The sloping cases by the entrance to the Grenville Library are numbered from the door.
CASE I. Autographs of British sovereigns from Richard II. (none being known earlier) and of some famous foreign sovereigns (Charles V., Henri IV., Peter the Great, Louis XIV., Frederick the Great, Napoleon). - II-IV. Historical Autographs and Documents (1390-1885), including description of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Nelson's sketch-plan of the battle of the Nile, his unfinished letter to Lady Hamilton written on the eve of Trafalgar, and the last page of General Gordon's diary. - V and VI (at right angles to III and II), Charters (785-1508). In V is the logbook of the 'Victory' (1805). Above is a facsimile of Magna Charta. The British Museum possesses two of the four extant original copies of Magna Charta, the others being in Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral.
VII and VIII, flanking the door, Literary Autographs, of great interest, from the hands of many famous men, both English (Case VII) and foreign (Case VIII). In Frames 16 and 17, on the wall opposite Case VII, Milton's agreement for the sale of the copyright of 'Paradise Lost' (Milton's signature perhaps by a clerk, as he was blind by this time), a grant of Edmund Spenser, and a facsimile of a mortgage by Shakespeare.
