85 
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 are now being added 
some rooms in the basement, not originally designed for exhibition, 
but which, ojving to the extensive acquisitions recently made from 
Assyria and other countries, furnish the only space at present available 
for that use. 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 vases 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 incomplete, 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 being 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 structure of the Galleries 
has made it necessary to place the most ancient remains at the north¬ 
western extremity, which is remotest from the Entrance Hall: so that 
a visitor, wishing to pursue the more natural historical course, is recom¬ 
mended to descend the staircase which adjoins the Gallery of Fossils, 
described in the preceding pages, and enter the Ground Floor series 
with the Egyptian Vestibule, proceeding through each saloon in the 
reverse order to that adopted in the ensuing description, which com¬ 
mences with the latest or Roman monuments, and ascends, through 
the Lycian, Greek, and Assyrian, up to those of Egypt. The arrange¬ 
ment of the four principal series of sculptures may be stated generally 
as follows: the Roman, including the mixed class termed Graeco- 
Roman, occupies the south side, running east and west: the Greek, 
strictly so called, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian, form, roughly 
speaking, three parallel lines, running north and south, at right angles 
to the Roman. To the left of the Hall, on entering the building, is the 
ROMAN GALLERY. 
On the south side, under the windows, are miscellaneous Roman 
antiquities discovered in this country. On the opposite side is the 
series of Roman Iconographical sculptures, or portraits of individuals, 
whether statues or busts. Each wall is divided by pilasters into six 
compartments.* 
ANGLO-ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 
COMPARTMENT I. 
On the wall, a portion of a tesselated pavement, discovered at With- 
ington, Gloucestershire, representing the head of Neptune. Pre¬ 
sented by H. Brooke , Esq., 1812. 
* At the two ends of this gallery are at present remaining some Greek sepulchral 
monuments, and on one or two of the shelves some miscellaneous Roman and 
other antiquities; but these, as they will shortly be removed, are not here 
described, 
