SYNOPSIS 
OF THE 
CONTENTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
On entering the gate of the Museum, a spacious qua¬ 
drangle presents itself, with an Ionic colonnade on the 
south side, and the main building * on the north, the 
two wings being allotted for the dwellings of the officers. 
The architect, Peter Puget, a native of Marseilles, and 
an artist of the first eminence in his time, was sent over 
from Paris by Ralph, first Duke of Montagu, for the 
sole purpose of constructing this splendid mansion. 
GROUND FLOOR. 
This floor, consisting of sixteen rooms, contains 
the Old Library of Printed Books. Strangers are not 
admitted into these apartments, as the mere sight of the 
outside of books cannot convey either instruction or 
amusement +. 
In the First Room, on the right hand of the en¬ 
trance, upon the table, within a glazed frame, is one of 
* The building measures 216 feet in length, and 57 in height, to the 
top of the cornice. 
f An Alphabetical Catalogue of this Library was printed in the 
year 1787, in two volumes folio ; and a new Edition published, in 
seven volumes 8vo, 1815— 1819, containing the accessions to the 
latter year. A Catalogue of the Royal Library, given to the Mu¬ 
seum in 1823, was printed in five volumes folio, and privately distri¬ 
buted, by order of his late Majesty King George the IVth. 
B 
Library of 
Printed 
Books. 
the 
