Amongst more recent benefactors to the Library the Rev. Aiken Irvine and Dr. Neilson Hancock deserve to be noticed, the former of whom bequeathed about 1,000 volumes, and the latter about 250, in 1881 and 1885 respectively. Space forbids the enumeration of less important donations. The College authorities, meanwhile, were liberal in granting money for the purchase of books. Between November, 1805, and March, 1806, we find them giving fifty guineas for the _Complutensian Polyglot_, sixty-two for Prynne’s _Records_, and twenty-two and a-half for the first folio Shakespeare. Again, in the first six months of 1813 we find £126 spent on purchases at auctions, including some fifteenth-century books, and an Icelandic Bible which cost £14 15s. 9d. In addition to these purchases, the booksellers’ bills paid amounted to £230. Coming to a later period, we find for the ten years commencing with 1846 the average annual expenditure on purchases and binding was £668. After 1856, however, it was found necessary to contract the expenditure. The fixed sum now set apart annually for these purposes is £400. Extra grants are, however, made occasionally for special purchases. As the expense of the personal staff has considerably increased, the whole expenditure on the Library is larger than in 1856, and now amounts to about £2,000. The expense of administration may appear out of proportion to the amount available for the purchase of books. This is accounted for by the fact that English publications are received without cost. The chief source of the growth of the Library in the present century has been the privilege granted by Act of Parliament in 1801--viz., the right to a copy of every book (including every “sheet of letterpress”) published in the United Kingdom. This privilege this Library shares with the British Museum, the Bodleian, that of Cambridge University, and the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh.[117] To the British Museum publishers are obliged to send their publications unasked; the other Libraries forfeit their right to any book not claimed by them within twelve months of publication. Accordingly, they jointly employ an agent in London for the purpose of claiming and forwarding books. The principal firms, however, send their publications as a matter of course, without waiting to be asked.