INTRODUCTION. 
scripts, which had been gradually collected fay 
the Sovereigns of these Realms, from Henry VIL 
down to William III. ; since whose time it has 
been continued, and is still annually increasing, by 
the privilege annexed to it of being supplied with 
a copy of every publication entered in Stationers’ 
Hall.* His Majesty was also pleased, at the same 
time, to transfer to the Museum the reversion of 
the salary of £300 a year, annexed to the patent 
office of King’s Librarian, which had been once 
held by the learned Dr Bentley, and afterwards 
by his son ; who transferred it to Claud Amyand, 
Esq., by whom it was retained till his decease 
in the year 177 ^. 
Besides the books immediately collected by 
the Sovereigns, and principally by Henry VIII., 
from the opportunities which offered at the 
dissolution of the monasteries, this collection, 
which, at the time when the Museum Act 
passed, consisted of about ' 2000 MSS, and 
upwards of 9000 printed books, contains the 
library of Archbishop Cranmer, and those of 
Henry Fitzalan Earl of Arundel, and his 
son- 
* This privilege has of late become very unproductive, partly 
owing to the frauds of many of the publishers, and still more so 
to the unfavourable construction of the laws respecting literary pro¬ 
perty. 
