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The Lord-Lieutenant laying the Foundation-Stone of the New Museum, at Dublin, 1856. Ceremony on '...the lawn of the Royal Dublin Society's premises, Merrion-square...The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland expressed the hope '"...that the building [part of the National Museum of Ireland] about to arise on the spot already connected with high ancestral recollections of Ireland may...furnish ever-increasing accommodation for the pursuits of useful knowledge and humanising accomplishments, and open for the coming generations worthy temples of science, art, and learning, at whose shrine they may be taught how most to reverence their Creator, and how best to benefit their fellow-creatures". The proposed building, according to the plans and elevation of Mr. Frederick V. Clarendon, architect, will be 225 feet in length, 45 in breadth, and 55 in height, ornamentally faced with cut stone'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.