+ ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
but were the gift of some wealthy townsman who, like Niccolo Niccoli 
of Florence, industriously collected books during his lifetime, and when 
he died left them as a legacy to his fellow-citizens. 
Five years after the establishment of the Norwich library, a city 
library was opened at Bristol. This library has since been absorbed by 
the new Bristol Free Library. A parochial free library was established 
in 1623 at Langley Marish, in Buckinghamshire, by Sir John Keder- 
minster. The town of Leicester opened a library in 1632; and in 1653 
the Chetham Library at Manchester was founded, through the gener- 
osity of Sir Humphrey Chetham. Numerous grammar school libraries 
also dated from the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seven- 
teenth centuries. 
In 1753 the greatest of all English libraries was established—the 
British Museum. The subsequent history of free public libraries in 
Great Britain is closely identified with this great national institution. 
The influence of the Museum and its librarians has always been a 
powerful factor for good in the moulding of public sentiment towards 
free public libraries in every part of the United Kingdom, and each new 
development in the organization and management of libraries has been 
carefully examined and tested at the Museum. 
The British Museum has become the repository from time to time 
of many earlier collections of books and manuscripts. The first of these 
was the library of 50,000 volumes of printed books and manuscripts, 
with collections of coins, medals, etc., acquired by the nation from the 
estate of Sir Hans Sloane of Chelsea, and which formed the nucleus of 
the British Museum. At the same time the Harleian MSS. were pur- 
chased, and these, with the Cottonian MSS., already the property of the 
nation, were added to the new national library. Shortly afterwards the 
King—George I].—transferred to the Museum the Royal Library of 
the Kings of England, containing some splendid examples of early 
printing, including a series of vellum copies by the famous French 
printer Verard, specimens of Caxton, De Worde and other early English 
printers, besides many valuable MSS. Since then the Museum has 
been the recipient of a dozen or more valuable collections of books, 
pamphlets, and manuscripts, including the Thomason Collection, 
30,000 distinct publications, presented by George III.; the Cracherode 
Bequest of 4,500 volumes, made in 1799; the splendid library of 84,000 
books and MSS. presented by George [V.; the Grenville Collection, 
received in 1846, etc. One of the most curious bequests was a set of the 
Chinese “ Cyclopedia,” a single work in 5,000 volumes. 
The growth of this great library is well illustrated by the number 
of readers who made use of it at different periods of its history. In 1810 
the number of visitors to the old Reading Room was about 1,950 for the 
