WONDEKS OF ART. 
iliousaild pounds to his executors, and purchase a hon*® 
surticiently commodious for it. The parliament acted 
p-eat liberality on this occasion ; several other valuable co' 
lections were united to this of Sir Hans Sloane, and tb« 
whole establishment completed for the sum of eighty-^''® 
thousand pounds, which was raised by way of lottetf' 
Parliament afterwards added, at various times, to the Slo' 
nean Museum, the Cottonian Library ; that of Major 
w .11 ds ; the Haileian Collection of Manuscripts ; Sir 
liam Hamilton’s invaluable Collection of Greek Vases ; 
I'ownleian Collection of Antique Marbles j the Ma”'*' 
scripts of the late Marquis of Lansdown ; and, lastly, tb® 
celebrated Elgin Marbles, which comprise what are con^^' 
deted as the finest specimens of ancient sculpture. 
The whole of llie important library of printed books !iii« 
manuscripts which had been gradually collected by 
Kings oft-England from Henry VIII. to William III. 
presented to the Museum by George II. ; and George 
bestowed on it a numerous collection of valuable paraphle'S’ 
vdiich had been published in the interval between l6*«> 
1660. His Majesty likewise contributed the two fin*”*' 
mummies in Europe; the sum of 1,123/. arisiiif from 1“'' 
teiy prizes, which had belonged to his royal predeccss^ti t 
and, in 1772, a complete set ot the Journals of the Lot^‘^ 
and Commons. To these contributions His Mtijesty b‘*-^ 
since added a collection of natural and artificial curiositii'''’* 
sent to him, inl7g6, by Mr. Menzies, from the North- We»‘ 
coast of America, and several single books of great vabi® 
and utility. “ 
The trustees nave lateiy added Greenwood’s collection 
stuffed birds ; Hatchet’s minerals ; Halhed’s oriental man*;' 
scripts ; Tyssen’s collection of Saxon coins ; Dr. Betitk'}' * 
classics ; and the Greville collection of minerals. To 
may be added numerous donations from several of the 
vereigns of Europe, as well as from learned bodies, 
private individu.ils. 
On entering the gate of the Museum, a spacious q"®' 
drangle presents itself, with an Ionic colonnade on the sond* 
side, and, on the north, the .main building-, which mea.sn'®^ 
216 feet in length, and .57 in height, to the top of the co'^ 
nice. Several additional buildings have lately been t'dd®® 
for the above collecUons. 
