Show dads letter ellel from L london d 0 n HY BY JAMES it WALUS A VISIT TO DrUT 1811 MUSEUM it would require month months to become acquainted with oil all the contenta contents of the british museum A vast h a a storehouse tn ehouse the famous reading Itea ding boom room Is ft 0 huge circular hall accommodating between and find readers who bit at at az desks radiating like the spokes of i wheel from two concentric conten cir clis in the inner of which sit alt the officials while the printed catalogue cat comprising about 1000 volumes Is ranged round the outer circle the dome edco rated in white and gold lq bs 1 feet high and has a diame diameter tex of feet carrle the dome 4 decorated to rated tn in the pantheon rome the window bear tient of the names in english literature about of the volumes most in request such as dictionaries cue lop edles wt at are ranted in shelves round tho read ing ln room itself and may way be con coll stilted without filling up a 1 form two copies of every book published in tho the united kingdom haa to seen been sent there there are al 1 ready three and A quarter million volumes a occupying ba miles of shelving slid the number ie 13 increasing at the rate of 50 per pet annum let us enter the roman cil lery with a number of 0 inscribed stones found in england and portrait busts of julius busar nero and other worthies and familiar to us from childhood in its the three roman rooms beyond and in the gallery of casts are some of the most beautiful sculptures in la the world the archaic room contains early greek sculpture principally from the colonies in east minor the ephesus room Is chiefly by fragments of the great temple of diana at ephesus see act 29 which ranked 49 g ane ot of the wonders of the world ve v c next enter the elgin room containing the famous elgin lt bics bles which formerly adorned the parthenon at athens and were brought to this in 1901 3 by lord elgin many of the figuls were executed by phelda the greatest sculptor the tho world has ever known and even in their mutilated condition excite the vender wonder and admiration of a all 11 who see them steps lead down into tile mausoleum boom faher are arranged the remains of the magnificent mausoleum at bassus erected to the memory of loj prince of caria cark about 33 0 by hia his widow Are areminta mista this waa was accounted one of the seven of the world and gave rise to our modern term wrin mausoleum applied to all such monuments eAts prom from here we pasa pass to the egyptian galleries in which is an kimmence arl most interesting collection of CC egyptian statues sarcophagi bud and inscriptions the famous rosetta osetta It etche a slab of bick b ick basalt with three inscriptions which gave the key to the deel phel jaent or of the egyptian by their side are the nineveh gallery and other rooms in which are stored the deeply interesting collection ot of assyrian relics inscriptions ims and brick books including the primitiv ep records of the Cr creation eption and the flood in cun biform characters stairs lead tiow the northern end of the egyptian galleries to tha tho upper floor here the egyptian galleries are continued or perlous continued on page four letten LETTER FROM continued from pace one we should say ay commenced as a these upper rooms are known as the first six egyptian rooms interest la is chiefly evicted here by the mum ines beth of men and animals ot of rtuh there Is 13 a very large collect TWO rOll rOi lUaa llilas ion dating from about 13 0 to A D one of the most in te resting and gruesome Is a vit corpse in n crouching poa posture 01 ol it R man of the neolithic period probably pro baly about 7 OW U 13 0 we pass down to the eastern end of the gallery whence a pas passage leads to the kings library so named from the collection of over volumes acquired by george the third and presented for a valuable consideration by george IV in I 1 1833 idere are exhibited many famous Enil fth books such an 1st editions of Pa Par adlie lost and grim s progress and shakespeare first folios in cases in the mid the of the room Is 13 the Taplin ir collection of postage stamps we next pass into the affinto saloon a a bere iere are eiml ed letters and of famous pothors and his tortal perSOn ARCS the logbook log loe book of the victory nel acris memorandum and other MES MS of great interest |