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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Royal Museum of Scotland
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(Edinburgh)
The name now shared by two institutions which merged in 1985. The Royal Museum in Chambers Street was until then the Royal Scottish Museum. Founded in 1854, it has wide-ranging holdings in natural history, archaeology, technology and the decorative arts. It occupies a superb building of 1861–5 by Francis Fowke (later architect of the *Albert Hall); behind a Venetian Renaissance façade there is a great entrance hall more in the style of the *Crystal Palace. An ambitious extension is being built during the mid-1990s, designed by Gordon Benson and Alan Forsyth; their design won in a competition with nearly 400 entrants, but the private nature of the selection process (left, in his words, to 'so-called experts') caused the prince of Wales to resign as patron of the museum in 1991.
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The Royal Museum in Queen Street was previously the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. Founded in 1817, it covers Scottish history from *Stone Age times to recent centuries. Among the greatest treasures are the Monymusk reliquary (8C) and a hoard of Celtic silver of the same period, found on St Ninian's Isle in the Shetlands and probably buried by monks to save it from marauding *Vikings. The museum shares a building with the *Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
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