e Prince
of Canino in excavating on his estate in search of Etruscan tombs and
their treasures are well known; and the enthusiasm with which Sir
William Hamilton, while on his embassy at Naples, bought the
curiosities of Etruscan tombs, should be remembered. Few Englishmen,
however, can think pleasantly of those times when the Hamiltons were
at Naples, when Lady Hamilton did her country great services; then
recall the picture of the poor woman fed by a charitable neighbour at
Calais, think of Horatio's last words, and then of the country that
forgets the woman's service, and the hero's dying words. Well, the
visitor may pass on his way amidst these spoils from Etruscan tombs,
and forgetting the family to whom we owe many of them, serenely watch
the gradual improvement in the manufacture. The best have black
figures upon a dark ground. The glass cases in the centre of the room
contain those vases which are painted on both sides. On the walls of
the room above the cases are fac-similes of paintings from some of the
Etruscan tombs. Some of them represent dances and games; but one
represents a female in the act of covering the head of a man who has
just expired, while a male figure is drawing a covering over the feet,
and two spectators are in attitudes of grief in the neighbourhood.
Having roamed amid the spoils of Etruscan tombs, the search after
which is now a settled business in parts of Italy, the visitor may
take a southerly direction through two empty rooms into that at the
southern extremity of the western wing. Here a few miscellaneous
objects are deposited, amongst which in the eastern cases he should
notice some curious old enamels, and the frescoes from St. Stephen's
Chapel, Westminster, and on the floor, a model of the Victory. He
should then turn in an easternly direction into the Ethnographical
room, which, to the visitor without a guide has very much the
appearance of a confined curiosity shop; but on inspection proves to
be an interesting compartment of the Museum, in which curiosities
illustrative of the civilisation of various countries and continents
are arranged. Before applying himself to the wall cases, however, the
visitor would do well to advance to the eastern extremity of the room,
noticing the objects deposited in the central space by the way. These
consist of Flaxman's cast of the shield of Achilles; a model of the
Thugs fashioned at Madras by a native artist; a model of a moveable
temple; her M