16 



ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VII. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The number of visitors to the Museum in the year 1899 

 amounts to a total of 663,724, a considerable advance upon 

 the number recorded in the previous year, when it was 612,275, 

 which was then the highest since the year 1883. 



On the other hand, there has been a slight decrease in the 

 number of visits of students to the Reading Room, viz., 188,554, 

 as against 190,886 in 1898. The daily average was 624. 



The average numbers of persons in the room, counted at 

 certain hours in the afternoon, were : — 



4 p.m. 

 357 



5 P.M. 



260 



6 P.M. 



163 



6.30 P.M. 

 95 



7 P.M. 



103 



7.30 P.M. 



72 



The number of volumes, &c. supplied to readers in the 

 year was 1,306,078 as against 1,397,145 in 1898. 



There has again been an increase in the total number of 

 visits of students to the several Departments other than the 

 Reading Room, amounting to 49,422 as against 48,214 in 1898. 

 A large falling off of students drawing from the sculptures 

 is more than compensated for by an increased attendance in 

 the Newspaper Room and in the Departments of Manuscripts,' 

 and Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts. 



The King's Library has been cleaned and re-painted, and 

 its decorations have been renovated. 



The most important addition to the collections during the 

 past year is that of the Rothschild Bequest. Baron Ferdinand 

 Rothschild, m.p., a Trustee of the British Museum, who died 

 in December 1898, bequeathed to the British Museum the 

 works of art contained in a particular room in his house at 

 Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, on condition that the col- 

 lection should be exhibited, apart from the other collections 

 of the Museum, in a room to be called the " Waddesdon 

 Bequest Room." Accordingly, the room hitherto occupied 

 by the Roman Antiquities found in Britain has been appro- 

 priated, and has been entirely refitted for the exhibition of 

 the Waddesdon Collection. The room will be forthwith 

 opened to the public. The principal objects in the collection 

 are described below in the report of the Keeper of the British 

 and Mediaeval Antiquities. 



In addition to these works of art. Baron Ferdinand also 

 bequeathed a number of Illuminated Manuscripts, free, how- 

 ever from any condition forbidding their incorporation into 

 the Museum collections. Among them are specimens of the 

 highest excellence, ranking with some of the best already in 

 the Department of Manuscripts. 



