The Prehistoric Saloon is situated at the head of the principal staircase. It is intended to contain the collections of prehistoric remains, but at present (1888) the only portion arranged is the Greenwell. Collection presented in 1879 by the Rev. William Greenwell, F.R.S. The objects were excavated by him during twenty years of explorations in ancient British barrows (as recorded in his work on British Barrows, 1877). Out of this saloon runs, to the east (opposite the staircase)—

The Medieval Room-containing a fine collection of arms and armour chiefly derived from a bequest made in 1881 by Mr. William Burges, A.R.A.; specimens of Oriental metalwork from the 13th century downwards, inlaid with silver or gold, chiefly bequeathed by Mr. John Henderson, F.S.A., 1878; a curious collection of astrolabes, sundials, and old clocks and watches; a very fine series of Limoges enamels; carvings in ivory and other materials; objects used in games, such as a set of chessmen of about the middle of the 12th century, made of walrus tusk; draughtmen and inlaid backgammon boards. In 1888 the bequest of Mr. Octavius Morgan's remarkably complete collection of clocks, watches, and dials was added. On the walls are hung portraits, the remainder of a large collection formerly in the Museum, of which the greater part was transferred to the National Portrait Gallery and a small number to the National Gallery.

POTTERY AND GLASS

The Asiatic Saloon contains illustrations of various eastern mythologies. One half of the room is occupied by Oriental porcelain and pottery. These ceramic collections from Japan and China have been chiefly presented by Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B., F.R.S. They are of great historical importance as well as of distinguished beauty.

Out of the Asiatic Gallery the visitor turns to the right into the English Ceramic Ante-Room, which gives access to the new galleries in the White Building. This ante-room contains a collection of Early English pottery, ranging in date from Norman times to about 1500; a collection of slipware and other glazed wares of the 16th and two following centuries; Staffordshire pottery; pavement tiles dating from the 13th to the 16th century; Fulham stoneware by Dwight; and a matchless collection of English porcelain, including specimens of Bow, Chelsea, Derby-Chelsea, Derby, Plymouth, Bristol, Lowestoft, Worcester, Liverpool, Nantgarw, etc.

The Glass and Ceramic Gallery (in the White Building) contains the rest of the English Collection and the pottery of various foreign countries, and the collection of glass of all ages and countries.

The English collection of pottery consists of Staffordshire wares, Wedgwood, Bristol Delft and the Delft - wares of Lambeth. The collection of Wedgwood ware is very fine, and includes a large number of medallion portraits.

In the cases on the north side of the gallery are specimens of Dutch and German Delft, German pottery and stoneware, Italian pottery,

Italian majolica, Spanish pottery, Rhodian and Damascus ware; Persian pottery and French pottery at the end of the room. In the cases on the south side of the gallery is arranged chronologically the matchless collection of glass, largely consisting of Mr. Felix Slade's munificent bequest. Some of the choicest specimens of antique glass were bequeathed by Sir William Temple in 1856.

ETHNOGRAPHY

The Ethnographical Gallery runs along the east wing of the building and leads to the north-east staircase. It contains the ethnographical collections from various parts of the world, excepting those from China and Japan, which are placed in the Asiatic Saloon, but it includes, from want of other space, the antiquities from America. Mr. Henry Christy's ethnographical collections, bequeathed to the Museum in 1865 (which for several years remained in Mr. Christy's residence in Victoria Street, Westminster), are incorporated with other collections and the whole rearranged in a systematic manner. The series of arms and armour is chiefly derived from the bequests of Mr. John Henderson, F.S.A., and Mr. William Burges, A.R.A., and the gift of a part of the Meyrick Collection by General Meyrick.

COINS AND MEDALS

This great collection has grown, by a series of purchases, bequests, and donations, to be the largest in Europe, and now forms a separate department, kept in rooms adjoining the Gem and Ornament Room. The collection originated in the acquisition of the cabinets of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Hans Sloane. In 1802 was purchased the Anglo-Saxon coins of Mr. S. Tyssen. The Townley Collection in 1805 and 1814; in 1814 Mr. Edward Roberts's English coins; and in 1811 the Greek coins of Colonel de Bosset. The rich collection of Mr. Payne Knight was obtained by bequest in 1824; and in 1833 the Greek and Roman coins collected by Mr. H. P. Borrell of Smyrna were purchased. In 1836 was received Mr. Marsden's valuable bequest of Oriental coins; in 1856 Sir William Temple's Greek and Roman coins; in 1861 Count De Salis's gift of Roman coins; in 1864 Mr. Edward Wigan's costly present of Imperial Roman gold coins, and in 1866 Mr. Woodhouse's bequest of his Greek cabinet. The Blacas cabinet of upwards of 4000 coins, chiefly Roman gold, was purchased in 1866; and in 1872 a selection of the finest specimens in the Wigan Collection was purchased for £10,000. Finally, in 1877, "a very important addition was made to the collection by the donation of the cabinet of coins and medals belonging to the Bank of England, including the Cuff and Haggard medals." The collection numbers nearly 300,000 pieces, arranged and catalogued under five classes,-Greek, Roman, English, Mediæval and Modern, and Oriental,—and is of the highest value to all students. The department is not open to the general public, but the student may obtain admission to the Coin and Medal Room on special application

to the Keeper. Cases containing an historical series of coins and medals were formerly exhibited in the King's Library, and a large collection is now (1888) exhibited in the Northern Galleries.

PRINTS AND DRAWINGS

This department is on the upper floor, in the White Building, and has an entrance out of the Asiatic Saloon. It contains the priceless collection of original drawings, etchings, and engravings by the great masters of all the schools. The department was formed from the collections of Sloane, Cracherode, and Payne Knight; the Sheepshanks Collection of Dutch and Flemish etchings purchased in 1836; Raphael Morghen's works, purchased in 1843; Girtin's drawings, presented by Mr. Chambers Hall between 1850-1855, besides the celebrated drawing of the Entombment by Raphael, also presented by him. Mr. Edward Hawkins's political caricatures, purchased in 1867; the choice collection bequeathed by Mr. Felix Slade in 1868, and the water-colours by Müller, David Cox, and Turner, bequeathed in 1878 by Mr. John Henderson. Among the original drawings are specimens by Fra Angelico, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Mantegna, and most of the great masters of Italy. By Claude Lorraine there are 272 drawings-a part of the Payne Knight bequest. Of the German School there are excellent specimens by Michael Wohlgemuth, Schongauer, Albert Dürer, Holbein and the later masters. The schools of the Netherlands are well represented, the Rembrandt and Rubens drawings being particularly fine, and there are many by the older French and Spanish painters. The etchings and engravings are arranged under their several schools. The impressions are generally excellent (always the best procurable), many are proofs, and some unique. Of the works of Marc Antonio and his followers the series is nearly complete. So is that of Durer, Hollar, etc. So is that of William Faithorne. So is the collections of portraits after Sir Joshua Reynolds. The collection of mezzotints arranged in chronological order is fine, and in connection with this should be mentioned the works of the late Samuel Cousins, R.A. The collection of Rembrandt's etchings has few if any rivals. The Department contains one of the finest and most complete series of Hogarth engravings, in their various states. Our early line engravers, Woollett, Strange, Sharp, and their successors, down to Doo and his contemporaries, the last professors of the almost lost art, are remarkably well represented. Engravings of old London buildings and topography seemed for long to centre about the Crowle Pennant (comprised in fourteen volumes of the largest folio at a cost of over £7000), but recent additions, and especially the purchase of nearly 6000 specimens from Mr. Crace's very remarkable collection, have gone far to render the British Museum what it ought to be the richest repository of London views. Mention must also be made of the marvellous collection of Japanese drawings, over 4000 in number. The department is also specially

rich in its collection of foreign and English portraits and of historical prints.

At the end of the Glass and Ceramic Gallery is a door leading into the Print and Drawing Gallery, which is set aside as the special exhibition-room of the Department of Prints and Drawings. Some of the collections are occasionally exhibited in other parts of the building, as in the King's Library, and in 1888 a selection of prints intended to illustrate the growth and development of the art of engraving in its main branches from its first maturity about 1480 A.D. to about 18401850 were shown in the second Northern Gallery.

Mr. Louis Fagan, assistant-keeper of the Department, has published an account of the treasures of the Print Room under the title of "Handbook to the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London" (Bell and Sons) 1876.

LIBRARY

The Library of the British Museum comprises the departments of Printed Books and of Manuscripts. The growth of the Library has been shadowed in the sketch of the growth of the Museum. At the opening of the Museum the printed books consisted of about 50,000 volumes; the subsequent increase has been from bequests, donations and purchases, and from the Museum being entitled under the Copyright Act to a copy of every work published in the United Kingdom. The rapidity with which the Library has increased of late years is amazing. "The Library has been twice counted," wrote Mr. Winter Jones, the late Principal Librarian, "the first time on July 25, 1838, when the number of printed volumes was found to be 235,000; and again on December 15, 1849, at which period they had increased to 435,000." In 1888 Mr. G. Bullen, the present Keeper of the Printed Books, stated in the Official Guide that "the Library of Printed Books consists of about 1,500,000 volumes." The number of volumes and pamphlets added to the Library in 1887 was 25,958: "of which 3736 were presented, 10,609 received in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 1545 received under the International Copyright Treaties, and 10,068 acquired by purchase." To these are to be added 55,835 parts of volumes and separate numbers of periodicals, and about 2137 sets of newspapers. These vast collections are stored in the east and north ranges of the Museum and the presses which surround the Reading Room. To these rooms the public are not indiscriminately admitted, but a selection of the rarest and most interesting books and manuscripts is exhibited in the King's and Grenville Libraries, and students on application to the Principal Librarian may obtain admission to the Reading Room and the free use of the Library.

The Grenville Library, on the right (east) of the Entrance Hall, is so called as containing the library of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1 British Museum, Report for 1888.

of upwards of 20,000 choice volumes, all in handsome bindings, which cost its owner over £54,000, and which he bequeathed to the Museum in 1846.

The King's Library, a splendid room, 300 feet long, contains the magnificent library formed by George III., and transferred to the nation by George IV. in 1823. In these two rooms are exhibited in table-cases the choice books already referred to. Cases 1 and 2 in the Grenville Library contain Block-Books-the now excessively rare books printed from wooden blocks, on one side of the leaf, in use before the invention of printing with movable metal types, and continued for some time afterwards. Observe particularly, in Case 1, the Biblia Pauperum, with illustrations coloured by hand, probably the earliest edition. Three other editions, one dated 1475, allow of comparison with it. Books of the Canticles and of the Apocalypse. In Case 2, Speculum Humanæ Salvationis; German Almanac, of about 1474; and impression from a block of about 1460, representing the Seven Ages of Man, with the Wheel of Fortune in the centre. Case 3 (King's Library) contains the choicest examples of the earliest productions of the printing press in Germany; the so-called Mazarin Bible, the earliest complete printed book known, supposed to have been printed at Mentz by Gutenberg and Fust about 1455; Latin Bible, printed on vellum at Mentz by Fust and Schoeffer in 1462-the first Bible with a date; the first and second editions of the Psalter, on vellum, by the same printers, 1457 and 1459. A Bill of Indulgence of Pope Nicholas V., dated 1455; Cicero, Officium libri tres; on vellum, by Fust and Schoeffer, 1465, "the first edition of the first Latin classic printed, and one of the two books in which Greek type was first used." Cases 4 and 5 continue the series of early German printed books. Cases 6 and 7 specimens of the earliest books printed in Italy and France. The works of Lactantius, printed in the monastery of Subiaco near Rome in 1465-the first book printed in Italy with a date; Livy, by the same printers, about 1469, the only known copy on vellum-bought by Mr. Grenville for £903; the first edition of Dante's Divina Commedia, printed at Foligno by Johann Numeister, 1472; Gasparinus Barzizius, Liber Epistolarum, printed at the Sorbonne, Paris, 1470-the first book printed in France. In Case 8 are some of the earliest books printed in England. No. 3, Le Fevre's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book printed in English, was printed by Caxton abroad (probably at Bruges, where he learned printing) about 1474; "The dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophires, emprynted by me William Caxton at Westmestre the yere of our lorde MCCCCLXXVII"-the first book printed in England. Other Caxtons should also be noticed, among them the Speculum Vita Christi, of St. Bonaventure, 1488, one of the only two books known to have been printed by Caxton on vellum. Trevisa's translation of Glanville, De proprietatibus Rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1495 the first book printed on paper of English manufacture, made at John Tate's mill, Hertford. No. 18, the finest copy known