John Bull's Study
The Reading Room of the British Museum. By G. F. Barwick. (Berm. 10s. 6d.) TIM writer of this " chronical history " 'of the Reading Room of the British Museum 'describes its various` changes from a- small basement room to the present rotunda, and from" an average attendance of five or six readers daily to one of over eight hrindred.
In- December, 1758; about five years after the foundation of the Museum, the Trustees resolved "That the corner room No. 90 on the base storey be appropriated for the reading room." No. 90 was a narrow dark room, but it had ir door -opening on to a garden bf nearly eight acres affording " an ample 'view over the open country, on the north to Primrose Hill, Hampstead Ind Highgate, on the east to Islington, and on the west Paddington, with the spire of St. George's, Bloomsbury, rising on the South " I What a delightful place of residence the Museum corner of the West Central neighbourhoOd 'mist have been in those days ! A ticket was required for entering the garden no less than the reading room. In July, 1764, Dr. Morton, acting for the Principal Librarian, ercplains to the Trustees that if any applicants for garden tickets should prove unknown_ to them, he can himself' testify " that they are in the rank - of persons of fashion." The first " Keeper of the Reading Room " has to be admonished not to sit and sun himself in it so much, but to attend-to his duties in the book-duist.
ArmOng the earliest frequenters of the Reading Room we find, of course, Dr. John.son. Women were not for- bidden to eome, but they were rare. The first regular lady reader was accused by Isaac Disraeli of abstracting leaves from a book ; as no evidence was forthcoming, 'it is difficult to acquit that usually gentle and charming man of letters of a - little ill-nature. Charles Lamb came sometimes. On
one occasion when visiting clic of the officials he was " a little overcome," which is sad. Wesley came also but neither Reading Rnorn- nor Museum appealed to him. "What account will a man give to the judge of the quick and dead for a life spent in collecting these ? " he said.
In spite of the open door on to the garden, complaints began to be made about the darkness of the basement room, and the few readers migrated to a better apartment immedi- ately above it. Like the first, however, it served a good many purposes beside the consultation of books. Pictures were copied there, and natural history specimens examined ; the room seems often to have been very untidy, and Cobbett called it " The old curiosity shop in Bloomsbury.". Ticket- holders gathered round the fire. Some Bond Street Dandies enveloped in fur and lambs wool," writes a con- temporary critic, stood with their backs to it, the chairs being filled by " tall school boys at home for the holidays with dictionaries on their laps and Virgils in their hands." Later all the Victorians of note came to read. " I often said my grace at the table," writes Thackeray, before " par- taking of these wonderful books." Carlyle gave evidence before a Royal Commission on the Museum, which took place in 1849, in a very different spirit. He could not enjoy the books because of the company. " I believe that there are several persons in a state of imbecility who come to read in the British Museum. I have been informed that there are several in that state who are sent there by their friends. A great number come for idle purposes, probably a con- siderable proportion of the readers."
In 1857 the. present Reading Room was built, with a dome as large as that of St. Paul's ; it was the wonder of Europe. Prosper Merlin& writes of it as the new marvel of London which ,architects and book-lovers should study with equal attention. " Pour In premiere fois on s'est adresse is un bibliothecaire pour construire une bibliotheque. C'est M. Panizzi l'administrateur du British Museum qui a fourth In plan de cet edifice deaormais destine, je -peirse, a servir de type." In 1875 Dr. Garnett became " Superintendent of the Reading Room." Samuel Butler said of him : " He is certainly the best informed man I ever met." The Museum, and indeed the reading public, owed him an incalculable debt.
Of the humours of the Reading Room, as the public knows it to-day, Mr. Barwick writes as pleasantly as of those of the past. The unfailing trust which the British public at home and in- Dominions puts in the ability and courtesy of the Librarians and their staff is curiously illustrated by the Museum postbag. The least learned letters offer the most difficult problems. Take the following from a gentleman in Australia, addressed to " The Controller of Names " " Would you please supply me with any information possible concerning my ancestors." Mere is another " large order" from a lady : " Will you be kind enough to have some books of superstition, love, marriage, birth, weather, flowers, cats, dress, Christmas, "New Year, Midsummer, All Hallows, illness, &c., ready for me to-morrow (Saturday) morning."
A curious little homily printed in 1768 is found among the " Statutes and Rules " of the early Museum. It is addressed to " all the officers belonging to the Museum." The Trustees expect that due deference " in things concerning the Museum " be shown " by those who bear an inferior to those who enjoy a superior office." At the same time, r each of a superior, should treat those of an inferior, rank, in regard to their office with condescension and respect ; and all, of them in general should consider themselves and -other officers as gentlemen living under the same roof, and equally engage in carrying on the same noble design." Time passes and ideals change their mode of expression. Later on the same aspirations are thus expressed : " General Instruction to the several officers, that they conduct themselves as men of honour, integrity, and liberality, in the conscientious discharge of the duties of their respective stations, and as men who have the credit and utility of the Institution truly at heart." Surely these precepts must have' counted for a good deal in the gradual perfecting of the courteous practice, which has cemented an unchanging friendship between the British public and those of its betters, who are technically its servants, at the British Museum.
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