ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 27
Our illustrious countryman, Ray, in passing through Basle,
visited Plater's Museum, which he describes as "a good
collection of minerals, stones, metals, dried fishes, and other
natural and artificial rarities," and he goes on to say that these
were "disposed in a good method, the names being set to each
one.33 Plater had evidently the methodical instinct of the true
curator.
Gesner's museum carries us back at least 350 years, but we
might pursue the history of museums to a much more remote
period, for we know that there were collections of natural
objects occasionally made by men in advance of their generation.
To us, however, it is more interesting to note the character of
the museums which satisfied the wants of our forefathers in
less remote times.
During the eighteenth century, and even later, there were
several proprietary museums opened in London and elsewhere as
shows. Probably the most famous was that of Sir Ashton Lever.
Born at Alkrington, near Manchester, in 1729, he developed in
early life a great taste for collecting, and being possessed of ample
means, acquired a large collection. This he removed, in 1774,
from Alkrington Hall to London, and he then exhibited it at
Leicester House, in Leicester Square. He styled his exhibition
the "Holophysikon," and charged each visitor 5s. 3d. for
admission. Having spent a very large sum on his museum his
affairs became embarrassed and he offered his collection at a very
moderate price to the trustees of the British Museum. By them,
however, it was declined. Lever then obtained parliamentary power
to dispose of it by lottery, the value officially put upon it being
£53,000. At the lottery the prize fell to a certain James Parkinson,
who had been a law-stationer and estate agent. He not un-
naturally endeavoured to dispose of it, and seems to have entered
into negotiations with people of importance, like the Queen of
Portugal and the Empress of Russia ; but these negotiations fell
through, and as the rent of Leicester House was considerable he
purchased a piece of ground in Albion Street, Southwark, in which
he erected a building that came to be known as the Rotunda.34 To
this museum the admission was half-a-crown, and for some years
33 "Travels through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France." 2nd ed., 1738,
p. 85.
34 A view of the interior of the Museum is engraved as a frontispiece to the Catalogue,
entitled A Companion to the Museum (late Sir Ashton Lever's). Removed to Albion Street, the
Surrey End of Black Friars bridge. London, 1790.