GENERxVL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. 17 



at Nineveh on behalf of the British Museum. Another 

 important correspondence is that of George Canning with 

 J. Hookham Frere, consisting of 160 letters. Some illuminated 

 MSS. were acquired at the Dunn sale, and some interesting 

 state papers at the Hodgkin sale. One of the three known 

 copies of an early draft of Sidnej^'s " Arcadia " was purchased 

 from the late Mr. B. Dobell ; and a book of interesting associa- 

 tions is the copy of Pope's " Iliad," in six volumes, presented by 

 the author to Gilbert White, and containing two pen-and-ink 

 sketches of the latter, which are the only known portraits of 

 him in existence. In addition, several valuable Greek papyri 

 from (Jxyrhynchus have been presented by the Egypt Explora- 

 tion Fund ; and two vellum Greek documents of the first 

 century B.C., discovered in Western Media and hence of unique 

 character and special paheographical interest, have been 

 acquired by purchase. It should also be noted that the 

 Department has received two deposits of exceptional interest, 

 which, it is hoped, will be permanent. One consists of the 

 journals and memoranda of the late Captain R. F. Scott during 

 his South Pole expedition, including the diary of the final 

 journey to and from the Pole up to the date of his death, 

 which have been deposited in the Museum by Lady Scott ; and 

 the other of the musical autographs belonging to the Royal 

 Philharmonic Society, including works by Beethoven, Haydn, 

 Mendelssohn, Spohr, and other famous musicians. 



The Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 

 has acquired by purchase a volume of Syriac theological 

 writings, dated in the year 721, and several Arabic, Persian, 

 and Turkish MSS., many of which are unique. 



The Department of Prints and Drawings secured several 

 very fine early German engravings, together with two excep- 

 tionally rare metal-cuts in the " dotted " style; also 95 etchings 

 by Piranesi ; two drawings by Whistler ; an etching by 

 Josef Israels, presented by J. C. J. Drucker, Esq. -, and 

 several interesting examples of contemporary etchings, litho- 

 graphs, and woodcuts. In the Oriental section the principal 

 acquisition was a Chinese painting of great antiquity, probably 

 of the 11th century, which was purchased with the help of the 

 National Art-Collections Fund and private benefactors. 



The acquisitions of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities have 

 been very numerous, and include pre- dynastic objects from 

 Upper Egypt, a granite statue of a chief, a portrait in sunk relief 

 of Amen-hetep IV., a blue glazed coffin with figure inside it, 

 a sandstone sarcophagus of the XlXth dynasty, 873 scarabs 

 mostly of the Hyksos period, several bronze figures of gods, 

 a large basin for libations, a fine black basalt head of one 

 of the Ptolemies, a large stele in Meroi'tic script, a tablet with 

 an important list of early Babylonian kings, a hundred contract 

 tablets of the first dynasty, a collection of over .3,000 early 

 Babylonian tablets from Tell Lo, a foundation cylinder of 

 Nabouidus, and many others, which are more fully set out in 

 the Departmental report. 



o 0.69 V. 



