18 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



conducted by Prof. Garstang on behalf of the Liverpool 

 University Sudan Excavations Committee. The Committee 

 generously allowed the head to be acquired by the Museum at 

 a sum considerably below its probable market value, and this 

 sum was provided by the liberality of the National Art-Collec- 

 tions Fund, which has proved itself this year, as often previously, 

 a most valuable aud enlightened benefactor of the Museum. 

 The third important acquisition of the Department is a bronze 

 chariot of the sixth century B.C., found near Orvieto and now 

 restored on a modern core of wood ; an object of a very rare 

 class, in a good state of preservation. 



The Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities 

 has, as so often before, owed a very large number of its 

 accessions, including some of the most important, to the 

 generosity of private benefactors. A beautiful set of church 

 plate from the Hospital de la Vera Cruz, near Burgos, in Spain, 

 was presented by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. A very important 

 collection of Late-Keltic antiquities, of about the first century 

 B.C., found at Welwyn, Herts, and acquired by the late Mr. G. E. 

 Dering, was presented by his daughter, Mrs. A. J. Neall. In 

 the category of Ethnography, the principal accession consisted of 

 the collections of the London Missionary Society, which have 

 been for many years on deposit in the Museum, and have now 

 been acquired (partly through the Christy Trustees) at a cost 

 very much below their market value. Another valuable 

 •ethnographic collection, from the neighbourhood of Lake Chad, 

 was presented by Miss Macleod. 



The Department of Coins and Medals similarly owes its 

 most important single accession of the year, as well as many 

 smaller ones, to private generosity. This is the Bleazby 

 Collection of the Mohammedan Coins of India, originally 

 formed in India by Mr, George Bleazby, but purchased and 

 presented to the Museum by Mr. Henry Van den Bergh (a 

 previous large benefactor) in commemoration of the Imperial 

 Durbar at Delhi. The collection consists of over 2,600 coins 

 (173 in gold) and forms an unequalled numismatic record of 

 Mohammedan rule in India from 1166 to 1857. The 

 association of the Mohammedan emperors with Delhi gives 

 special appropriateness to a gift which commemorates the 

 occasion on which Delhi once more became the capital of India. 

 Another source from which the Department derived some 

 valuable acquisitions was that of Treasure Trove. Coins of 

 Henry III. from a hoard at Palmer's Green ; of Edward I. 

 and 11. from Kirkcudbrightshire ; and of Edward III. from 

 East Biaynham were received in this way during the year, and 

 proved of great value for determining the true numismatic 

 history of these periods. 



In concluding this summary of the principal acquisitions of 

 the year, it is worth while to point out what a large proportion 

 of them is due to the munificence of private benefactors. It 

 would be impossible for the Museum to maintain the position 



