Cecil Harcourt Smith

“ In 1840, contrary to the wishes of his family, he entered the British Museum as assistant in the department of antiquities. As a career the museum, as it then was, can have presented but few attractions to a young man; but the department, as yet undivided, probably offered to Newton a wider range of comparative study in his subject than he could otherwise have acquired. ”

“ Thus in the ten years 1864-74 alone he was enabled to purchase no less than five important collections of classical antiquities: the Farnese, the two great series of Castellani, the Pourtales, and the Blacas collections, representing in special grants upwards of 100,000l.; only those who know what labour and tact are involved in the capture of even the smallest 'special grant' can appreciate what this implies. ”