THE PRINT-ROOM AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
IT is astonishing how little the rich gems that this place contains are known. Thinly as the reading-rooms of the Museum are attended, they may be looked upon as absolutely crowded when compared with the few straggling visitants who now and then penetrate to the recesses of the Print-room; for although Mr. SMITH, the keeper of the prints, is in constant attendance during five days of the week, it is rarely that more than three' or four persons will be found there taking advan- tage of the treasures which through his obliging administration are within their reach.
And yet there would he no dearth of attraction, did the public but
know even one quarter of the ritit vrorks of art which the print-room contains; and which to describe -only in the shape of a catalogue, would go nearer to fill a volume than a newspaper notice. Among the foremost of those which claim rank on account of their value and merit, are the volumes of REMBRANDT, MARC ANTONIO, CLAUDE (WOOLLETT), HOGARTH, and RAPHAEL. • We believe that thecollec- tions of these celebrated men, contained in the Museum, may safely challenge competition with any other collection in the whole world. Mr. CROWLE'S copy of PENNANT'S London Illustrated is likewise to be found in the same place ; and to the antiquarian, the topographist, or the curious, is an invaluable resource. It occupies fourteen large folio volumes; and took Mr. CROWLE nearly as many years in collect- ing, at an expense of upwards of 6,0 0 01.—it was so difficult to. procure some of the engravings. The History of England Illustrated with Portraits, is another of the shining lights of the Museum collection of prints ; and affords a delightful occupation to the studious man, who there finds an opportunity of basing on reality the images that his fancy has created of the poet, the philosopher, the warrior, the beauty, and the statesman.
But it is not in engravings only that the print-room is so rich: the collection of original and undoubted drawings by the first masters, within its store, is almost beyond belief. The drawings by CLAUDE alone are estimated at 30001. ; to say nothing of those which it has from the pencils Of REMBRANDT, ALBERT DURER and others ; to which must be added the excellent copies made by MOSMAN from the pic- tures of the first Italian painters, for which he received a fixed salary from the Marquis of EXETER, to induce him to continue in Italy long enough to make the collection a real specimen of what the Italians had been able to produce.
In concluding this little notice of a collection so well worthy of the
admiration of the public, we must congratulate both them and Mr. SMITH on the new room. which has lately been built for their reception, and in which the 'whole of this costly collection is now safely deposited. Till within a few months of the present time, they were placed in a small, inconvenient, and out-of-the-way place, beyond those apart- ments devoted to the reception of the Etruscan vases and other reliques of the ancient world : now they are to be found in a handsome room (immediately above the second reading-room), which is large enough not only properly to accommodate the collection, but likewise the visitors who find their way thither, to feast upon the richest pictorial dainties that a long series of the great masters have vouchsafed to mankind.
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