| British and Metric Systems Compared. |
|---|
| 1 inch = ·025 metre. 1 foot = ·304 metre. 3 feet = ·914 metre. |
| 1 metre = 39·37079 inches. |
INTRODUCTION.
The collection of ancient sculpture in marble, included in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum, may be said to represent the efforts of more than two centuries, though the foundation of the Museum itself is of a considerably more recent date.[1]
The British Museum was established by Parliament in 1753. In that year, by the statute 26 Geo. II. cap. 22, a trust was created to unite and maintain as one collection the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, the Cottonian Library, and the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts.
Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753),[2] physician, botanist, and President of the Royal Society in succession to Newton, had formed in his lifetime a very extensive museum, consisting mainly of books, natural history collections, and ethnographical objects. At the same time classical antiquities were represented by bronzes, gems, vases, terracottas, and a few sculptures in marble. The examples, however, of Greek sculpture were few and unimportant, and in most instances they cannot now be recognized with certainty from the brief entries in Sir Hans Sloane's catalogue. Such as they were, they were chiefly derived from the collection of John Kemp, an antiquary and collector early in the eighteenth century (died 1717). The Sloane Collection included the sepulchral vase, No. 682 in the present volume; a small relief with two dogs and a wild boar; a figure of Asclepios, a few heads, busts, urns of marble or alabaster, and a few Greek and Latin inscriptions.