1866. The WOODHOUSE MISETAL.

Calerted by James Woodhouse, Her Majesty's Treasurer at Cor Died February, 1566), Bequeathed by the Collector

See Bock II. Chapter 4.0

1866. The CERING CONCHOLOGICAL COLLECTION. Collected by Hugh Cuming Died 1866). Acquired by the Trusices in 1866, partly by gift, and partly by pambast, under the directions of the Collector's Will. See Book III, Chapter 4.)

1867. The HAWKINS COLLECTION OF ENGLISH POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL PRINTS.

Collected by Edward Hawkins Died 1867). Purchased by the Trustees.

[See Book III, Chapter 1.]

(LIIIT)

1868. The ABYSSINIAN ANTIQUITIES and MANUSCRIPTS,
Acquired by the Trustees during and after the
Abyssinian War; partly by gift from the British
Government, and partly by the researches of the
Representative of the Trustees in the British Camp.
Another and a very valuable portion of the Abyssinian
Manuscripts came to the India Office, by the gift of
Lord Napier of Magdala; and by the Secretary
of State for India was given to the British Museum.

[See Book III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXVI)

1868. The SLADE ARCHEOLOGICAL COLLECTION.

Collected by Felix Slade (Died 1868). Bequeathed by the Collector.

[See Book III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXVII)

1869. The HAYS COLLECTION of EGYPTIAN ANTI

QUITIES.

[See Book III, Chapter 4.]

As I have had occasion to observe in a former paragraph, the preceding list is, of necessity, an abridged list. It is by no means a complete or exhaustive one. The prescribed bounds—those of a single volume for a very wide and multifarious subject-compel the writer to treat his subject by way of selection. The reader is solicited to keep that fact in mind; as well for its bearing on the chapters which follow, as on the introductory chapter now under his And in regard both to this brief enumeration of the suceye. cessive component parts of the Museum, and to the biographical notices of which it is the preliminary, the cautionary remark here repeated applies to every Department of the national repository. It holds good of the Natural History Collections, and of the Collections of Antiquities, no less than of the Collections of Printed Books and of Manuscripts.

Among the many minor, but intrinsically important, Collections thus-compulsorily-passed over, in the present volume, are some of which brief notices have been given (by the same hand) in a preceding work, published in 1869. Those Notices,' however, relate exclusively to

BOOK I,
Chap. I.

INTRODUC

TION.

Book I, Chap. I. INTRODUCTION.

collectors and collections of Printed Books, of Engravings,
of Drawings, and of Manuscripts. Thus,-to give but a few
examples, important collections, now forming part of the
British Museum, and gathered originally by Thomas
Rymer (1713); Thomas Madox (1733); Brown-
low Cecil, Earl of Exeter (1739); David
Garrick (1779); Peter Lewis Ginguene
(1816); the Abate Canonici (circa, 1818); John
Fowler Hull (1825); Frederick North, sixth
Earl of Guildford (1826); Count Joseph de
Puisaye (1827); the Marquess Wellesley
(1842); D. E. Davy (circa 1850),—are all noticed in an
Appendix headed Historical Notices of Collectors' to the
volume entitled 'Free Town Libraries' published in 1869.
Of that Appendix the notices above referred to form, re-
spectively, Nos. 848' (Rymer); '570' (Madox); '186'
(Cecil); '351' (Garrick); ‘372' (Ginguené); '165'
(Canonici); ′ 462' (Hull); ' 683' (North); ‘781' (Puisaye) ;
'1049' (Wellesley); and ‘249' (Davy).

The existing constitution of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum has been on many occasions, and by several writers, somewhat freely impugned. More than once it has been the subject of criticism in the House of Commons. With little alteration that Board remains, in 1869, what Parliament made it in 1753. Obviously, it might be quite possible to frame a new governing Corporation, in a fashion more accordant with what are sometimes called the 'progressive tendencies' of the period.

But I venture to think that the bare enumeration of the facts which have now been briefly tabulated, in this introductory chapter, gives a proof of faithful and zealous administration of a great trust, such as cannot be gainsaid

Chap. I. INTRODUC

by any the most ardent lover of innovation. Both the BOOK I, Collections given, and the Collections purchased, afford conclusive and splendid proofs that the Trustees and the TION. Officers have alike won the confidence and merited the gratitude of those whose acquirements and pursuits in life have best qualified them to give a verdict on the implied issue.

If, of late years, the public purse has been opened with somewhat more of an approach to harmony with the openhandedness of private Englishmen, that result is wholly due to unremitting effort on the part both of the Trustees who govern, and of the Officers who administer, or have administered, the British Museum. And, to attain their end, both Trustees and Officers have, very often, had to fight hard, as the later chapters of this volume will more than sufficiently show.

The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert COTTON.—

His Political Writings and Political Persecutions.—-
Sources and Growth of the Cottonian Library.—The
Successors of Sir Robert Corros.-History of the
Cottonian Library, until its union with the Manuscript
Library of Harley, and with the Museum and Miscel-
laneous Collections of SLOANE.-Review of some recent
Aspersions on the Character of the Founder.

BOOK I, Chap. 11. LIFE OF

SIR ROBERT

COTTON.

SIR ROBERT COTTON was the eldest son of Thomas COTTON of Conington and of Elizabeth SHIRLEY, daughter of Francis SHIRLEY of Staunton-Harold in Leicestershire. He was born on the 22nd of January, 1570, at Denton, in the county of Huntingdon. Denton was a sort of jointurehouse attached to that ancient family seat of Conington, which had come into the possession of the Cottons, about the middle of the preceding century, by the marriage of