_The Libraries of the East.—The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, and their Explorers.—William Cureton and his Labours on the MSS. of Nitria, and in other Departments of Oriental Literature.—The Researches in the Levant of Sir Charles Fellows, of Mr. Layard, and of Mr. Charles Newton.—Other conspicuous Augmentors of the Collection of Antiquities_ 608 CHAPTER V. _THE FOUNDER OF THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY._ _The Grenvilles and their Influence on the Political Aspect of the Georgian Reigns.—The Public and Literary Life of the Right Honourable Thomas Grenville.—History of the Grenville Library_ 670 CHAPTER VI. _OTHER BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS._ _Recent Contributors to the Natural History Collections.—The Duke of Blacas and his Museum of Greek and Roman Antiquities.—Hugh Cuming and his Travels and Collections in South America.—John Rutter Chorley, and his Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish Poetry.—George Witt and his Collections illustrative of the History of Obscure Superstitions.—The Ethnographical Museum of Henry Christy, and its History.—Colonial Archæologists and British Consuls: The History of the Woodhouse Collection, and of its transmittal to the British Museum.—Lord Napier and the Acquisition of the Abyssinian MSS.—The Art Collections and Bequests of Felix Slade.—The Travels and the Japanese Library of Von Siebold_ 686 CHAPTER VII. _RECONSTRUCTORS AND PROJECTORS._ _The Plans and Projects for the Severance and Partial Dispersion of the Collections which at present form ‘The British Museum,’ and for their re-combination and re-arrangement_ 721 INDEX 763 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE I. VIEW OF THE GARDEN-FRONT OF OLD MONTAGU HOUSE, THE FIRST ‘BRITISH MUSEUM;’ as it appeared at the opening of the Institution to the Public in 1759 _Frontispiece._ II. VIEW OF THE OLD TOWNELEY GALLERY (built for the reception of the Towneleian Marbles in 1805, and pulled down on the erection of the existing _Vignette on Museum) Title-page._ III. GROUND-PLAN OF THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR OF THE ORIGINAL BRITISH MUSEUM OF 1759 325 IV. GROUND-PLAN OF THE SECONDARY FLOOR OF THE SAME 327