A most seasonable and valuable enlargement of the Library was effected, by an addition which henceforth marks an æra in our Annals. On June 12, Convocation thankfully accepted an offer from the Radcliffe Trustees (which had been first mooted by Dr. Acland in 1856), of the use, as a Bodleian reading-room, of the noble building hitherto under their control, the existing contents of which had (for the most part) been removed to the New Museum. Dr. Radcliffe's own original intention had been the building an additional wing to the Bodleian rather than the erecting a library of his own; and subsequently the idea had been entertained of devoting his structure to the exclusive reception of manuscripts[359]. Its appropriation, therefore, to the Bodleian upon the removal of the library of medicine and natural history, was, in some sort, a return to the founder's first design. And the return came most seasonably, when the old walls of the Schools' quadrangle were well-nigh bursting from a plethora of books, and still the cry 'They come' daily caused fresh bewilderment as to whither those that came should go. It was resolved that the new reading-room thus opportunely gained should be appropriated to new books (arranged under a system of classification) and magazines; that it should be called the 'Camera Radcliviana;' and that it should be open from ten A.M. to ten P.M., thus affording the facilities for evening use of the Bodleian which had often been desired for those who were occupied in college work during the day. It was at the close of the year 1861 that the building began to be filled by its new occupants, and on Jan. 27, 1862, (the necessary alterations and preparations having been completed in the short space of the Christmas vacation) it was announced by the Vice-Chancellor to be open as a Reading Room in connection with the Bodleian. A grant of £200 _per annum_ towards the expense of management was made by Convocation on Nov. 28, 1861, which was increased to £300 in 1865, the remainder of the charge, consisting of the incidental expenses, being defrayed from the general funds of the Library. A large additional space for the reception of books was gained by the closing up the open ground-floor (through which was the former entrance to the reading-room), converting the spaces between the outer arches into windows, and lining the walls within with book-shelves, thus affording accommodation, according to the present reckoning, for about 50,000 volumes. The whole building may probably be reckoned as capable of containing altogether about 75,000 volumes[360].