Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/256

248 we have a body of evidence preserved so as to be available for the discussion of the fresh problems continually arising with the progress of our knowledge. For such a band of explorers, and for such modes of procedure, the Inspector of Ancient Monuments has eloquently pleaded both in word and deed. If Parliament could be persuaded to accord him large and compulsory powers for the preservation and investigation of the monuments, which are a national inheritance and a trust, alas ! too little regarded, it would confer a lustre on itself, and earn the thanks of all who are interested, not merely in British history, but in anthropological science.

It only remains to call attention again to the museum at Farnham, organised on similar principles to that at Oxford, where General Pitt-Rivers has deposited the bulk of the objects recovered during his excavations, side by side with similar objects from foreign countries, and with a valuable and extensive series of models of the villages and of various stages of the excavations (showing the positions of the human and other remains), as well as of other ancient monuments. His anxiety to render these things accessible and attractive is shown by the erection of a small hotel close at hand, and by attention in other ways to the wants and comfort of persons who visit the museum. So successful has the effort proved, that last year 7,000 persons were recorded as visitors. His account of it in the Appendices to the present volume is one of justifiable pride and satisfaction.