DEPARTMENT OF MSS. 31 



The most important public sales of MSS. during the year 

 were mainly confined to autograph letters and historical 

 documents, including the correspondence of Robert Long, 

 Secretary of State to Charles II. during his exile, the Cork 

 and Orrery collection, the Fox-Bunbury collection relating to 

 the Napoleonic Wars, and the Holding collection of Nelson 

 letters, &c. The several purchases made on these occasions 

 are noted below. Among other MSS. of special interest 

 purchased privately was the original proclamation, signed by 

 the Lords Justices of England, offering 30,000L for the person 

 of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 1st August, 1745. 



By bequest of Charles Aiban Buckler, Esq., who died 

 14th June, 1905, at the age of eighty, the Department acquired 

 a valuable series of eighty-eight highly finished water-colour 

 views of English Cathedrals, Churches, Castles and other 

 architectural subjects, by his grandfather John Bickler, his 

 father John Chessell Buckler, and himself. They supplement 

 the very large collection of architectural drawings by the same 

 three talented artists which were purchased from him in 1898- 

 1900. The bequest also included twenty -four volumes of 

 genealogical and heraldic collections. The only other bequest 

 received within the year was from John A. C. Vincent, 

 Esq. It consists of extensive genealogical and antiquarian 

 collections made by him at the Public Record Ofiice and 

 elsewhere, and is now arranged in thirty-three volumes. 



The most important donations were three volumes of 

 transcripts from the Portuguese archives made for the purpose 

 of the arbitration with Brazil as to the boundaries of British 

 Guiana, presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs ; twenty-four volumes of correspondence and papers 

 of Charles Babbage, F.R.S., the eminent mathematician and 

 inventor of calculating machines, presented by his son, 

 Major-Gen. H. P. Babbage ; and the MS. collections and corre- 

 spondence of Charles Godfrey Leland relating to the 

 Romany language and people, presented by his niece Mrs. 

 Joseph Pennell. The last donation also included a number of 

 printed books ; the MSS. by the condition of gift are reserved 

 from public use for 25 years. 



Among other additions, by purchase, donation, or bequest, 

 are the following : — 



Bible, of the Latin vulgate version, with a peculiar order 

 of books ; late 13th cent. 



" The Desert of Religion," and numerous other poems and 

 prose pieces, in northern English, with roughly drawn 

 illustrations ; 15th cent. 



Latin Grammar, with Latin-English vocabularies, a hymn- 

 book, &c., apparently the property of a boy at the grammar- 

 school of St. Anthony, Threadneedle Street, London ; 15th 

 cent. 



