GKOUND FLOOR.] 
49 
DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES. 
The collections in this Department are divided into two series. 
The first, consisting of Sculpture, including Inscriptions and 
Architectural remains, occupies the Ground Floor of the South- 
western and Western portions of the building ; and to this 
division have lately been added some rooms in the basement, 
not originally designed for exhibition, but now supplying the 
only space which the extensive acquisitions recently made from 
Assyria and other countries have left available for that purpose. 
The second series, placed in a suite of rooms on the Upper 
Floor, comprehends all the smaller remains, of whatever nation 
or period, such as Yases and Terracottas, Bronzes, Coins, and 
Medals, and articles of personal or domestic use. To the latter 
division is attached the collection of Ethnographical specimens. 
The arrangement of the series of Sculptures is still in- 
complete, a considerable part of the galleries designed for their 
reception having only lately been erected. So far, however, 
as that arrangement has been carried, the collections are so 
disposed as to admit of being visited, with few exceptions, 
in chronological order, from the earliest monuments of the 
Egyptian Pharaohs down to the latest memorials of the Roman 
dominion in this country. The peculiar form of the galleries 
has made it necessary to place the most ancient remains at the 
North-western extremity, which is farthest from the Entrance 
Hall ; so that a visitor, wishing to pursue tlie more natural his- 
torical course, is recommended to descend the North-western 
staircase from the Gallery of Minerals and Fossils, on the 
Upper Floor, and enter the Ground Floor by the Egyptian 
Vestibule, proceeding through each apartment in the reverse 
order to that adopted in the ensuing description, which com- 
mences with the latest, or Eoman monuments, and is con- 
tinued through the Lycian, Greek, and Assyrian, to those of 
