FOURTEENTH A.D. CHAUCER. The Three Edwards. Bannockburn. Famine in England. The Hundred Years’ War begins. Battle of Crecy. The Black Death (Plague). Battle of Poictiers. Bolingbroke dethrones Richard II. Froissart’s Chronicle. Wallace and Bruce. Dante. John of Gaunt. Rienzi. Van Artevelde. Wickliffe. Huss. Boccaccio. Petrarch. William Tell. It will, if what we have tried to describe has conveyed its intended meaning, be seen that an observer passing slowly down the length of the room, may appreciate at a glance the relative position of the principal events in the world’s history. He can hardly avoid noticing, with fair accuracy, the distance between Homer and Socrates, between Socrates and Paul, and between the Christian epoch and the times of Milton and Shakespeare. He will be impressed at once, as, possibly, he never was before, with a perception of the brief and very recent portion of time which contains the whole of the annals of our own nation. If, in addition to thus obtaining a sort of bird’s-eye view of the progress of the world, it is desired to go into detail and devote time to the enquiry, a certain amount of help will be found to have been provided on the table-shelf. Detailed schedules taken from the “The Centuries” (see advertisement) have been mounted on board conveniently for hand use, and are placed on the table-shelf at the foot of each century. A few books of reference in biography and history, and numerous maps, have also been suitably placed, and there are chairs. The “Historical Schedule” described takes up, as we have said, the whole of one side of the long room. The other side of it, as well as much of the floor-space, is occupied by somewhat miscellaneous illustrations of prehistoric times, and of nations and races which have not as yet attained to history. The anthropoids, anthropology and ethnology in general here find illustration, in large part, but not wholly, by pictorial aid. We have also a few interesting objects suitable, as illustrating social progress, for what is now known as a Folk-Museum. It is believed that this department of the Museum offers special facilities to teachers, who bring their classes into it and give explanations on the spot, and that by enabling the pupil to obtain a wide purview of historical times, it may do somewhat to obviate the inevitably cramping influence of the too detailed study of single epochs. * * * * * FAMOUS WOMEN AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. We have climbed to the third landing. Let us turn into the left-hand gallery and we shall come to one of the most interesting groups in the whole Museum.