., and the "Basilicon Doron" of James I. in his
own handwriting. The Cottonian collection, which was purchased for the
use of the public in 1701, and annexed by statute to the British Museum
in 1753, consists of 861 manuscript volumes, including "Madox's
Collections on the Exchequer," in ninety-four volumes, besides many
precious documents connected with our domestic and foreign history,
about the time of Elizabeth and James. It likewise contains numerous
registers of English monasteries; a rich collection of royal and other
original letters; and the manuscript called the "Durham Book," being a
copy of the Latin Gospels, with an interlinear Saxon gloss, written
about the year 800, illuminated in the most elaborate style of the
Anglo-Saxons, and believed to have once belonged to the venerable Bede.
The Harleian collection is still more miscellaneous, though historical
literature in all its branches forms one of its principal features. It
is particularly rich in heraldic and genealogical manuscripts; in
parliamentary and legal proceedings; in ancient records and abbey
registers; in manuscripts of the classics, amongst which is one of the
earliest known of Homer's "Odyssey;" in missals, antiphonars, and other
service-books of the Catholic Church; and in ancient English poetry. It
possesses two very early copies of the Latin Gospels, written in gold
letters; and also contains a large number of splendidly illuminated
manuscripts, besides an extensive mass of correspondence. It further
includes about three hundred manuscript Bibles or Biblical books, in
Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek, Arabic, and Latin; nearly two hundred volumes
of writings of the fathers of the church; and a number of works on the
arts and sciences, among which is a tract on the steam-engine, with
plans, diagrams, and calculations by Sir Samuel Morland. The Sloanean
collection consists principally of manuscripts on natural history,
voyages and travels, on the arts, and especially on medicine.

In 1807 the collection of manuscripts formed by the first Marquis of
Lansdowne was added to these libraries, having been purchased by
parliament for L4925. It consists of 1352 volumes, of which 114 are Lord
Burleigh's state papers, 46 Sir Julius Caesar's collections respecting
the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., and 108 the historical collections
of Bishop Kennet. Other valuable collections are the classical
manuscripts of Dr. Charles Burney, the Oriental manuscripts collec