who appreciated the amenities of the general view. The property of this as a building site was acquired by the Board of Trustees under an Act of Parliament, which vested it, and the buildings erected thereon, in the Board, subject to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; and in 1854 the new galleries were completed. The building is of the Greek Ionic order, thereby pleasantly contrasting with the more massive Doric of the Royal Institution building ; and the view of the two, as seen from East Princes Street, grouping together with the Castle, the Free Church College, and the masses of the Old Town buildings rising behind, is singularly striking and effective. The National Gallery provides for the public display of a fine national collection of paintings and sculpture, acquired by purchase and bequest, for the annual exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, and for the Life Academy and other schools specially designed for the advancement of the fine arts in Scotland. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1582, by a royal charter granted by King James VI., and its rights, immunities, and privileges have been remodelled, ratified, and extended at various subsequent periods. In 1621 an Act of the Scottish Parliament ratified to the university of Edinburgh all rights and privileges enjoyed by other universities in the kingdom, and those were renewed under fresh guarantees in the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, and in the Act of Security. Important changes have since been made on the constitution of the university by an Act of the British Parliament passed in 1858. But while the college, as such, bears the name of the College of King James, or King s College, and James VI. is spoken of as its founder, it originated in the liberality of the citizens of Edinburgh. William Little of Craigmillar, and his brother Clement Little, advocate, along with James Lawson, the colleague and successor of Knox, may justly be regarded as the true founders of the college. In 1580 Clement Little gave all his books, amounting to 300 volumes, for the beginning of a library, and this was augmented by other valuable benefactions, one of the most interesting of which was the library of Drummond of Hawthornden, the friend of Ben Jonson a collection rich in choice specimens of our rarer early literature. The University Library now contains about 139,000 printed volumes, and above 700 volumes of MSS., many of which are of great interest and value. The buildings of the university occupy the site of the ancient collegiate church of St Mary in the Field, or the Kirk of Field, as it was familiarly termed. The present structure is a classical building, inclosing an extensive quadrangle. The older parts of it, including the east front, are from the design of Mr Robert Adam ; but his plans were revised and modified with great taste by Mr &quot;W. H. Playfair, with a view to the completion of the building ; and the whole is now finished, with the exception of a cupola designed to surmount the east front, for which the requisite funds have been bequeathed to the university. This edifice affords accommodation for the lecture rooms in the four faculties of arts, law, medicine, and theology, and for the museums and library. But although entirely reconstructed on a greatly enlarged scale during the present century, they have already proved to be inadequate for the requirements of this celebrated school of science and letters ; and extensive new buildings are now in progress at Teviot Row, designed to accommodate the departments of science and medicine, and to leave the older building exclusively for the departments of arts, law, and theology. The new build ings will accordingly include a university convocation hall, class-rooms, laboratories, dissecting rooms, and museums. In connection with this, the Royal Infirmary is also in progress of completion, on a new site, and on a greatly en larged scale, with operating theatre and other requirements in connection with the medical school, and with all the most modern improvements in the arrangement and construc tion of hospitals. For this a site nearly adjoining to that of the new college buildings, previously occupied by George Watson s Hospital, has been selected. It embraces a large area between the Heriot s Hospital grounds and the Meadows, and separated by the fine avenue of the Meadow Walk from the new medical schools. By this means the important requisites of free air and the immediate vicinity of extensive pleasure grounds are secured ; and thus the primary object of the infirmary as a benevolent institution for ministering to the wants of those afflicted with disease,