88 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH., [The Mound.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MOUND (concluded).
The Art Galleries-The National Gallery The Various Collections-The Royal Smttish Academy-Early Scottish Artists-The Institution-
The First Exhibition in Edinburgh-Foundation of the Admy-Presidents: G. Wataon, Sir William Allan. Sir J. W. Godon,
Si Gcorge Harvcy, Sir Daniel bfaatec-The Spalding Fund.
THEIR objects being akin, the Royal Icstitution and
Art Galleries stand in convenient proximity to each
other. The formation of the latter was one of the
results of the Report, referred to, by Sir John Shaw
Lefevre on the constitution of the Board of Manufactures
; and subsequent negotiations with the
Treasury led to the erection of the Galleries, the
foundation stone of which was laid by the Prince
Consort on the 30th of August, 1850, and they
were opened in 1859. The Treasury furnished
;t;30,000, the Board ~oo,ooo, and the city a
portion of the site at a nominal rate. By these
arrangements the Scottish people have a noble
National Gallery of great and increasing value, and
the Royal Scottish Academy has also been provided
with saloons for its annual exhibitions.
Designed by W. H, Playfair, the Galleries are so
situated that a railway tunnel crosses beneath their
foundation and a lofty green bank overlooks the
south end. They form a crucifom edifice, the
main length of which lies north and south, with a
broad and high transept intersecting the centre ;
at the south and north ends, or fronts, are beautiful
Ionic porticoes, and on each face of the transept
is a handsome hexastyle Ionic portico. The
eastern range is occupied by the Royal Scottish
Academy?s Exhibition from February till May in
each year, and the western range is permanently
used as the National Gallery, containing a collection
of paintings by old masters and modern artists and
a few works of sculpture, among which, terminating
the long vista of the saloons, is Flaxman?s fine
statue of Robert Bums. The first of these contains
specimens of the Flemish, Dutch, and French
schools of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ;
the central or second saloon specimens of the
Jtalian, Venetian, Genoese, Florentine, Flemish,
and other schools of the same period; while the
third room is devoted to examples of the Scottish
school.
The collections generally include some fine
specimens of Vandyke, Titian, Tintoretto, Velasquez,
Paul Veronese, Spagnoletto, Rembrandt, and others.
There is also a noble series of portraits by Sir
Thomas Lawrence, Sir Henry Raeburn, George
Watson (first President of the Academy), Sir John
Watson Gordon, and Graham Gilbert. In one
of the rooms set apart for modem works may be
