Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/692

Rh LONDON. 684 LONDON. of that name, is also a celebrated educational establish- ment ; as also are the City of London School, in Milk- etreet, University College School, King's College School, and a great many proprietary schools, such as the Isling- ton, and others. At South Kensington is the principal training-school of art for male and female students, and district schools of art are established at Finshury, Hamp- etead, Lambeth, St. Martin's, St. Thomas Charter- house, and elsewhere. These and several schools of design are under the superintendence of the Science and Art Department of the government ; and, as the fees are low and the instruction excellent, they aiford great facilities and advantages to a very large number of students. Besides these, there are in every part of London schools, colleges, and educational class-rooms for all religious denominations, several of them liberally endowed, and containing vast quantities of pupils. The largest is the Jews' Free School, in Bell-lane, Spitalfields, where upwards of 2,000 children of both sexes are educated annually, and many of them placed in situations which enable them to earn their own living. At the Foundling Hospital is also a school where the children are taught to sing, and its chapel, where they take a part in the service, is crowded by those who admire the fine sacred music which is per- formed there every Sunday morning and afternoon. The principal learned societies are the Royal, the meet- ings of which are held at Burlington House ; the Society of Antiquaries, at Somerset House ; the Royal Geogra- phical, in Whitehall-place ; the Royal Institution, in Albemarle-stroet (where most interesting scientific lectures are periodically given) ; the Royal Society of Literature, in St. Martin's-place ; the Numismatic, in Gate-street, Lincoln's Inn ; the Royal Academy, in Trafalgar-square ; the Institution of Civil Engineers, in Great George-street, Westminster ; the Medical Society, in George-street, Hanover-square ; the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, in Waterloo-place ; the Royal Agricultural, Horticultural, and Botanic societies ; the Archaeological Institution, the British Archajologioal Association, the Royal Asiatic Society, the Society of Arts, the Institute of British Architects, and several others, which number among their members many of the most distinguished men of the day in literature, science, and art. They are supported by the subscriptions of their members and by donations, and hold meetings periodically in London or elsewhere for the pursuit and investigation of the objects which they have severally in view. The principal museums are the British, in Great Russell- street ; Sir John Soane's, in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; the South Kensington ; the Architectural, in Cannon- row, Westminster ; the Royal Asiatic, in New Burling- ton-street ; the College of Surgeons, in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; the East Indian, at Fife House, Whitehall ; the Geological, in Piccadilly ; and the United Service Insti- tution, in Whitehall Yard. Of these the British and the South Kensington are the most frequented, and have a world-wide reputation. The former contains an invaluable collection of MSS., printed books, antiquities, prints and drawings, natural history and botanical spe- cimens, each occupying special rooms and departments. There is also a noble public reading-room, for which orders are obtained on application to the principal libra- rian, who has the management of the whole establish- ment, under a board of trustees. The museum is open to the public inspection on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 till 4 during the winter, and 10 till 5 and 6 during the spring and summer months ; and also ilnring the four summer months, on Saturdays, from 12 till 6, and catalogues of its varied contents and a description of the reading-room can bo obtained in the great hall at a low price. The South Kensington Museum consists of the two great divisions of science and art. The science comprises the educational museum, the food and animal productions, and the museum of materials used in construction, and the museum of patents. The art col- lections consist of paintings, sculptures, glass and metal work, and an immense variety of ornamental and useful objects, which it would bo impossible to specify, museum is open every day of the week; but on AVed nesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays a sixpenny admission fee is charged. On the N. side of Trafalgar-squar stands the National Gallery of Paintings. Hero aro co lected some of the finest specimens of English, Spanis! Dutch, French, Italian, and Flemish schools. It con tains about 250 pictures by ancient masters, and splend examples of Key nolds, Wilkie, Gainsborough, West, I 1 garth, Turner, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and others, is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednes- days, and Saturdays in the summer, from 10 to 6 o'c! and in the winter from 10 till 4. Joining the National Gallery at its E. end is the Royal Academy of Arts. The members of this body arc forty Royal Academii (who enjoy the privilege of writing li.A. after their names), twenty Associates (A.R.A.), six associate engravers, a president, and a secretary. Every year an exhibition of the works of living artists is held at their gallery, between May and July, to which the entrance- fee is one shilling by day, and sixpence in the evening. By this and by the sale of the catalogue it has ! calculated that nearly 70,000 per annum has 1- en raised. The works exhibited consist of paintings in oil and water colours and sculpture, all of them having been executed to order, or being placed there by tin ir respective artists with a view to their being purchased. The National Portrait Gallery is at present in temporary rooms at 29, Great George-street, Westminster. It is open on Wednesday and Saturday from 12 till 4, by tickets procurable at certain picture and engraving shops. The South Kensington Museum, already noticed, also contains a very valuable collection of pictures, especially those known as the Sheepshanks collection; as does also the Dulwich Gallery, whi open every day in the week except Friday and Satur- day, from 10 to 5 ; and the galleries at Hampton Court and Windsor. Besides these, several public exhibitions of paintings at the galleries of the Societies of Paii in Water Colours, ot the Female Artists, of the National Institute, and others, take place periodically di: the season in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly and Pall Mall. All of these attract numerous vi.si as do the works of individual painters who ' attained celebrity. The charge for admission to these exhibitions is almost always one shilling, and they are open from about 10 a.m. to 5 or G p.m. The same remarks will apply to the various large ^pic- tures and panoramas which are exhibited in Leices- ter-square and occasionally elsewhere, as at the Colosseum, in the Regent's" Park, and the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly. These and all the sights of L',- are always well patronised during the season by various classes of visitors, each of them being generally suited to the tastes of the inhabitants of those neighbourhoods nearest to which they are placed. Besides these repo- sitories of art and exhibitions there is also one, and one other notables, modelled in wax and dressed i- proper habiliments for grand state procession dings, pageants, and all sorts of ceremonies ; while states men, poets, authors, in a word, celebrities of all kinds, are represented in a most natural and amusing inimner. A room also is devoted to notorious criminal call at Madame Tussaud's is generally considt i qua 11011 by all strangers in the metropolis. Not very iar from this, in the Regent's Park, are the Gardens of tl Zoological Society, which is also a favourite place resort ; as are also those of the Botanic. S -. icly, in the same park ; the latter being only open to fell society and their friends upon ordinary days, but to the public generally on certain fete days by payment of a fixed sum. On the E. side of Regent's Park stands th Colosseum, built after the design of the Pun Rome. It contains panoramas, sculpture, Swiss c< tages, waterfalls, &c., and is open at intervals on pay- ment of one shilling, but is not numerously a1