Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/21

 Rh present made acquaintance for the first time with the treasures appertaining to our study preserved at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, the significance and importance of which were so convincingly set forth by Dr. Tylor.

The Members of the Congress were likewise indebted to Miss Dempster, the collector of Sutherlandshire folk-lore, for her reception of them at her house.

Thanks to the labours of the various committees the social interest of the Congress was brilliantly assured, and it may be affirmed that never before was the subject of folk-lore brought so prominently or so sympathetically before the public. It were ungracious not to acknowledge the liberal space accorded by the press to the Congress proceedings, or the marked fulness and accuracy of the reports. Mr. Stuart, of the National Observer and Anti-Jacobin staff, kindly made himself the medium of communication between the Congress officials and his colleagues of the press, and his services were as appreciated on the one as on the other side.

This brief record of the circumstances connected with the initiation and organisation of the Congress will not, we trust, be deemed out of place. Before closing it one further acknowledgment must be made. Great as was the work that fell to the share of the active members of the Committee, eager as was the zeal of all, it may well be imagined that the burden was heaviest upon the Chairman and the Secretary of the Executive Committee. To Mr. Gomme and to Mr. Foster, more than to any other men, belongs the credit of having by their energy and persistent labour assured the material success of the Congress.

.

The present volume, full record as it is of what the Congress has accomplished for the advancing of our study, may be described as more especially the outcome of the labours of the Literary Sub-Committee, which set to work