BOOK III,
Chap. VII.
RECON-
STRUCTORS
AND PRO-
JECTORS.

PART OF
NORTH

GALLERY IN
UPPER
FLOOR TO
PRINTED
BOOKS.

WANT OF
SPACE IN DE-
PARTMENT
OF MANU-

SCRIPTS.

the first importation of Halicarnassian Antiquities took place, they were deposited temporarily in these rooms, as no other space whatever could be found in which to shelter and unpack them. In this space are now arranged the Inscriptions, which have had to be removed from under the colonnade to make room for the Marbles recently arrived from Cyrene. Appropriate space for the Inscriptions will be found without difficulty in the Department of Antiquities, enlarged according to the foregoing suggestions, or, at all events, in the basement, either now existing or to be built under the galleries for Antiquities on the west side of the Museum, where sufficient light may be procured for objects like these, which are of no great interest to sight-seers, and therefore need not be publicly exhibited; enough that they be easily accessible to the small number of antiquarians and scholars who may wish to examine them.

The north galleries on the upper floor are divided lengthways, from east to west, into two portions; that now containing Zoological Collections (No. 22 to 26) can be advantageously appropriated to the Department of Printed Books when required. The volumes placed there can be easily lowered down and returned through a hoisting apparatus to be placed at either the south-east or south-west corner of No. 24, immediately above No. 41 on the ground floor-the nearest point of any in the main Library to the Reading-Room. By these various alterations space would be provided for about two hundred and fifty thousand printed volumes, in addition to that which still remains available in that department, from which, however, space for about fifty thousand volumes would have to be deducted, as will be presently shown.

Although there is now space remaining in the Department of Manuscripts for the accommodation of twelve thousand volumes, and although the annual average increase of manuscript volumes may be safely reckoned at less than six hundred and fifty, your Committee have, nevertheless, felt that prospective increased accommodation should now be provided, not only for the Collection of Manuscripts, but still more for artists and readers who have occasion to refer to select manuscripts, as well as for assistants, of whom two, together with one attendant and eight readers, are pent up in a space of thirty feet by twenty-three, crowded with tables, chairs, &c., which scarcely allow room for moving from one place to another or for access to the officers' study on each side. The Head of the Department of Manuscripts has recently represented to the Trustees his want of six assistants; but he has, at the same time, been obliged to state that, if appointed, he should not know where to place them. The Trustees have complied with his request, to the extent of granting two new assistants; and he will experience great difficulty in placing the two who are to be appointed. Add to this, the interruption to which each of these persons is unavoidably liable from

each of the others in the performance of his duties and occupations, Book 1I1, owing chiefly to the narrow space in which they are confined.

Chap. VII.
RECON-
STRUCTORS

TRANS

FERRED

FROM

PRINTED

BOOKS TO

On account of its locality, the Department of Manuscripts cannot derive any direct advantage from the removal of the Natural History AND PROCollections; no space which will thus become vacant can be rendered JECTORS. available for the purpose of remedying the inconveniences here stated. As, however, the Department of Printed Books obtains the additional accommodation before mentioned, a portion of the space now occupied by Printed Books, very conveniently situated to supply the wants of the Department of Manuscripts, ought to be transferred to this department. It is, therefore, proposed that the study, marked No. 57 on the ground- SPACE TO BE floor plan, be removed to the north end of No. 55, now occupied by Printed Books, and that the site of No. 55 be attached to the Department of Manuscripts. In that gallery, one hundred and fifteen by eighteen, excellent accommodation, with abundance of light, would be found for twenty thousand manuscript volumes-for fifteen students at least (this number is ample if admission be strictly and bona fide limited to the class of persons for whom it is intended) at separate seats, each having a table space of two feet and a half in depth and four in length,—and for ten assistants or more, admirably placed for superintendence. The area of the eastern recess of No. 56 would then be quite clear, and available for the exhibition of manuscripts, like the western recess in the same room. And when as large an exhibition of manuscripts as the space permits is accessible to the public (and still more accommodation for this exhibition might be found in the present Department of Manuscripts), the same restrictions as have been suggested with respect to coins and to prints ought to be imposed on the handling of select manuscripts.

It now remains to find space wherein to provide proper accommodation for the binder, as well as for the Trustees' offices, for the Collection of Prints and for the Collection of Coins.

MANU

SCRIPTS.

BUILDINGS

IN THE GAR

DEN AT-
TACHED TO

PRINCIPAL

HOUSE.

On the east side of the roadway parallel to the Department of Manuscripts, there is a piece of ground extending to Montague Street on the east, to the house No. 30, in that same street towards the north, and to the Principal-Librarian's house on the south. On a portion of this ground stands an old building, now partly appropriated to the binder LIBRARIAN'S and partly used as a guard-house; the remainder forms the garden attached to the residence of the Principal-Librarian. It appears to your Committee that by substituting a new building for the one existing, and by building on the greater part of the garden, ample accommodation will be found for what is wanted. Your Committee cannot abstain from mentioning that this great sacrifice of personal convenience on the part of the Principal-Librarian was suggested and brought under their notice by that officer himself.

BOOK III,
Chap. VII.
RECON-

STRUCTORS

AND PRO

JECTORS.

MILITARY

GUARD DIS

It was some years ago suggested by the Government that the military guard might be dispensed with at the Museum; at times when the services of the army were pressingly required, it was felt that soldiers might be more usefully employed than in being kept for mere show at the Museum. It was, however, thought that on removing the military guard, better provision should be made for the safety of the Museum.

Then follow various details of minor consequence; to which succeed an enumeration of the additional space gained for the Collections of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, Antiquities, Coins and Medals, as CONTINUED. Well as for offices, store-rooms, bookbinders' shops, &c., by the proposed alterations, as respects each of the several Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Antiquities; and a summary of the whole, from which it appears that the additional space gained by the Department of Printed Books amounts to an area of seventeen thousand eight hundred and three square feet; that the additional space gained by the Department of Antiquities amounts to sixty-seven thousand six hundred and ninetytwo square feet; and, finally, that the additional space gained by the Department of Manuscripts amounts to three thousand four hundred and thirty square feet.