Royal Academy, Burlington House.—The Academy was established in 1768, for the encouragement of the fine arts. Until the finishing of Mr. Wilkin’s building, the Academy held its meetings and exhibitions in a small number of rooms at Somerset House. Students are admitted on evidence of sufficient preliminary training, and taught gratuitously; but so far as the public is concerned, the Royal Academy is chiefly known by its famous Annual Exhibition of modern English pictures and sculptures, from May to July. This Exhibition is a very profitable affair to the Academy. Royal commissions and parliamentary committees find a difficulty in investigating the revenues, privileges, and claims of the Academy; it is known, however, that the schools are maintained out of the profits. Concerning the building in Trafalgar Square, most persons agree that the main front is too much cut up in petty detail, and that one of the finest sites in Europe has thus been comparatively neglected. Some have humorously nicknamed it “The National Cruet Stand.”
National Portrait Gallery.—This infant gallery, established by the nation in 1857, is now at Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The object is to be strictly confined to the collecting of a series of national portraits of persons of any note, whether of early or of late days. A sum of £2000 a-year is voted for this purpose. The collection is yet only small, but very interesting, and is yearly increasing. Open free on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Soane Museum.—This closely-packed collection, presented to the nation by the late Sir John Soane, the architect, occupies the house which he used to inhabit, at No. 13, on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Every nook and corner of about 24 rooms is crowded with works of art—sarcophagi, ancient gems and intaglios, medals and coins, sculptures, sketches and models of sculptures, books of prints, portfolios of drawings, Hogarth’s famous series of pictures of the ‘Rake’s Progress,’ and numerous other examples of vertu, some of which cost large sums of money. The place is open every Wednesday from February to August inclusive, and every Thursday and Friday in April, May, and June, from 10 till 4. Still, these are very insufficient facilities (only 56 days out of the 365 in the year) for seeing a fine collection of treasures. Orders for admission are sent, on application, by post.
Art Exhibitions.—There are always numerous picture exhibitions open in the summer months—such as those formed by the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, the Society of Painters in Water Colours, &c.; concerning which information can be seen in the advertisement columns of the newspapers. At the British Institution there is a spring exhibition of modern pictures, and a summer exhibition of ancient. The price of admission to such places is almost invariably One Shilling. Other exhibitions, pertaining more to entertainment than to fine arts, are briefly noticed in a later section.
COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES.
London, as may well be imagined, is largely supplied with institutions tending to the proper care of the young, the aged, the sick, and the impoverished. A few of the more important among them are worthy of the attention of strangers.
Colleges.—The two chief colleges in London are connected with the London University. This University is a body of persons, not (as many suppose) a building. The body was established in 1837, to confer degrees on the students or graduates of many different colleges in and about London. It occupies apartments at Burlington House, Piccadilly, lent by the government for examining purposes; but it neither teaches nor gives lectures. University College, in Gower Street, was originally called London University; but since 1837, the more limited designation has been given to it.
Great Public Schools.—The chief of these in London is Westminster School, not for the building itself, but for the celebrity of the institution; although the college hall, once the refectory of the old abbots of Westminster, is interesting from its very antiquity. The school, which was founded in 1560, lies south-west of Westminster Abbey, but very near it. Some of our greatest statesmen and scholars have been educated here. St. Paul’s School, situated on the eastern side of St. Paul’s Churchyard, was founded in 1521, by Dean Colet, for the education of ‘poor men’s children.’ Like many others of the older schools, the benefits are not conferred so fully as they ought to be on the class designated. The presentations are wholly in the hands of the Mercers’ Company. The now existing school-house, the third on the same site, was built in 1823. The Charter House School, near Aldersgate Street, is part of a charity established by Thomas Sutton in 1611. Among other great men here educated were the late Sir Henry Havelock, and W. M. Thackeray. There is an Hospital or Almshouse for about 80 ‘poor Brethren,’ men who have seen better days; and there is a school for the free education of 40 ‘poor Boys,’ with many more whose parents pay for their schooling. The chapel and ante-chapel, the great hall and staircase, and the governor’s room, are interesting parts of the building. Christ’s Hospital, or the Blue Coat School—as it is commonly called from the colour of the boys’ dress—is situated within an enclosure on the north side of Newgate Street, and is one of the most splendid among the charitable foundations of London. The buildings stand on the site of a monastery of Grey-friars, which was granted by Henry VIII. to the city for the use of the poor; and his son and successor, Edward VI., greatly extended the value of the gift by granting a charter for its foundation as a charity school, and at the same time endowing it with sundry benefactions. The hospital was opened, for the reception and education of boys, in 1552. Charles II. added an endowment for a mathematical class; and with various augmentations of endowment, the annual revenue is now understood to be no less than £40,000. This income supports and educates nearly 1200 children, 500 of whom, including girls, are boarded at the town of Hertford, for the sake of country air. The management of the institution is vested in a body of governors, composed of the lord mayor and aldermen, twelve common-councilmen chosen by lot, and all benefactors to the amount of £400 and upwards. The children are admitted without reference to the City privileges of parents; about one hundred and fifty are entered annually. It is undeniable, however, that many children are admitted rather through interest than on account of the poverty of their parents. After instruction in the elementary branches of schooling, the greater number of the boys leave the hospital at the age of fifteen; those only remaining longer who intend to proceed to the university, or to go to sea after completing a course of mathematics. There are seven presentations at Cambridge, and one at Oxford, open to the scholars. The buildings of the institution embrace several structures of large dimensions, chiefly ranged round open courts, with cloisters beneath; and a Church, which also serves as a parochial place of worship. The only part of the establishment, however, worth examining for its architecture is the Great Hall, occupying the first floor of a building of modern date, designed by Mr. Shaw, in the Gothic style. It measures 187 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 47 high, and possesses an organ-gallery at the east end. In this magnificent apartment the boys breakfast, dine, and sup. Before meals, one of the elder inmates repeats a long grace or prayer, at the commencement of which the whole of the boys, in lines at their respective tables, fall on their knees. The boys are dressed in the costume selected for them in Edward VI.’s reign; the outer garments consisting of a long dark-blue coat, breeches, and yellow worsted stockings. The ‘public suppers,’ on Thursdays in Lent, are worth the attention of strangers: (tickets from governors.) Merchant Taylors’ School, situated in a close part of the City behind the Mansion House, was founded in 1561 by the Merchant Taylors’ Company. The present structure was built in 1673, with the exception of some of the classrooms, which are much more modern. About 260 boys are educated, wholly on the presentation of members of the Company; and there are numerous fellowships at St. John’s College, Oxford, open to the scholars. Mercers’ Free Grammar School, in College Hill, is a small establishment of similar kind. The City of London School, in Milk Street, Cheapside, is one of the most modern of these Grammar Schools, as they are called. It was founded in 1835, and possesses several Exhibitions for successful senior scholars.
Other Schools.—The schools established under the auspices of the National Society, called National Schools, are very numerous, but need hardly be noticed here. The British and Foreign School Society, in the Borough Road, and the Home and Colonial School Society, in Gray’s Inn Road, train up teachers without reference to religious tests; whereas the National Society is in connection with the Church of England. Many very superior schools for girls, under the designation of Ladies’ Colleges, have been established in the metropolis within the last few years, in Harley Street and in Bedford Square, &c. The Government School of Art for Ladies is in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The National Art Training School is at South Kensington.