BRITISH MUSEUM, THE. 



BRITISH MUSEUM, THE. 



indebted for ui elaborate ' Catalogue of the Book* in possession 

 of the British and Foreign Bible Society,' executed on a plan 

 miUr to that of the Museum catalogue. A* secretary of the 

 Hakluyt Society, Mr. Richard Henry Major, who catalogues and 

 arranges all the map* of the Munum, had for many yean the chief 

 taak of managing the affair* of that society, and wai himself the editor 

 and translator of many volume*, in particular of Columbia Letter*, 

 and Herberetein'* Russia. Mr. Joseph Zedner, to whom the cata- 

 loguing of the Hebrew book* i* entrusted, ha* in hi* " Auswahl 

 ustorucher Stuckc," a collection of extracts from Hebrew historians of 

 all age* from the Talmud to Mendelssohn, not only shown hi* inti- 

 mate acquaintance with Hebrew literature, but shown also that this U 

 but a part of bU acquirements. The poem of ' The Angel in the 

 Home, 1 ha* placed Mr. Coventry Fatiuore in a high rank among our 

 living poet*, and i* null more warmly appreciated in America than in 

 England. Mr. Richard Garnett ban given earnest of high talent* in a 

 volume of poem*, and ha* edited the ' Philological Essays ' of his 

 father. The Rev. Joseph Benjamin Maccaul and Mr. Collyer Knight 

 have iMued some publications of a theological cant. 



Sir Frederick Madden, keeper of the manuscript department, i* one 

 of the beet known antiquarian authors of England, editor, in conjunc- 

 tion with hi* predecessor in office, the Kev. Josiah Forahall, of the 

 edition ut WicklifiVs Bible, to prepare which fifty-five copies were 

 collated ; and editor also of the romancea of ' Sir Gawayne/ and 

 Havelok the Dane,' of ' Layamon'a Brut,' &c. The assistant-librarian, 

 Mr. Edward Augustus Bond, i* author of aome article* in the ' Areluco- 

 logia,' and U now editing for the government the Trial of Warren 

 Halting*. Mr. Charlei Rieu ha* published some Latin dissertations on 

 Arabic Poet*, ha* edited Sanscrit works, and is professor of Oriental 

 languages at University College. Mr. Edward Levicu and Mr. Stephen 

 Armytage Hamilton have published works on history. Mr. Richard 

 Sim* U author <>f a ' Handbook to the Library of the British Museum,' 

 more complete for the manuscript department than for that of printed 

 book*, of an 'Index to the Pedigree* and Arms contained in the 

 Herald*' Visitation* at the British Museum,' and of a ' Manual for 

 Genealogist*,' containing useful indications of where to search for any 

 particular fact of a genealogical nature required. 



Mr. Edward Hawkins, keeper of the antiquities, ha* published a 

 work on the Silver Coins of England. The assistant-keeper, Mr. Samuel 

 Birch, i* an eminent Egyptian scholar, author of several works on 

 Egyptian Antlquitie*, and of an elaborate ' History of Ancient Pot- 

 tery in two octavo volumes. To Mr. William Sandys Wright Vaux 

 we are indebted for a ' Handbook to the Antiquities of the British 

 Museum,' and for an account of ' Nineveh ami Perseiwlis,' which has 

 run through four editions, and been translated into German. Mr. 

 Auguntun Woolaston Franks, who holds the office of director of the 

 Antiquarian Society, i* a contributor to the great work on the Man- 

 chester Exhibition, "The Art Treasure* of the United Kingdom;' 

 and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole is the author of ' Horn -Egyptiac.c,' 

 and of the article Egypt in the eighth edition of the ' Encyclopedia 

 Britannica.' 



Mr. William Hookham Carpenter, keeper of the prints and drawings, 

 i* author of a volume of ' Pictorial Notices,' chiefly consisting of a life 

 of Sir Anthony Vandyck. 



In the department* of Natural History, the name of the supcrin- 

 tendent, Professor Richard Owen, is more universally known and 

 respected than any other name in hi* branch of science, since that of 

 Cuvicr. Dr. John Edward Gray, the keeper of zoology, ha* made 

 numerous contribution* to zoological science, of which no lea* than 

 425 are enumerated in Agassis and Strickland's ' Bibliography of 

 Zoology,' published in 1852, which takes notice of papers in periodi- 

 cal* a* Well a* separate publications. Dr. Gray is president of the 

 Botanical Society. Hi* brother, Mr. George Robert Gray, i the 

 author of several work* on ornithology, and, in particular, the 

 standard work, the ' Genera of Bird*,' in three folio volume*. Mr. 

 Adam White has written |>opular histories of mammalia, birds, British 

 Crustacea, 4c., in addition to numerous scientific papers. Dr. William 

 Baud is author of a ' History of British Entomootraca,' and a ' Cyclo- 

 pedia of the Natural Science*.' Mr. George Robert Waterhouse, 

 keeper of the geological department, ha* issued the first two volume* 



of a 'Natural History of Mammalia.' Mr. Samuel P. W 



author of an excellent 'Handbook of Mollusc*.' Finally, Mr. John 

 Joseph Bennett, keeper of the Botanical department, i* associat 

 Dr. Horsfield in the publication of the ' Plantio Javanicaj rariores.' 



Some of the tiut important labours, however, of the officers of t lie 

 Museum are comprised in the catalogues and description- of the 

 collections entrusted to their charge, which have from time to time 

 been issued by the Institution, and which are of various dim. n- u- 

 and cost, from a penny pamphlet to a folio of four guinea* and a hah. An 

 account of these will be given at the close of our view of the >l 

 when we have gone over the separate department*, which, for the sake 

 of convenience, may be arranged in the following order : the Printed 

 Books, the Manuscript*, the Antiuuitie*, the Prints and Drawing*, the 

 Department* of Natural History. 



Tkf Printed Boat Dtjxuimnt.M the time that the Museum was 

 first opened. >n 1769, the library of printed book* had already received 

 a_ donation which emphatically marked it as the national library of 

 In 1757 King George II., by an instrument under the 



{reat seal, presented to it the royal library, which had been aocumu- 

 atod by the sovereigns of England, from the time of Henry \ 1 1 . 

 downward*. The collection was indeed not large, being estimated 

 at about 10,500 volumes ; but it was rich in interest, from iU nume- 

 rous memorials of the Tudor* and the Stuart*. The volume* brought 

 together by Henry VII. himself comprised a remarkable aerie* of 

 illuminated books on vellum, from the press of the French printer, 

 Anthony Verard. One of them, a French Boethiu*, i* remarkable 

 for bearing a dedication addressed to the king of England, while in 

 mother copy in the library the dedication is to the king of France, and 

 on examination it is found that, in the king of England's copy, the 

 won I KnulcU-rre" has been inserted with a pen. In the reign of 

 Henry VIII. more genuine presentation copies abounded; of one book, 

 a translation of Galen, ' De Kationu Medendi,' there are two copies, 

 >otli presented by the author, Dr. Linacre, the first president 

 College of Physicians, one to Cardinal Wolsey, and the other to the 

 ling. A splendid vellum copy of the Bible of 1540 is interesting a* 

 containing in the title-page, said to be from a design by Holbein, a 

 igure of Henry giving the Bible to hi* subjects, on which his own 

 eyes must probably often have rested. It now stands in the Museum 

 n the same press with a New Testament that belonged toAnne Bolcyn. 

 There is also King Henry's copy of hi* ' Assertion of the Sacraments,' 

 the book which procured him the title of Defender of the Faith. 

 Interesting memorials of the three sovereign* who were children 

 of Henry, are to be found in the Greek grammar of Kdv. , i-i VI.. in 

 Queen Mary's copy of Bandello's novels, the book which supplied so 

 many plots to Shakspeare, and in the volume of the ' Lives of the 

 Archbishops of Canterbury,' the first book privately printed in England, 

 [resented to Queen Elizabeth by it* author, Archbishop Parker. Another 

 volume, which must once have belonged to the royal collection, but came 

 to the Museum through the bequest of Mr. Cracnerode, is Queen Kli/ 1- 

 beth's copy of the first book printed in Anglo-Saxon, the edition of tlie 

 Gospels superintended by Fox the martyrologist, who, a memorandum 

 in the title-page assures us, personally presented it to the Queen. There 

 are numerous memorials of King James I. in books offered to him by 

 the universities, the synod of Dort, &c. ; and of his unfortunate successor 

 there are the volumes of almanacs in which he scribbled his name when 

 Prince Charles, and the beautifully bound volumes of the Protestant nuns 

 of Huntingdonshire, the illustrated ' Harmony of the Evangelist*.' pi- 

 tiably one of the first books no illustrated, which was brought to him by 

 Nicholas Ferrar in 1035, and of the king's delighted reception of widen 

 there is a minute account in the life of Ferrar. Amongthebookswhich lie- 

 longed to Charles II., it would be startling, were it not known that the 

 laws of copyright )>vgan in his time, to find a copy of the second cditii m 

 of the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' a book of which, strange to say, there was no 

 copy of any edition at all in the library of George III. The Royal 

 collection comprised the entire libraries of some eminent individuals, 

 which had been added to it at different times by donation or pur- 

 chase; of Archbishop Cramner; of Henry, Prince of Wales, (lie elder 

 I IP it her of Charles I. ; and of the great scholar Isaac Casaubon. There 

 is an interesting account in the lives of eminent men by Thomas 

 Smith, of the successful efforts of Patrick Young, King James I.'s 

 librarian to keep Casaubon's collection in England. The royal library 

 had several eminent librarians Leland, in Henry VIII. 'K time ; Roger 

 Amhm in Edward Vl.'s; Bulstrode Whitelocke, in the Common- 

 wealth's; and in William lll.'s, Dr. Bentley. 



This collection, when added to that of Sir Hans Sloane, which was 

 generally estimated at about 0,000 printed volumes, formed a library 

 1-oth of extent and value. It was soon augmented, in 1763, by a 

 donation from George III., of a very remarkable character. In 

 1641, at the very outbreak of the Civil War, George Thomason, 

 a bookseller of eminence in St. Paul's Churchyard, observing the 

 turn which public affairs were taking, and the extraordinary a< 

 of the press, conceived the idea of collecting all the pamphlets 

 and publications on either side, from folios to broad-sides, as they 

 made their appearance. Never was an idea of the kind more 

 fortunately timed, and never more perseveringly and thoroughly 

 acted .upon. For the twenty years following, though we are to!. I it 

 was a heavy burden to himself and his servant*, and though at one 

 time it was thought advisable to effect a colourable sale of the col! 

 to the University of Oxford to save it from the Commonwealth, the 

 design appears to have been never relinquished for a day. On <me 

 occasion, the King himself sent to borrow a pamphlet, and chancing t 

 drop it in tlie dirt, sent a courteous apology to Thomason, who made 

 a memorandum of the circumstance in the volume (one with tin- 

 press-mark C 21 b, which contain* Shawe'* 'Broken Heart M ,.u 

 which the dirt remains to this day to attest the fact. The whole 

 collection at lost amounted to about 30,000 pnmplileU, bound 

 up in In. ui. .l.^-i. J i.nlcr. in 'J'J'Jo volume*. Ill, indeed, was the 

 collector requited. In a statement bound up with hi* catalogue, and 

 written appanntly i-y hi* son, we are told that in hi* life-time, 

 which hated till 166(1, he refusml 4oui>/. for the collection, sup- 

 1 losing that sum not nutlicient t.. n-nnl.iii.-e him. Ilin heirs offered 

 it to King Charles II. for purchase, and he appears to have 

 directed the royal stationer Mearne to buy it on his account, it i- 

 nut known for what sum, and afterward* to have granted a* a favour 

 permission to resell it, which the heirs of the Mearne fam: 

 not succeed in doing till they disposed of it in 1762 to King George 



