SYNOPSIS 
OF THE 
CONTENTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
On entering the gate of the Museum, a spacious quadran¬ 
gle 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 ar¬ 
chitect, 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. It was the repetition 
of a building first designed in 1674 by Dr. Hooke, which 
was destroyed by fire in 1686. 
GROUND FLOOR. 
This floor, consisting of sixteen rooms, contained, till 
the present autumn, the Old Library of Printed Books. 
Strangers were not admitted into these apartments, as 
the mere sight of the outside of books could not convey 
either instruction or amusement f. 
The Entrance Hall contains, 
A statue in Marble of Shakspeare, by Roubilliac. Be¬ 
queathed to the British Museum , after the death of his 
Widow, by David Garrick , Esq . 
A statue of the Hon. Anne Seymour Damer, holding in 
her hands a small figure of the Genius of the Thames. 
Presented by Lord Fred . Campbell . 
A gilt figure of Gaudma, a Burmese idol; and the sym¬ 
bolical representation of his foot. Both presented by Capt . 
Marry at, R.N. 
* The building measures 216 feet in length, and 57 in height, to the 
top of the cornice. 
t An Alphabetical Catalogue of this Library was printed in the year 
1787, in two volumes folio; and another published, in seven volumes 
8vo, 1813—1819, containing, as far as possible, the accessions to the 
latter year. A Catalogue of the Royal Library, given to the Museum in 
1823, was printed in five volumes folio, and privately distributed, by order 
of his late Majesty King George the Fourth. 
B 
