14 JANUARY 1911, Page 3

The details of Lady Meux's will, published in the Times

of Wednesday, are of more than ordinary interest. Thus her col- lection of eighteen hundred Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities, including stelae, limestone figures, mummies and coffins, scarabs and amulets, for which she built a museum in Theobalds Park, is left to the British Museum on con- dition that it is kept together in a suitable position ; while Whistler's " Sable Picture of Lady Meux " is bequeathed to the National Gallery "if it can be found, together with the correspondence thereon." This portrait, the third which Whistler painted of Lady Meux, was never finished, owing apparently to some friction, which is described in Mr. and Mrs. Pennell's Life of the artist. Another interesting legacy is that of the Abyssinian MSS.—notably " The Miracles of the Virgin Mary," which belonged to a King who reigned in 1410—obtained on the capture of Magdala in the Abyssinian War of 1868. Envoys sent ten years ago from the Emperor Menelek endeavoured to buy them back, and in pursuance of a promise then given they are now left to him.