ACCOUNTS, &C,, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



V. Additions. — (a.) 37,761 volumes and pamphlets have been added to the Library in the 

 course of the year (including books of Music and volumes of Newspapers), of vs^hich 1,588 

 were presented, 7,203 received in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 462 

 received under the International Copyright Treaties, and 28,508 acquii-ed by purchase. 



(A.) 40,663 parts of volumes (or separate numbers of periodical publications, and of 

 works in progress) have also been added, of which 592 were presented, 20,165 received 

 in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 754 received under the International 

 Copyright Treaties, and 19,152 acquired by purchase. 



(c.) The number of sets of Newspapers published in the United Kingdom and received 

 under the provisions of the Copyright Act during the past year has been as follows, 

 viz. : 252 published in London and suburbs, 1,110 in other parts of England and Wales, 

 170 in Scotland, and 133 in Ireland. 354 volumes, and 419 nunibers of Newspapers 

 belonging to 140 different sets, have been purchased. 



{d.) 7,866 pieces of Music have been acquired, each piece complete in itself, of which 

 5,152 were received by English and 1,347 by International Copyright, and 1 ,367 purchased. 

 Of 1,309 portions of musical works in progress, 729 have been received by English and 

 580 by International Copyright. 3,778 works of greater extent than single pieces have 

 also been acquired, comprising 925 by English and 337 by International Copyright, and 

 2,516 by purchase. 



(e.) The number of distinct works comprised in the 37,761 volumes and pamphlets, and 

 40,663 parts of volumes already mentioned, amounted, as nearly as could be ascertained, 

 to 39,800. Of these, 1,288 have been presented, 8,582 acquired by English, and 587 by 

 International Copyright, and 29,343 by purcliase. 



10,351 articles have been received in the department, not included in the foregoing 

 enumeration of volumes and parts of volumes, comprising Playbills, single jjieces of 

 Music, Broadsides, Songs and Ballads, Parliamentary Papers, and other miscellaneous 

 items ; the addition of this number to those already given produces a total of 88,775 

 articles received in the department. 



(/.) The number of stamps impressed on articles is altogether 237,806. In addition 

 to this, 617 extra stamps have been impressed on volumes of various collections for 

 further security. 



Among the acquisitions of the year may be mentioned : — 



A collection of the most important works which have recently been published in the 

 territory of the Argentine Republic. Presented by the Argentine Government. 



Two very rare Shakespearian tracts, purchased at Sir William Tite's sale, viz. : 



(1.) The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or the Walkes in Powles : London, 

 1604. This very curious work contains an allusion to Shakespeare's " Comedy of Errors," 

 and interesting references to the plague which raged in London during 1603. (2.) 

 Maroccus Extaticus ; or Bankes' Bay Horse in a Trance. Printed for Cuthbert Burby, 

 1595 ; containing an account of the celebrated performing horse so frequently mentioned 

 In the dramatic works of the seventeenth centuiy, and alluded to by Shakespeare in 

 " Love's Labour's Lost." Both man and horse are said to have been burnt at Rome 

 for witchcraft. 



A. contemporary liatin account, hitherto iinknown to bibliographers, of the meeting of 

 Henry VIII. and Francis I. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520. A French 

 version exists in the Grenville Library. 



A copy of the Chorus Poetarum Classicorum : Lugduni, 1616, with the autograph and 

 numerous Latin marginal notes in the handwriting of Ben Jonson. 



Many early English works of rarity have been purchased, including a copy of the 

 extremely scarce first edition of Lydgate's translation of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes ; 

 printed by Pynson in 1 494. This volume was rescued from a tobacconist's shop at Lam- 

 berhurst ; portions had been cut out to wrap up tobacco and snuflF. — The rare edition of 

 the English Bible in octavo, printed in 1612-13, the year after the publication of the 

 authorised version in folio. It was unknown to Dr. Cotton, Lea Wilson, and to Lowndes. 

 It is in beautiful condition, and in a binding of embroidered needlework. — Giles Fletcher's 

 Reward of the Faithfull; London, 1623. This rare prose work by the author of 

 " Christe's Victorie," was recently described by Mr. Grosart from an imperfect copy 

 which he beheved to be unique. The author died in 1 623, the year of the publication of 

 the first folio edition of Shakespeare. He denounces " idle pamphleters and loose poets, 

 no better than the Priests of Venus, with the rabble of stage-players and balleters, 

 and circumferaneous fidlers and brokers, all which, if they were cleane taken out of the 

 world, there would bee little misse of them." The preface contains a remarkable excul- 

 patory allusion to Lord Bacon two years after his disgrace. The noble birth and gallant 

 atchievements of that remarkable outlaw Robin Hood, 1678. The only prose history of 

 Robin Hood and the only copy known. — Barbour's Actes and Life of Robert Bruce ; 

 Edinburgh, 1620. — R. G'-eene's Historie of Orlando Furioso ; C. Burby, 1599. — Psalms, 

 Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament, in English Meeter for the 



Saints, 



