tion of Greek marbles one of the richest in Europe in works of the finest art. In sculpture of purely archaic interest the Museum is quite pre-eminent, for no other gallery can show works to rival in antiquity and completeness the wonderful monuments of Assyrian art unearthed by Mr. Layard at Assyrian Kouyunjik, the site of the ancient Nineveh, and at Nimroud. remains. The colossal bulls and long extent of sculptured slabs covered with inscriptions which ornamented the palace of Sennacherib, the records of Assyrian history inscribed in cuneiform character on sun-dried bricks and cylinders, with ivories, bronze vases, and numerous other objects, brought together within the Museum walls, have been the means of in a great measure restoring the history and realizing the grandeur and advanced civilization of an ancient empire, the memory of which had been almost lost.

The great collections of sculpture successively absorbed by the Museum were, in the majority of instances, accompanied by other monuments of ancient art-as bronzes, fictile vases, coins, gems, and gold ornaments; and these received large additions from the purchases made at the sale of the celebrated Pourtalès collection in 1865; the acquisition of the Blacas Pourtalès, collection in the year 1866; and the two collections pur-Castellani Blacas, and chased from Mr. Alessandro Castellani in 1872 and 1873 collections. respectively. These are mostly brought together in the suite of rooms on the first floor.

As was to be expected from their many-sided interest, the Coins and collection of coins and medals, from being a small branch of Medals. general antiquities, has grown to be a separate department. The first considerable acquisitions were derived from the general collections of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Hans Sloane. The cabinet of Anglo-Saxon coins of Samuel Tyssen was purchased in the year 1802 for £620; and this was followed, in 1805 and 1814, by the Townley collection; in 1810 by that of English coins formed by Edward Roberts, of the Exchequer, bought by Parliamentary vote for £4,200; in the following year by the Greek coins of Colonel de Bossett (£800); in 1824 by the coins and medals in Richard Payne-Knight's collection; in 1833 by the Greek and Roman coins of H. P. Borrell, of Smyrna (£1,000); in 1836 by the oriental collection be

:

Gems and

queathed by William Marsden; in 1856 by Greek and Roman coins from Sir William Temple's collection; in 1861 by Mr. De Salis's present of Roman coins of all metals; by that of Mr. Edward Wigan of imperial Roman gold coins, in 1864; by upwards of 4,000 coins, chiefly Roman gold, from the Blacas collection, in 1866; and in the same year by the Greek coins bequeathed by Mr. James Woodhouse. In 1872, the sum of £10,000 was expended in the purchase of the finest specimens of Greek and Roman coins in the Wigan collection. 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 extensive cabinet of gems which constituted the main Ornaments. feature of the Blacas collection, comprising 951 cameos and intaglios, including the chief part of the Strozzi collection, belongs to the department of Greek and Roman antiquities, and is placed on view, with other gems and with gold and silver ornaments, in the room adjoining the department of Coins.

phical col

lections. Sloane.

The original conception of the Museum as the combination of a library with works of classical art and specimens of natural history for a long time almost excluded the important, and, to Ethnogra- the general visitor, perhaps more interesting branch of Ethnographical and Medieval antiquities, though this was from the beginning partly represented by a portion of the Sloane museum. But, though of late growth, this department has rapidly developed itself, and is destined to form a conspicuous division of the Museum. The warlike weapons, the articles of dress and ornament, and other objects from the South Sea Islands, now no longer to be obtained, which had been derived from Captain Cook's explorations, until recently formed the principal representatives of the ethnographical section. But the addition of the prehistoric and general collection of Henry Christy, presented by his trustees to the nation in 1865, not as yet, however, placed in the Museum galleries, but still preserved in what was the private residence of the collector, raises it to a first importance.

Cook.

Christy.

Medieval collections.

The Medieval section has been greatly assisted by donations

and bequests the bequests of Mr. Felix Slade, in 1868, Slade. chiefly of glass; of Mr. John Henderson, in 1878, of rare Henderson. pottery, oriental arms, &c.; and the gift of Major-General Meyrick. Meyrick, in the same year, of oriental armour and military weapons, with other objects. Very many single specimens of Majolica, and antiquities of all descriptions, together with an extensive collection of oriental porcelain, have been from time to time presented by the present Keeper of the department, Mr. A. W. Franks, to whose friendly influence, moreover, the Franks. Christy, Slade, and Henderson bequests are to be attributed. Among the principal purchases are those at the Bernal sale in 1855, for which a parliamentary grant of £4,000 was made; and, in 1856, of the carved ivories collected by Mr. W. Maskell. A collection of British Antiquities was commenced in 1851. British It comprises illustrations of the early history of the British Antiquities. Islands through its various phases of Early British, AngloRoman, and Anglo-Saxon, lately enriched by the donation from Canon Greenwell, of his very valuable collection of early British remains excavated from the barrows of England, and comprising about 200 British urns and a number of relics found with them.

Although the antiquities of India have always been represented in the Museum, the collection was not considerable; and this was the less important as the Indian Government Indian. had a Museum of their own in London. In consequence, however, of the recent transfer from this institution to the British Museum of the early Buddhist sculptures from Peshawur and the Amaravati Tope, they are now likely to occupy a more prominent position.

History

The Natural History collections have also been of late Natural growth-though now developed to magnificent proportions. collections. The deplored necessity of separating the Natural History collections, in order to make room for expansion of the other branches of the Museum, has already so far operated that the three departments of Geology, Mineralogy, and Botany have been withdrawn and are now established in the new building erected in Cromwell Road, South Kensington. Difficulties in obtaining fully furnished cases for exhibiting the specimens have delayed the opening to the public of the galleries in

b

Zoology.

which they are placed; but the work of arrangement is being actively proceeded with, and when this is completed a separate Guide for the new Museum will be drawn up, in which the rise and growth of these collections will be recorded.

The Zoological collections, constituting a full half of what is comprehended under the general term of Natural History, still for a time continue to occupy galleries in the British Museum. Zoology was to a small extent only represented in the Sloane Museum. Col. George Montagu's Ornithological collection was added by purchase in 1816; but it was only in the year 1837, after Major-General Hardwicke's collection of Indian animals of all classes (bequeathed in 1835) had been received, that a sufficiently large nucleus for a Zoological Department was formed. The collections in their present proportions were mainly formed under the second keeper, Dr. John Edward Gray, who held his office from 1840 to 1874. During that period were added the Mammals and Birds brought together by Mr. B. H. Hodgson during his long residence in Nepal (1843); the collection of fishes of W. Yarrell; the collections made during the Antarctic voyage of H.M.SS. Erebus and Terror under the command of Capt. Sir James Ross (1846), and during the surveying voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher (1844); the entire Museum of the Naval Hospital of Haslar (1844); the Entomological cabinets of James F. Stephens, purchased in 1835 (88,000 specimens), and of Sir John Bowring, who collected for many years in India, China, and Java, and presented the whole of his collection in 1863; the vertebrate animals brought together by J. Reeves in China; the Conchological collection of Mr. Hugh Cuming, believed to be the largest ever made, partly presented and partly purchased in 1866; and the collection of Coleoptera of the Rev. Hamlet Clark purchased in 1867. More recent acquisitions are Mr. A. R. Wallace's collection of Birds from New Guinea and the Malayan islands, purchased in 1874; the collection of Madeiran shells bequeathed by the Rev. R. T. Lowe in the same year; the unique collection of Buprestidæ made by Mr. Edward Saunders and

purchased in 1874; Dr. Bowerbank's British and Foreign sponges purchased in 1877; the collections made by the Naturalists accompanying the "Transit of Venus " expeditions in 1875 and presented by the Royal Society; and finally the specimens collected during the late Arctic expedition and presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 1878. The Department of Prints and Drawings occupies but a small Prints and Drawings. space in the Museum building, but its contents should be perhaps more generally attractive than any other of the collections. Original drawings of Michael Angelo and of Raphael, and of others of the Old Masters, with etchings and engravings of the different schools from the earliest period to recent times, are not only of the highest value for the study of modern art, but are objects of enjoyment easily appreciated by all classes. In addition to accumulations by purchase, it includes the collections of Sir William Hamilton, acquired in 1772; of Mr. Townley, 1805, 1814; of Baron Moll, 1815; of Mr. Payne-Knight, 1824; of Mr. Sheepshanks, purchased in 1836; of Mr. Harding, purchased in 1842; of Raphael Morghen's works, purchased in 1843; Sir William Gell's drawings, bequeathed by the Honourable Keppel Craven, 1852; the political prints of Mr. Edward Hawkins, formerly Keeper of the Antiquities, purchased in 1867; the collection of Mr. Felix Slade, bequeathed in 1868; and that of Mr. John Henderson, bequeathed in 1878. The Department has no gallery for the display of its contents, but, in order to make them in some degree more generally known, a selection, to such an extent as the space allows, is exhibited in the King's Library.

ments.

In addition to the numerous objects belonging to these Collections several classes of antiquities and to certain branches of natural in basehistory, which are displayed in the various galleries open to the inspection of visitors, a large number, of equal interest and essential to the illustration of the subjects they are connected with, are, from want of exhibiting space, either placed away in drawers or arranged in a very crowded state in the basement. Here are stored rather than exhibited very interesting monuments of antiquity, Indian sculptures, Mexican antiquities, many Roman sepulchral sculptures, Greek and other inscriptions in large numbers, and other precious remains. The removal of