14 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VIII. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



There has been a large increase of visitors to the Museum 

 in the day-time during the past year, the number being 

 517,929, as against 474,765 in 1891. There is also a small 

 increase in the number of evening visitors. The average 

 daily number of visitors in the day-time was 1,660 ; that of 

 visitors in the evening was 130. The grand total of 558,548 

 is the highest that has been reached since the year 1885. 



With the view of bringing into better position the finest of 

 the Assyrian sculptures hitherto exhibited in the room known 

 as the Assyrian Basement, and of economising space, the 

 several series of bas-reliefs from Nineveh, representing the 

 siege of Lachish by Sennacherib, the great Lion Hunt, and 

 other scenes of the chase, have been raised and affixed to the 

 walls of the room on a level with the ground floor of the 

 Museum, the small ante-room, formerly known as the 

 Phoenician Room, being also occupied by part of the series. 

 At this level a light gallery will be carried round the Assyrian 

 Basement room, to enable visitors to examine the sculptures ; 

 and the basement floor will be entirely cleared of the standard 

 walls on which part of the sculptures were exhibited. The 

 basement thus freed of encumbrances will be fitted and fur- 

 nished as a lecture-room. 



The re-arrangement of the sculptures in the Mausoleum 

 Room has made progress, the most important work being the 

 erection of a specimen of the order of the Mausoleum, con- 

 sisting of an Ionic column, with architrave, frieze, and 

 cornice, and part of the lacunaria of the ceiling. The Chariot 

 Group of Mausolus and Artemisia has also been placed in 

 position. 



In the Second Northern Gallery, which, since the removal 

 of the objects of Natural History formerly occupying it, has 

 been temporarily used for the storage of books and exhibition 

 of prints, there are now being brought together and arranged 

 the Cyprian and Semitic antiquities which have been hitherto 

 scattered in various rooms of the Ground Floor and in the 

 basement : also the Asiatic antiquities which illustrate the 

 religions of the East, and a small series of Early Christian 

 objects. The Cyprian antiquities will occupy the bay on the 

 landing of the North-Western Staircase, at the entrance of 

 the Gallery, and the first small room. The next (Semitic) 

 room will contain Phoenician, Libyan, Hebrew, Palmyrene, 

 Himyaritic, and Kufic inscriptions and antiquities. In 

 illustration of the Eastern religions, the large central room 

 will be assigned to Buddhism in ancient and mediaeval India, 

 Ceylon, Burmah, China, and Japan ; and two smaller rooms 

 at the eastern end of the Gallery will receive objects con- 

 nected 



