The aggregate number of persons admitted as visitors—exclusive of students—was, for some years, restricted to sixty persons, as a maximum, in any one day.
In order to give the reader a definite and clear idea of what was seen, in 1759, by the earliest visitors to the British Museum, in its rudimentary state, some sort of ground plan is essential, but the merest outline will suffice for the purpose.
There were at Montagu House two floors or stories of state apartments. The upper floor was that which was first shown, after the formation of the Museum.
The visitor, having ascended the superb staircase painted by La Fosse, passed through a vestibule and grand saloon (A B) furnished with various antiquities, into the ‘Cottonian Library’ (C), and thence into the ‘Harleian Library,’ which occupied three rooms (D, E, and F). He then entered the ‘Medal Room’—containing the coins and medals of the Sloane and Cotton collections (G); the ‘Sloane Manuscript Room’ (H); and the room containing the chief part of the antiquities (I)—
Rough Diagram, showing Principal Floor of the original British Museum of 1759.
Then the visitor, passing again through the vestibule (A) and great saloon (B), entered the rooms K, L, and M. K contained the minerals and fossils of Sir Hans Sloane’s collection; L, the shells; M, the plants and insects. Thence he passed into N, which was devoted to the bulk of the Sloane Zoological Collection, and into O, containing artificial and miscellaneous curiosities.
Descending to the floor beneath, by the secondary staircase between N and O, the visitor then entered the small room P, which contained the magnetic apparatus given by Dr. Gowin Knight, and the rooms, Q and R devoted to the reception of the greater part of the Royal Library, restored by Henry, Prince of Wales, and augmented—but with extreme parsimony—by several of the Stuart monarchs, whose additions to the shelves were, indeed, much oftener made of books given, than of books bought. He then passed into Sloane’s Printed Library, which occupied the whole of the spacious and handsome suite of rooms S, T, V, W, X, and Y, and (passing through the Trustees’ Room Z,) entered the room A A, containing the Edwards Library; ending his tour of inspection in the room B B, in which was arranged the remainder of the old Royal Library, the main portion whereof had been seen already in Q and R.
Rough Diagram, showing Ground Plan of the original British Museum of 1759.