This building, while supplying amply the demands of the printed book department, did nothing, to meet the requirements of the other departments. Various schemes have been suggested; the best, and perhaps in the end the cheapest, of securing the ground immediately around the museum, has been given up, and the trustees resolved to erect a building to be devoted entirely to natural history—that is to say, to the departments of botany, zoology, geology, and mineralogy—on the site occupied by the international exhibition of 1862. Parliament voted in the year 1873, £80,000 for this purpose, and a beginning was made by the contractor. The whole cost of the new building very nearly reached the sum of £400,000. This elegant new terra-cotta build ing, situated in the Cromwell road, near South Kensington museum, was designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse.
Contents.—At first, the contents of the mu g; um were arranged under three depart ments—printed books, manuscripts, and objects of natural history. Under the last head were included the antiquities, works of art, etc., comprised in the Sloane collection, their number being too scanty to entitle them to constitute a separate department. The progress of the museum has caused a more precise division of its contents. From time to time, the number of the departments has been increased, so that. instead of three, there are now twelve—viz.: printed books, maps, manuscripts, prints and drawings, oriental antiquities, Greek and Roman antiquities, coins and medals, and British and mediaeval antiquities and ethnography, zoology, botany, geology, and mineralogy. In noticing the contents of the museum, we shall refer to them in this order. We can but allude here to the most important portions of the collection, and must refer for more particular information to works specially devoted to this subject; such as the various handbooks and catalogues prepared by the officers of the museum.
Printed Books.—This is the largest department in the museum. It occupies the whole of the ground floor on the a, and e. sides, the new building erected in the quadrangle, and a considerable portion of the basement of the museum. The keeper of the depart ment has the help of 3 assistant-keepers and 43 assistants. There are in addition 54 attendants.
The original bequest of sir Hans Sloane consisted of 50,000 volumes. When these were placed in Montague house, a small collection of 2000 volumes, bequeathed to the nation by maj. Edwards in 1738, was added to them. In 1757, George II. presented the library of printed books which had been collected by the kings of England since Henry VII., and which included the libraries of Cranmer and Casaubon. He also annexed the important privilege, which the royal library acquired in the reign of queen Anne, of being supplied with a copy of every publication entered at Stationers' ball. By this means the library has been supplied with the current British literature without expense or trouble, and the trustees have been able to devote the funds of the museum to the purchase of the earlier literature of the country and foreign publications. Among
subsequent additions to the library may be mentioned the voluminous collection of pam phlets, etc., relating to the civil wars of England between 1640 and 1660, presented by George III.; the musical libraries of sir J. Hawkins and Dr. C. Burney; Garrick's collec tion of old English plays; Dr. Bentley's collection of the classics, annotated by his own hand; the law library of F. Hargrave; sir J. Banks's valuable and extensive collection on natural history; and a large mass of tracts and pamphlets relating to the French revolution, purchased from J. Wilson Croker, and of very great value. The most important addition was made in 1823, when George IV. presented the splendid library that had been col lected by his father during his long reign, at an expense of littleless than £200,000. This library, which, from the terms of the gift, cannot be mixed with the general collection, occupies a large and handsome hall, extending along the whole of the ground floor of the eastern side of the museum. It is undoubtedly the finest and most complete library ever formed by a single individual. " It contains," says sir H. Ellis, " selections of the rarest kind, more especially works of the first ages of printing; it is rich in the early editions of the classics; in books from the press of Caxton; in the history of the states of Europe; in the languages of the respective countries; in the transactions of acade mies; and in a grand geographical collection." The magnificent library of the right hon. Thomas Grenville, in importance second only to the king's library, was bequeathed to the museum in 1846. It consists of 20,240 volumes, which cost upwards of S54,000. In the same year was obtained also the extensive collection of Chinese works, amount ing to 11,509 volumes, which belonged to Robert Morrison. By purchases, bequests, and donations, the library has become one of the first in the world, containing now over 1,300,000 printed volumes. See LIBRARIES. But even this figure, large though it is, does not represent the immense collection of separate and distinct articles in tracts, pam phlets, and manuscripts. The British museum library is (with the exception, perhaps, of the national library of Paris) the latest collection of printed literature in the world. Since the opening of the new reading-room, and the consequent acquisition of the book accommodation, the want of which long hindered the proper increase of the library, the rate of increase has been enormous. During the year 1872, there were added 29,853 volumes, including music and volumes of newspapers, of which 1354 were presented, 19,801 purchased, 8345 acquired by home copyright, and 353 by international copyright. The number of parts of volumes was 30,554. Iu addition, the library had accumulated numerous broadsides, and miscellaneous articles variously obtained. The numbers of the pieces of music alone added were 4644 complete works, besides 1790 parts and num bers of works in progress. The total number of articles received during the year amounted to 66,278. In 1874, 37,000 volumes were received.