28 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BKITISH MUSEUM. 



The number of Students working in the Department during 

 the year is 9,730. 



19. Books of Reference. — Two hundred and seven newly- 

 acquired volumes and parts have been catalogued. The 

 revision of the Catalogue is in progress. 



20. Acquisitions. — The number of Manuscripts and Docu- 

 ments acquired during the year is : — 



General Collections of MSS. - - ~ - 251 



Kolls and Charters 1,-596 



Detached Seals and Casts _ - _ - 2,0(S0 



Papyri - - - - _ _ - . 78 



Egerton MSS. ------ 2 



Among the older Manuscripts acquired during the year one 

 of the most important is the so-called Gospels of St. Grim- 

 bald, a fine copy of the Four Gospels in Latin, written and 

 illustrated early in the 11th century in the Monastery of 

 Newminster (afterwards Hyde Abbey) at Winchester. It is 

 decorated with miniatures of the Evangelists and elaborate 

 borders in gold, silver, and colours in the best style of English 

 art of the time. At the end is a copy of a letter from Fulk, 

 Archbishop of Reims, to Alfred the Great, recommending 

 Grimbald, a monk of St. Bertin, who was invited by Alfred 

 to England and became first Abbot of Newminster. 



Another acquisition of geat historical value comprises the 

 military correspondence, letter-books, and other papers of 

 General Rowland Hill, 1st Baron and Viscount Hill, chiefly 

 during the period of his service in the Peninsular War and as 

 second in command of the Army of Occupation in France in 

 1815-1818. A large number of autograph despatches and 

 letters addressed to him by the Duke of Wellington are in- 

 cluded. 



The purchase of the Autobiography and Journals of 

 Edward Gibbon, the historian, forming a part of the famous 

 Gibbon Collection in the possesion of the Earl of Shefiield, 

 was recorded in the Report for 1895. The remainder of the 

 same collection, consisting of eight volumes of Gibbon's 

 literary correspondence, together with a number of autograph 

 essays and other papers, has now been secured. 



Other acquisitions are as follows : — 



Thirteen miscellaneous Greek documents on papyrus, with 

 dates between the years 136 and 98 B.C. Presented hy 

 E. R. Bevan, Esq. 



Fragments of miscellaneous Greek documents on papyrus, 

 of the 2nd cent., B.C. Presented by B. P. Grenfell, Esq. 



Fragments of Greek literary papyri of the 3rd cent., B.C. ; 

 also of the 3rd and 4th centuries. 



Fifty 



