GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. 17 



127 English books printed before 1640, including a set of 64 Year 

 Books ; the only known copy of " The Queenes Majesties 

 Entertainment at Woodstock, 1585 " ; the only known copy oi 

 the first edition of "Greene's Groats-worth of Witte," 1592 ; 

 the only known copy of a surreptitious edition of Drayton's 

 " Piers Gaveston," 1595 ; and the second issue of the first 

 edition of Milton's " Paradise Lost" (completing the Museum 

 set of this edition). Several rare volumes were obtained at the 

 sale of Lord Amherst's library. Other interesting acquisitions 

 include a copy of J. S. Mill " On Liberty," with manuscript 

 notes by J. Kuskin, presented by E. T. Cook, Esq. ; the " Cata- 

 logue of the Collection of Old Plate of J. Pierpont Morgan," 

 presented by J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. ; and the " Catalogue 

 ■of the Pictures in the Collection of the Earl of Radnor," pre- 

 sented by the Earl of Radnor. 



The Department of Manuscripts acquired the correspondence 

 •and papers of William Windham, Secretary at War 1794-1801, 

 in 94 volumes, including letters of Burke, Pitt, Fox, Canning, 

 and many of the French Royalists ; a copy of Fitzgerald's 

 " Omar Khayyam," written by William Morris and illuminated 

 from designs by Morris and Burne- Jones (presented by Lady 

 Burne-Jones ) ; the autograph MSS. of several works by Oscar 

 Wilde (presented by Robert Ross, Esq.) ; and several early 

 English MSS. from the Amherst Library. 



The Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 

 received a collection of 325 manuscripts (259 of which are 

 Turkish), bequeathed by the late E. J. W. Gibb, Esq. It also 

 a^oquired a valuable group of 10 MSS. in the Upper Egyptian 

 dialect of Coptic, in which complete works are very rare. 



The Department of Prints and Drawings profited largely by 

 the permission recently granted to exchange duplicate prints 

 for others of the same school. Under this permission, many 

 valuable German prints were secured from the Lanna Collec- 

 tion. The Department also acquired Sir E. Burne-Jones's 

 " Flower Book," containing 38 drawings of great beauty ; and 

 a considerable number of Japanese woodcuts. 



The principal acquisitions of the Department of Egyptian and 

 Assyrian Antiquities were a black granite seated figure of an 

 official of the IVth Dynasty ; two fine statues of officials of the 

 court of Queen Hatshepset ; a seated statue of a tribal chief of 

 about 1200 B.C., with gold mask, crown, chain, &c. (purchased 

 with the help of a donation from Lady Wantage) ; and a 

 foundation-cylinder from the palace of Sennacherib, containing 

 the longest inscription of that king yet discovered, with much 

 interesting historical information. 



The Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities received 

 a gold necklace of the 4th century B.C., presented by Sir H. 

 Howorth, K.C.I. E. ; a head of Dionysos, of the same date ; a 

 head of the Emperor Titus ; and many minor objects. 



90. B 



