GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. 17 



The First Graeco- Roman Room, the Assyrian Transept, 

 the Nimroud Central Saloon, and the Nereid Room have 

 been re-painted and re-decorated in the same style as the 

 Egyptian Galleries which they adjoin. 



The planing and polishing of the wooden flooring of the 

 Upper Floor of the Museum has been extended to various 

 rooms ; dust being thus more easily removed, to the 

 advantage of the collections. 



The acquisition in recent years of many Egyptian monu- 

 ments of the early dynasties has necessitated the re -arrange- 

 ment of the collections in the Egyptian Vestibule, with a 

 view to the incorporation of the new objects in their proper 

 chronological order. Improvements have also been made 

 in the arrangement of the Egyptian Rooms on the Upper 

 Floor. 



Among the more important additions to the several 

 Departments the following may be specially noticed : — 



The Department of Printed Books has acquired seventy- 

 two English books printed before the year 1640, and has 

 added as many as ninety-seven foreign examples to its fine 

 series of Incunabula. 



The Department of Manuscripts has received by gift 

 from the Egypt Exploration Fund further additions to its 

 collection of Greek and Latin papyri ; and it has purchased 

 a large and valuable collection of charters and rolls from 

 Aston Hall in Cheshire, of which about two thousand relate 

 to the Priory of Nuneaton in Warwickshire during the 

 whole period of its history. 



In the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manu- 

 scripts a large collection of documents in Coptic, of the 

 seventh to ninth centuries, has been acquired. 



In the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities 

 a series of objects of the early dynasties has been presented 

 by the Egypt Exploration Fund ; a choice collection of 

 Egyptian scarabs, dating from the fifth dynasty and com- 

 prising specimens of the Hyksos period, has been purchased, 

 and the extensive series of early Babylonian tablets has been 

 further augmented. 



His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to 

 present a portion of the Egyptian Book of the Dead of 

 Queen Netchemet, about 1040 B.C., and two Assyrian bas- 

 reliefs from the palace of King Ashur-nasir-pal a,t Calah. 



Similar bas-reliefs and other Assyrian antiquities have 

 been presented by the Library Committee of the Corporation 

 of the City of London. 



127. B 



