f buildings; and gold medals for historical composition in painting,
sculpture, and designs in Architecture, once in two years; which latter
are presented to the successful Artists in full assembly, accompanied
with a discourse from the President, calculated to stimulate
perseverance and exertion. Students have at all times, (except during
the regular vacations,) an opportunity of studying nature from well
chosen models, and of drawing from the antique casts.

"This Exhibition is generally opened on the first of May. The number
of works of art, consisting of paintings, sculptures, models, proof
engravings and drawings, generally exhibited, are upwards of one
thousand; and are usually visited by all the gaiety and fashion of the
Metropolis, between the hours of two and five o'clock in ~240~~the day.
The rooms are elegant and spacious; and I consider it at all times
a place where a shilling may be well spent, and an hour or two well
enjoyed.

"Some spend a life in classing grubs, and try,
New methods to impale a butterfly;
Or, bottled up in spirits, keep with care
A crowd of reptiles--hideously rare;
While others search the mouldering wrecks of time,
And drag their stores from dust and rust and slime;
Coins eat with canker, medals half defac'd,
And broken tablets, never to be trac'd;
Worm-eaten trinkets worn away of old,
And broken pipkins form'd in antique mould;
Huge limbless statues, busts of heads forgot,
And paintings representing none knows what;
Strange legends that to monstrous fables lead,
And manuscripts that nobody can read;
The shapeless forms from savage hands that sprung,
And fragments of rude art, when Art was young.
This precious lumber, labell'd, shelv'd, and cas'd,
And with a title of Museum grac'd,
Shews how a man may time and fortune waste,
And die a mummy'd connoisseur of taste."

[Illustration: page240 Somerset House]

On entering the rooms, Bob was bewildered with delight; the elegance
of the company, the number and excellence of the paintings, were
attractions so numerous and splendid, as to leave him no opportunity
of decidedly fixing his attention. He was surrounded by all that
could enchant the eye and enrapture the imagination. Moving groups of
interesting females were parading the rooms wi