ACCOVNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



amounts to 289 in each of these copies, and the necessary entries have been made in 

 the Hand-Catalogue. 



(j.) Catalogue of English J3ooks printed before 1640. — Some progress has been made 

 with this Catalogue, about 2,700 titles having been prepared for printing. 



III. Binding. — The number of volumes sent to be bound in the course of the year 

 amounts to 21,235; including l,00(i volumes of newspapers ; and, in consequence of the 

 frequent adoption of the plan of binding two or more volumes in one, the number of 

 bound volumes returned is 10,243. In addition to this, 903 pamphlets have been 

 separately bound, 721 volumes have been repaired in the binders' workshop, and minor 

 repairs have been effected, in the rooms of the Library itself, in 10,264 volumes. 



IV. Reading Room Service. — The number of volumes returned to the General 

 Library from use in the Eeading Koom, is 361,424; to the Royal Library, 12,285; 

 to tlie Grenville Library, 752 ; and to the presses in which books are kept from day 

 to day for the use of readers, 309,514. Adding the estimated number of volumes 

 returned to the shelves of the Reading Room, about 674,298, the whole amounts to 

 1,358,273, or about 4,648 for each of 292 days during which the room was open to the 

 public. 



The number of readers during the year has been 114,516, giving an average of 392 daily; 

 and, from the numbers given above, each reader appears to have consulted, on an average, 

 11 volumes per diem. The average time occupied in supplying a book to a reader has 

 been 15 minutes. 



V. Additions. — (a.) 34,488 volumes and pamphlets have been added to the Library in the 

 course of the year (including books of Music and volumes of Newspapers), of which 4,015 

 were presented, 8,846 received in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 745 

 received under the International Copyright Treaties, and 20,822 acquired by purchase. 



(5.) 38,043 parts of volumes (or separate numbers of periodical publications, and of 

 works in progress) have also been added, of which 1,070 were presented, 20,127 received 

 in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 377 received under the International 

 Copyright Treaties, and 16,469 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. : 

 312 published in London and its suburbs, 1,061 in other parts of England and Wales, 

 171 in Scotland, and 133 in Ireland. 47 volumes, and 575 numbers of Newspapers 

 belonging to diffierent sets, have been purchased ; and 2,163 numbers have been presented. 



id.) 6,412 pieces of Music have been acquired, each piece complete in itself, of which 

 3,730 were I'eceived by English and 1,826 by International Copyright, and 856 pui'chased. 

 1,981 works of greater extent than single })ieces have also been acquired, comprising 1,013 

 by English, and 192 by International Copyright, and 656 by purchase. 



(e.) The number of distinct works comprised in the 34,488 volumes and pamphlets, and 

 38,043 parts of volumes already mentioned, amounts, as nearly as can be ascertained, to 

 34,805. Of these, 3,329 have been presented, 10,301 acquired by English, and 688 by 

 International Copyright, and 20,487 by purchase. 



12,088 articles have been received in the Department, not included in the foregoing 

 enumeration of volumes and parts of volumes, comprising Playbills, single pieces 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 84,619 

 articles received in the Department. 



The number of stamps impressed on articles received is altogether 303,052. In addi- 

 tion to this, 4,504 extra stamps have been impressed on volumes of various collections 

 already in the Library for further security. 



Amongst the acquisitions of the year, the following may be specially mentioned : — 



A unique copy of a ballad relating to the battle of Flodden Field, written by John 

 Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VI II., and printed by Richard Faques, or Fawkes, 

 probably in 1513, immediately after the battle. The ballad, which is entitled: "A 

 ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge," has been hitherto unknown, but the verses, in a much 

 altered form, were inserted in the " Treatyse of the Scottes," which forms part of 

 "certayne bokes compyled by Mayster Skelton," published after Skelton's death by 

 Richard Lant and others. The two leaves of which the ballad consists wei-e discovered 

 recently, lining the wooden cover of an old folio volume which had lain for many years 

 neglected on the floor of a garret in a farm house at Whaddon, in Dorsetshire. 



A curious tract, of which no other copy is known, entitled, " The metynge of Doctor 

 Barons and Doctor Powell at Pax-adise Gate and of theyr communicacion, bothe di'awen to 

 Smithfylde fro the Towar. The one burned for Heresye, as the Papistes do saye truly, and 

 the other quartered for popery and all within one houre." The work is a dialogue in verse 

 between Dr. Powel and Dr. Barnes on their way to execution, and refers to the extra- 

 ordinary circumstances attending the double execution in 1540, when, as related by Foxe, 

 in the Acts and Monuments, three Protestants, condemned for heresy, and three Papists 



170'- A 4 for 



