Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/195

 OBITUARY.

LIEUT.-GENERAL AUGUSTUS PITT-RIVERS, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., ETC.

General Pitt-Rivers died on May 4th last. This Society did not directly receive from him assistance in its labours, but it owes a deep debt of gratitude nevertheless to his encouragement and work in subjects kindred to folklore. It was only last Easter that Mrs. Gomme and I, in company with Dr. Haddon, visited the scene of General Pitt-Rivers' life-work in Dorsetshire, and we were deeply impressed with the evidences of one man's achieve- ments. Everywhere is care for the past memorials of the district, in their relationship to educational work, self-evident. Not the smallest detail is forgotten, and students and casual visitors alike are reminded constantly of what has been done for their benefit. Dr. Haddon and I had a moment's brief interview with the dying general. I could not but notice that the publications of our Society were conspicuously placed on the book-shelves adjoining his room.

General Pitt-Rivers was formerly known as Colonel Lane-Fox. He served in the Crimea, and was afterwards attached to the School of Musketry at Hythe, where his energy and remarkable ability were used to perfect this branch of the military schools. Men who knew this young officer of the Guards there were struck with the fact that, unlike his fashionable brother officers, he took his pro- fession seriously and worked hard. Besides his military work he found time to collect a museum of anthropological objects, which, when it grew too large for private ownership, he generously pre- sented to the University of Oxford.

In 1880 Colonel Lane-Fox inherited the Rivers estates in Dorsetshire, and he at once took up the work of exploration. In 1 88 1 he began systematic work, employing a staff of assistants, and excavating in a manner which no archaeologist had ever done before. The records of his great work are contained in four