Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/196

 1 86 Obituary.

magnificent quarto volumes, which he printed privately and presented to students and friends. These volumes are a perfect model of research, and I do not think the " relic tables," which are compiled with extrordinary minuteness, can be too highly treasured. But valuable as these volumes self-evidently are, their true value is hardly appreciated until one visits the museum at Farnham, where the objects are stored, classified, and arranged in such a manner that they at once speak out their story. In the same rooms where the objects are exhibited are plans of the places where the finds have been made, together with the most perfect models, showing first the site as it was before being excavated, and secondly the result of excavations. The whole work is a marvel of magnificent research. Not only, however, does the museum contain the objects discovered on the estate, but also great collections of domestic, agricultural, and other objects, implements, tools, and what not, arranged so as to show the line of developement from the crudest types to the modern forms. Perhaps one of the most interesting examples is afforded from the local manufacture of roofing tiles. It is of a singular pattern, but by placing the modern production side by side with older examples we gradually reach the prototype, which is seen to be the Roman tiles discovered on the sites of Roman villas in the neighbourhood. Another most interesting group for study is the wedding apparel of the East European peasantry. But indeed there is hardly any part of the museum which is not of the highest value. Folklore objects are not absent, and Mrs. Gomme made a note of them for the Society, and photographs have been kindly promised by the curator.

General Pitt-Rivers held the almost thankless office of Inspector of Ancient Monuments, under the Ancient Monuments Act, which we owe to Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock). He tried to make landowners see their duty in this respect as he saw his ; but, alas ! here he failed for the most part.

Apart from archaeological work, General Pitt-Rivers did great things for the inhabitants of his part of the country, and nothing delighted him more than to see the people at the sports insti- tuted by him at the Larmer Grounds on Whit Monday. He met opposition, as he met every difficulty, by overcoming it. One class of opposition was on account of his museum being opened on Sunday, but he laughed it down in characteristic fashion, and