18 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BIIITISH MUSEUM. 



The Department of Manuscripts has received, by bequest 

 from the late Mr. Charles Alban Buckler, a valuable series 

 of architectural drawings of English Cathedrals and other 

 buildings ; and, by gift from Major-General H. P. Babbage, 

 correspondence and papers of Charles Babbage, f.r.s., the 

 mathematician. Among the principal purchases are several 

 collections of historical and diplomatic papers of the 17th, 

 18th, and early 19th centuries. 



The Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manu- 

 scripts has secured several rare Arabic MSS. of the 12th, loth, 

 and 14th centuries. 



The Department of Prints and Drawings has benefited 

 by many donations of drawings of the Old Masters and 

 engravings, presented by Mr. Max Rosenheim, Mr. H. J. 

 Pfungst, Mr. E. E. Leggat, and others. 



The most conspicuous addition to the Department of 

 Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities is the sculptured wall 

 from the chapel of the pyramid, in the island of Meroe, of a 

 Queen Candace of the 1st or 2nd century, presented by the 

 Government of the Sudan. Among the purchases are a series 

 of rare Egyptian scarabs, dating from about 3500 to 650 B.C. ; 

 a collection of upwards of six hundred Babylonian inscribed 

 tablets of about 2400 B.C. ; and a valuable series of Babylonian 

 cylinder seals. 



By gift from the Marquess of Sligo, the Department of 

 Greek and Roman Antiquities has received the greater part of 

 the two flanking columns of the doorway of the Treasury of 

 Atreus at Mycense. These have been supplemented by casts 

 of other fragments, presented chiefly by the Greek Govern- 

 ment ; and a restoration of the structure has been built up in 

 the room of Archaic Greek sculpture. 



Among the varied acquisitions of the Department of 

 British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography the most 

 notable are : a collection of jewellery and other objects from 

 Anglo-Saxon graves in Kent, presented through the National 

 Art Collections Fund ; a series of Merovingian remains from 

 Herpes, near Angouleme ; Tibetan collections from Lhasa 

 and other places in Tibet (pp. 85, 86) ; and an important 

 ethnographical series from Sarawak in Borneo. 



To the Department of Coins and Medals have been added 

 an interesting series of rare Greek Coins of Olbia and Tyra 

 in Sarmatia ; a series of rare English and other historical 

 medals of the 17th and 18th centuries ; and three pattern 

 crown-pieces of Cromwell and Charles XL, in perfect condi- 

 tion, bequeathed by the late Mr. C. E. G. Mackerel!. 



In this year also the Government of India presented to 

 the Trustees a very important series of Tibetan manuscripts, 

 books, and objects of antiquity and curiosity, chosen from 

 the collections formed during the recent expedition to Lhasa. 

 Owing to delay connected with identification, the several 

 objects were not incorporated at once among the Museum 

 collections. A description of the series is therefore postponed 

 until the Return for 1906. 



