DEPARTMENT OF PRINTED BOOKS. 21 



981 maps and the 5,316 pieces of music already mentioned, 

 amounts, as nearly as can be ascertained, to 37,674. Of 

 these, 7,409 were presented, 16,215 acquired by English 

 copyright, 448 by international exchange, and 13,602 by 

 purchase. 



(g.) 3,365 articles have been received in the department 

 not included in the foregoing paragraphs, comprising 

 broadsides, Parliamentary papers, and other miscellaneous 

 items. The addition of this number to those already given 

 produces a total of 113,228 articles received in the depart- 

 ment in the course of the year. 



Acquisitions of Special Interest. — The most remarkable 

 acquisition made by the Department of Printed Books in the 

 past year is the exceedingly important one of a considerable 

 portion of the extraordinary collection of rare English books, 

 chiefly of belles lettres, of the period of Elizabeth and 

 James I., discovered in 1867 by Mr. C. Edmonds at Lamport 

 Hall, Northamptonshire, the seat of Sir Charles Isham, Bart., 

 where they had been laid aside and forgotten for probably 

 not less than two centuries. Twenty-six of these books have 

 now found a home in the British Museum, and form by far 

 the most important acquisition in early English literature 

 made for a very long time. Two are absolutely unique ; 

 " The Transformed Metamorphosis," a poem by CyrilTourneur, 

 the celebrated tragic poet, 1600; and "The Lamentations of 

 Amintas for the death of Phillis " [by Thomas Watson] "para- 

 phrastically translated out of Latine into English hexameters 

 by Abraham Fraunce," 1596. Still more interesting, from the 

 fame of the authors, although one other copy is known, is 

 the first edition of Marlowe's translation of Musaeus' "Hero 

 and Leander," as completed by Chapman, 1598. Bound up 

 with this are two poems by Francis Sabie ; " The Fisherman's 

 Tale " and " Flora's Fortune," 1595, of which also but one other 

 jcopy is known, and which are a sequel to the same author's 

 •"Pan's Pipe," already in the Museum. They are further 

 remarkable as early examples of narrative poetry in blank 

 verse. The following books also, so far as is hitherto known, 

 exist in only one other copy : — Sable's " Adam's Complaint," 

 1596; Tofte's "Laura," 1597; Henry Petowe's "Philochasander 

 and Elanira," 1599; Nicholas Breton's " Bower of Delights," 

 1597 ; " No Whippinge nor Trippinge," 1601 ; " Old Mad- 

 cappes New Gally-Maufray," 1602 ; and " Honest Counsaile," 

 1605 ; Hake's " Newes out of Powles Churchyarde," 1579 ; 

 " Platoes Cap," 1604 ; Anton's " Moriomachia, 1613 ; Thomas 

 Edwards' " Cephalus and Procris," printed with his " Nar- 

 cissus " ; and Robert Southwell's " A Fourefold Meditation of 

 the foure last things." The last two unfortunately are mere 

 fragments in the Isham copies. Of books of which two other 

 0.97. copies 



