BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Lately Published by Messrs. BENTLEY and SON, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty. Printed at the Chiswick Press in demy 8vo. Price Fourteen Shillings. Dedicated, by permission, to the Trustees of the British Museum. MEMORIES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Every man is a debtor to his profession, from the which as men do, of course, seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves, by way of amends, to be a help thereunto.-LORD BACON. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought SHAKSPERE'S Sonnets. SELECTIONS FROM NOTICES OF THE PRESS, ETC. An exhaustive account of the rise and progress of the British Museum, from a competent pen, cannot fail to interest every reader of English books. Such a work is Mr. Robert Cowtan's Memories of the British Museum. He is one of the oldest members of the Museum staff, having entered it in the year 1835. He is probably one of the most zealous servants of that great national establishment. He writes of it with an enthusiasm which it is b pleasant to witness. . . It only remains for us to thank Mr. Cowtan for the mass of useful details he has brought together, to praise the tone and the manner in which he has stated them, to congratulate the Trustees of the Museum upon having in their service so diligent and useful a servant as he has proved himself to be, and to recommend those among our readers who take a natural and commendable interest in the great National Library, to turn to Mr. Cowtan's book for instructive details as to its establishment, progress, and present condition. Daily News. -- The The Library and the Reading-Room are the scenes whence the reminiscences of Mr. Cowtan have been derived. He joined the staff of that noble institution in 1835, and has risen, by industry and attention to his duties, to the rank of an assistant in that department. In the thirty-six years which have elapsed since his first appointment, Mr. Cowtan has seen many changes both of men and things in the British Museum, and he has been induced to embody his recollections in the present volume. Times. The These Memories are confined almost entirely to the Library of the Museum, in which Mr. Cowtan holds a post. The book is chiefly interesting for the variety of statistics it contains, and for the clear and concise way in which the writer has extracted the pith of voluminous official documents. Mr. Cowtan's volume embraces a considerable period of time, for he commenced his official duties in 1835, when the National Collection was contained in Montague House, and he has many recollections to record of men who directly or indirectly are known to fame.-Pall Mall Gazette. Mr. Cowtan has added some pleasant chapters to the history of the Museum. There is a great variety of infor-, mation in it, apart from what may be described as amusing. -The Athenæum 3 Mr. Cowtan deserves our best thanks for his interesting volume.-The Literary World. Mr. Cowtan has been for forty years in the service of the Trustees of the British Museum, and is, therefore, well qualified by familiar knowledge for the task which he has here taken upon himself. In a pleasant piquant way he tells the story of the Museum, interspersing his account of purchases, arrangements, and changes, with anecdotes and characterizations of persons connected with its history. The book is chatty, quaint, and charming. Few who take it up will be disposed to put it down before it is finished. We wish we could have enriched our pages by some of its facts and anecdotes.-British Quarterly Review. We congratulate Mr. Cowtan on having produced a very readable book about matters of keen interest to literary men. It evinces a large amount of painstaking research, and the result, we should think, can be no less gratifying to the frequenters of the British Museum Library than to his own colleagues. Luxuriously printed at the Chiswick Press, tastefully bound, and ornamented with a good portrait of Sir Anthony Panizzi, photographed from Marochetti's bust, Memories of the British Museum is a book that does great credit to its author, publisher, and printer.-The Civilian. Mr. Cowtan has a claim founded upon a long and honourable connection with our great National Institution, to appear as its historian. Connected with it since 1835, he has seen the Library emerge from the obscurity and comparative littleness of those days to the great place which it now occupies. Mr. Cowtan's volume, indeed, contains a mass of information respecting the Museum and Library, much of which is quite new, and is well worth preserving. There are are many personal reminiscences scattered throughout the book, which serve not only to lighten its pages, but to make the general reader acquainted with the inner life of a great public institution, and with some account of its chief officials during the last forty years. The work will be read with interest by many who have never been among that company of silent readers under the great glass roof in Bloomsbury, which is to be seen there every day on which the Library is open; whilst to the "Readers" themselves it will, we need scarcely say, convey much information that they will be glad to possess.-Leeds Mercury. The best commentary upon all the vexed questions of bibliothecal economy can hardly be looked for with better success than in the history of the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum during the last half century. A clear view of the inside management can now be derived from a pleasant volume, entitled Memories of the British Museum, by one of its faithful servants, Mr. Robert Cowtan, which the latest steamer from England has brought us.The Boston Daily Advertiser, U.S. I have read with very much pleasure your interesting and instructive, well and variously-filled work. - Professor Owen, Superintendent of the Department of Natural History, British Museum. I have just read your truly interesting and ably written volume, with which I am quite charmed, and congratulate you heartily upon it. James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., &c. Shortly will be Published a Second Edition, Revised, with a Portrait of the Author. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A "MAN OF KENT." 1817-1872. "The true every-day life of the most ordinary man is one of the most instructive and interesting of all studies. Common-place lives are more instructive than exceptional ones. "The story of my life From year to year." SELECTIONS FROM NOTICES OF THE PRESS AND OPINIONS OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE WORK. Under the name of the Autobiography of a "Man of Kent," we have one of those pleasantly garrulous books in which an educated man dilates upon the actual experiences and impressions of his life. He is from first to last communicative, and talks sensibly and liberally of whatever he has seen. This is a fresh and manly book, in which the author goes over the story of his life, partly for his own amusement and the entertainment of his friends, but much more with a view of helping younger men than himself, by showing in what way he cleared his mind of the doubts and difficulties that now-a-days force themselves upon the consideration of every independent thinker; and how, having built up his principles, and marked out his course in life, he worked up towards his ideal, and sought to do |