Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/157

Rh scarcely existing at the foundation of the Museum, had assumed large proportions by the Townley bequest and the captures of Egyptian antiquities made from the French. The charming garden, with the tine trees, still surviving in the contemporary plates which show the military encamped in it on occasion of the Gordon Riots, had already been sacrificed to those antiquities, which claimed a further extension when, in 1817, after a tremendous fight with economists, connoisseurs, and moralists, the Elgin Marbles were acquired for the nation. The internal accommodation they got may be seen in a most interesting picture preserved in the Trustees' Board Room; it was not worthy of them. It is due, however, to the administration of that day to point out that this was regarded as a mere temporary shift, and gave place about the year 1821 to a comprehensive scheme of rebuilding, of which Sir Robert Smirke was no doubt the author, and which, the new reading-room and its annexes excepted, has determined the general character of the edifice to this day. Nor was it unworthy of a great nation and a distinguished architect. Our concern with it, however, is merely as regards the library. This department, probably very unexpectedly, came to be the first to exemplify the new scheme, in consequence of the donation of the King's Library in 1823. Room must be found for the books, and accordingly nearly one entire side of the quadrangle projected by the architect was devoted to the magnificent King's Library, a hall probably without peer in the world as the receptacle of a