80 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The general and local correspondence fills one hundred and 

 seventeen volumes. It includes, in the time of the first Lord 

 Hardwicke's tenure of the great seal, much correspondence 

 about ecclesiastical patronage, the appointment of sheriff's and 

 justices of the peace, &c. The Irish correspondence, under 

 the Lord Lieutenancy of the third Earl, 1801—1806, fills 

 eighty-seven volumes, and relates, among other matters, to 

 Emmet's rebellion in 1803. Correspondence relating to post 

 office business occupies twenty-six volumes. 



Of the papers, &c., fifty-five volumes are historical collec- 

 tions, including important original State papers of the 16th 

 and I7th centuries, an autograph Latin letter book of Roger 

 Ascham, Secretary to Queen Mary, &c. Sixty-six volumes 

 are filled by political papers, including Lord Chancellor 

 Hardwicke's autograph drafts for King's speeches, his secret 

 political memoranda and notes taken at the Cabinet, many 

 original Orders in Council, and extensive parliamentary, 

 Scottish, colonial and diplomatic collections. 



The legal collections, in two hundred and ninety-three 

 volumes, include ninety volumes of law reports, many of 

 which are of the 15th-l7th centuries, many legal treatises, 

 the Lord Chancellor's judicial note books, and bulky collec- 

 tions of opinions, briefs and appeal cases of the Lord 

 Chancellor and the Hon. Charles Yorke, together with a^ 

 number of original warrants to the Lord Chancellor and law 

 officers of the Crown. 



A series of twenty volumes relates to the family estates 

 in Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, &c., and 

 another of thirty-one volumes deals with personal and 

 miscellaneous matters. There are also eight boxes of deeds. 



Another large acquisition has been the second portion 

 of the Buckler Collection of Topographical Drawings, made 

 early in the present century and illustrating ecclesiastical 

 and secular architecture throughout England and Wales. 

 The portion now purchased consists, like the first portion, 

 of about five thousand pencil drawings, interleaved in 

 twenty-one large folio volumes. The majority of the draw- 

 ings are by John Chessell Buckler, the remainder by his 

 father John Buckler, and by his son Charles Alban Buckler. 



A notable addition to the artistic treasures of the Depart- 

 ment is that of the sixteen MSS. bequeathed by Baron 

 Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., hereafter briefly described : 

 Three Books of Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, executed 

 in Flanders, in the 15th cent. With miniatures and 

 illuminated borders and initials. Vellum. 



Three Books of Hours and other Offices of the Virgin, 

 in Latin, executed in France in the 15th and 16th 

 centuries. With miniatures, and numerous illuminated 

 borders and initials. Vellum. 



