32 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 



The other literary acquisition referred to above is the 

 Commonplace Book of John Milton, most of it in the poet's 

 own hand. This volume was discovered in 1874 among the 

 MSS. of Sir Frederick Graham, and a photographic facsimile 

 of it was published in 1876. It contains notes by Milton 

 on such subjects as matrimony, divorce, education, laws, 

 monarchy, taxation, military training, war, &c., and it is a 

 most valuable addition to the wealth of the Department in 

 literary autographs. 



The "purchase of the third portion of the Buckler collection 

 of Architectural Drawings completes a transaction which 

 secures for the Department an unequalled series of sketches 

 of buildings and architectural details from all parts of 

 England and Wales, made by three generations of the 

 Buckler family (especially by John Chessell Buckler) during 

 the past century. As a record of the state of the ancient 

 buildings of this country at the period named, these draw- 

 ings, which fill nearly 100 volumes, are of special value to 

 the national collection. 



In the sphere of history, the Department has acquired an 

 important series of letters from the Duke of Wellington to 

 Marshal Lord Beresford, written during 1810 and 1811. At 

 this period Marshal Beresford was acting as second-in- 

 command in the Peninsula, during the absence of Lord Hill ; 

 Pcud these letters (182 in number) consequently supplement 

 the correspondence of Wellington with Lord Hill, acquired 

 in 1896. 



During the past year the box containing the Broughton 

 papers, bequeathed by John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton, 

 in 1869, was opened, according to the provisions of his will, 

 and the contents have been examined and arranged. They 

 include one volume of manuscript drafts of, and notes for. 

 Lord Broughton's literary works, seventeen volumes of 

 general correspondence ranging from 1796 to 1867, eight 

 volumes of confidential correspondence on Indian subjects as 

 President of the Board of Control, and three volumes of a 

 miscellaneous character. The general correspondence is 

 mainly of a personal and political nature, dealing especially 

 with Hobhouse's election contests at Westminster, the Greek 

 War of Independence, the reform of Parliament, and Irish 

 and Indian affairs. Among the chief correspondents are the 

 members of his own family, Sir F. Burdett, the Marquis of 

 Tavistock, Francis Place, H. Bickersteth, Ugo Foscolo, Lord 

 Cochrane, Lord Grey, Lord Althorp, Lord Anglesey, Lord 

 Palmerston, and Sir R. Peel. Among the public papers are 

 several despatches dealing with the aflfairs of India, Persia, 

 and Afghanistan. There are no letters from Lord Byron, 

 and only a few incidental references to him. The Indian 

 correspondence includes an important series of confidential 

 letters from the Governors - General, Lords Auckland, 

 Hardinge, and Dalhousie, covering the periods of the siege of 

 Herat, the first Afghan war, the settlement of the Panjab 

 after the first Sikh war, the outbreak and course of the 



