right, or south side, the Harleian MSS., on the left the Lansdowne and Old Royal collections, and on the east side the Cottonian Library. In the galleries above are deposited the Sloane MSS. and a portion of the Additional MSS.

On entering the Room, from the Grenville Library, the visitor has on his right hand a series of English and Foreign Charters in glazed frames. They are:

A selection from the Anglo-Saxon Charters, of which as many as one hundred and forty are preserved in the Department.* They record grants made by Hodilredus or Ethelred, a kinsman of Sebbi, King of Essex, in the year 692-3; and by Edgar, Canute, and Edward the Confessor, Kings of England, in 961, 1031, and 1045. Grants by Kings Henry I., Henry II., Richard I., Henry III., and Edward I.; together with a deed whereby Louis, son of Philip Augustus, King of France, when fighting with the disaffected English barons against King John, makes a grant of the town of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, in 1216; an acknowledgment by Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III., of a debt due to Florentine merchants in England, in 1262; and a grant by Magnus, King of Man and the Isles, in 1256. Letters Patent of Edward II., confirming articles for the reform of the government, A.D. 1311. A deed of Edward III., restoring the lands of Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, A.D. 1331; with a wellexecuted ornamental border.

The original Articles of Liberties demanded by the Barons of King John, which formed the foundation of Magna Charta, A.D. 1215; with the Great Seal attached.

Charters of William II. and Henry I.; signed with crosses by the Kings and witnesses. Decree of the Emperor Hludouuicus [Louis le Débonnaire] respecting lands on the river Weser, A.D. 840.

A charter of Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, A.D. 1123; with the episcopal seal. Charter of Ferdinand IV., King of Castile, A.D. 1307; with a bulla, or leaden seal, attached.

Adjoining the above are two large frames, in which are enclosed a collection of books and papers containing autograph works or inscriptions. They are:

Specimens of caligraphy, or copy-books, written in their youth by Edward VI., the Princess, afterwards Queen, Elizabeth, Charles I. when Prince, and William, Duke of Cumberland, in 1727. A manual of prayers, having on the margins some lines in the handwriting of Lady Jane Grey, and said to have been used by her on the scaffold, 12 February, 1554. The original draft of the will of Mary, Queen of * Printed in photographic facsimile, in four volumes, entitled, "Ancient Charters in the British Museum," 1873-1878.

The

Scots, with corrections and additions in her hand; dated 1577. Basilikon Doron, or Book of the Institution of a Prince, written by. James I. for the instruction of his son, Prince Henry; wholly in the King's autograph. The original manuscript of the tragedy of "Torismondo," by Torquato Tasso. Ben Jonson's "Masque of Queenes,' represented at Whitehall in 1609. An inscription written in an album, in 1651, by John Milton. An original diary, kept by John Locke, in 1679. A memorandum-book, found on the person of the Duke of Monmouth after the battle of Sedgmoor, 1685. A volume of the original draft of the translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, by Alexander Pope. The corrected draft of the "Sentimental Journey," by Laurence Sterne. The original draft of Dr. Johnson's tragedy of Irene." A volume of the writings of Frederic the Great, King of Prussia. A Dialogue, written by Jean Jacques. Rousseau. Autobiography of Robert Burns, in the form of a letter; 1787. The autograph manuscript of the novel of "Kenilworth," by Sir Walter Scott. A leaf of the rough autograph draft of the concluding chapter of Lord Macaulay's History of England.

On the same side of the Room are placed other separate frames, in which are:

1. Photograph of a deed, preserved in the Department, whereby "William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Gentleman," and others mortgage a house within the precincts of the Blackfriars, London; dated 11 March, 1613, and having Shakspeare's signature affixed.

2. A document in the handwriting of the poet Edmund Spenser. 3. The original Articles of Agreement for the sale of the copyright of the "Paradise Lost," in 1667; with the signature and seal of John Milton.

4. A sketch-plan of the Battle of Aboukir; drawn by Lord Nelson in 1803.

5. Enumeration of the British cavalry at Waterloo, in the handwriting of the Duke of Wellington.

Returning to the entrance, the visitor has on his left hand a series of autograph letters, which are displayed in glazed cases, arranged in the following order :

Four frames containing forty-nine letters of English and Foreign Eminent Men, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, among whom are Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, Erasmus; Wolsey, Cranmer, Sir T. More, John Knox; Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney. Lord Burghley, Sir Francis Bacon; John Hampden, Prince Rupert, Montrose, Clarendon; William Penn, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren; Michael Angelo, Albert Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt. Van Dyck; Ariosto, Galileo; Corneille, Molière, Racine, Voltaire;

Dryden, Swift, Prior, Addison, Byron; Pitt, Burke, Fox; Washington, Franklin; Marlborough, Wellington, and Nelson. The letter of Nelson is addressed to Lady Hamilton, and was written on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805. It was found open and unfinished at his death.

Two frames containing autographs of English and Foreign Sovereigns. The English series extends from Edward IV. to George III., and includes letters of Queens Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Lady Jane Grey, and also Mary Queen of Scots. The Foreign series commences with the Emperor Charles V., and includes Philip II. of Spain; Francis I., Queen Catherine de' Medici, Henry IV., Louis XIV., Louis XVI., and Napoleon I. of France; Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII., of Sweden; Peter the Great and Catherine II., of Russia; and Frederic the Great of Prussia.

Adjoining these frames, at right angles, are:

Two frames containing autographs, generally of modern date, which have been recently acquired. Among them are specimens of the handwriting of Dr. Donne, Jeremy Taylor, George Whitefield, Thomas Gray, Shelley, Sidney Smith; Wilkie, Turner; Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Spohr, Rossini, Jenny Lind; and Charles Dickens.

In the centre of the Room are three table-cases containing illuminated and other manuscripts.

In the "Centre Table Case are exhibited Manuscripts in Oriental languages. There are specimens of Sanskrit, Pali, Cingalese, Javanese, Batta, Kannadi, Armenian, and Chinese, written on paper, palm, and other leaves, bark, metal plates, or ivory; and volumes of finely written and ornamented books in Arabic and Persian.

The 66 South Table Case" contains specimens of medieval bindings in metal set with gems, ivory, enamel, stamped or cut leather, and needle-worked embroidery, executed in different countries of Europe, from the ninth to the present century.

The North Table Case" contains illuminated and other manuscripts of European workmanship, which have been acquired in recent times. They are thus arranged :

:

First Compartment.-(1.) The "Instituta Coenobiorum" of Joannes Cassianus, written in Spain, in Visigothic characters, in the tenth century; with coloured initials of interlaced and other patterns. (2.) The Psalter, in Latin, written in Flanders about the year 1300, with miniatures and illuminated initials and borders. (3.) The Psalter, in Latin, written in Lombardic characters of the twelfth century and finely illuminated.

Second Compartment.-(4.) An "Exultet" Roll, containing the service for the benediction of the Paschal Candle on Easter Eve;

written in Italy, in Lombardic characters of the twelfth century, and having pictures drawn in the reversed direction to the text, so as to be seen by the congregation as the roll fell over the front of the reading-desk. (5.) "Somme le Roy," a moral treatise compiled by Friar Laurent for Philip III. of France; written and illuminated at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and having a series of beautifully finished miniatures. (6.) The Psalter, in Latin, written and illuminated in England at the end of the thirteenth century, with a series of miniatures of the Life of Christ.

Third Compartment.-(7.) The Psalter, in Latin, written and illuminated for Alphonso the Fifth of Aragon, about the year 1442. (8.) Hours of the Virgin Mary, in Latin, written in France, and ornamented by French and Italian artists, in the fifteenth century. (9.) Hours of the Virgin Mary, in Latin, written and illuminated in France, in the fifteenth century. (10.) The Breviary of Roman use, in Latin, executed for a member of the house of Medici in the fifteenth century. (11.) A poem by Camillo Paleoti, of Bologna, dedicated to Henry VIII. of England, about the year 1513. (12.)" Office de la Vierge," caligraphically written by Nicholas Jarry

in 1650.

Fourth Compartment.—(13.) The volume of English Ballads and Romances from which Bishop Percy selected the poems published under the title of "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; " written in the seventeenth century. (14.) A treatise, in French, on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, composed and written by King Edward VI. in 1549. (15.) Portion of the original manuscript of "The Analysis of Beauty," by William Hogarth.

Fifth Compartment.-(16.) Hymnary, in Latin, richly illuminated and illustrated with miniatures, for the use of the Friars Hermits of St. Augustine, or Scopetini, of S. Salvadore, near Siena, in the year 1415.

Sixth Compartment.-(17.) Breviary of the Roman use, in Latin, written in Italy in the fifteenth century, with miniatures, borders, and initials in the best style of Florentine art. It belonged to Pietro Riario, Patriarch of Constantinople, who became a Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence, and died in 1474.

On the east side of the Room are exhibited, in frames attached to the screen, a series of photographic prints from early illuminated manuscripts and from Anglo-Saxon charters, of periods from A.D. 692 to 838.

On the west, south, and east sides of the Room are placed four upright glazed cases, in which are exhibited early Biblical manuscripts.

Case A.-(1.) A volume of the CODEX ALEXANDRINUS, which contains the Greek text of the Holy Scriptures, written in uncial letters

on very thin vellum of the fifth century. The Codex is bound in four volumes, and was presented to King Charles I. by Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople. (2.) The Books of Genesis and Exodus, according to the Peshito or Syriac version; written in the year 464, and believed to be the earliest dated MS. extant of any entire books of the Scriptures.

Case B.-The Bible, in the Vulgate Latin text, as revised by Alcuin, Abbat of Tours, by command of Charlemagne, between the years 796 and 800. The present copy was probably written about the year 840; and is ornamented with large miniatures and initial letters.

Case C.-A double roll containing the Pentateuch, written on goatskin in the fourteenth century.

Case D.-A volume of the Koran, in Arabic, written in gold in the year 1305-6.

The following Deeds and Papyri are exhibited in frames attached to the wainscot, in the north-west and north-east corners of the Room.

On the West Side.-(1.) Instrument, in Latin, on papyrus, measuring 8 feet by 1 foot, containing a deed of sale of property in Rimini; dated at Ravenna in the year 572. (2, 3.) Photographs. of two copies of the MAGNA CHARTA of King John, A.D. 1215,. preserved in the Museum collection. (4.) Passport, on papyrus, granted by the Governor of Egypt in A.D. 750. (5.) Charter of Alphonso the Wise, King of Castile, of A.D. 1254, in which year, it is added, Edward, son of Henry III. of England, received knighthood from King Alphonso at Burgos. It is attested by the Moorish Kings.. of Granada, Murcia, and Niebla, and by seventy-seven prelates and nobles, assembled, no doubt, to celebrate the marriage of Eleanor of Castile with Prince Edward of England. (6.) Act constituting a municipal council for the city of Cologne, in 1396; with the seals of the various guilds. (7.) Original Bull of Pope Leo X., conferring on King Henry VIII. the title of Defender of the Faith, A.D. 1521.. (8.) Agreement respecting Sir Richard Steele's profits in Drury Lane Theatre, 1721.

On the East Side.-A series of Papyri, four in Coptic and one in Greek, relating to the monastery of St. Phoebamon, near Hermonthis in Egypt; of the eighth and ninth centuries.

At the north end of the Room are two table-cases in which are displayed impressions of royal, ecclesiastic, monastic, and baronial Seals; the greater number being attached to original documents.

The West Table contains a complete set of impressions of the

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