THE LATE I. IKUT. -GENERAL PLFT-KIVEKS. 247 



Among the earlier excavations carried out by the General should be 

 mentioned those of Mount Caburn, Cissburj', and Caesar's Camps in Sussex. 

 These remains, although not so elaborately excavated and reported upon 

 as those sites explored later, are nevertheless very important. The 

 exploration of Cissbui-y proved to be of special interest and revealed that the 

 camp itself had been formed in pre-Roman times but that this was, overlying 

 an earlier Neolithic Flint Mine, some of the implements from which showed 

 great resemblance to palaeolithic types. Punches and wedges formed from 

 tines and fragments of deer-horn were found in the galleries of the mine, 

 indicating the method by which the flints had been procured. A report of 

 this exploration was published in the founuil of the Anthrop. Inst, in 1875. 



Gen. Pitt-Rivers was appointed Inspector of Ancient Monuments for (ireat 

 Britain, and in 1884 carried out some excavations in ttie Pen Pits, near Pensel- 

 wood, in Somerset, for the purpose of ascertaining whether these ancient pits 

 should be placed under the Ancient Monuments Act In his capacity as 

 Inspector the General did much good work and succeeded in obtaining the 

 permission of owners to place many important monuments under the pro- 

 tection provided by the Act. 



It was perhaps as a collector that Gen. Pitt-Rivers was most brilliant, 

 his wide and diversified learning, combined with a special power of observing 

 ethnic changes, served to constitute him a scientific collector of the hio^hest 

 order. He had strong convictions as to the educational value of museums 

 and insisted on the need of a museum in London for educational purposes 

 apart from the large national collections which are essentially store houses for 

 research. His idea was that in an educational museum, the development of 

 any species in natural history or the history of any art or industry should be 

 demonstrated by means of objects arranged in sequence, showing the 

 successive changes that have taken place during their progress to perfection. 

 By this means those having but a rudimentary knowledge would unconsciously 

 be educated, by means of the eye, to form a correct knowledge of history and 

 the process of evolution which knowledge they would be able to apply to other 

 matters. With the object of founding a museum of this description, Gen. 

 Pitt-Rivers offered to the nation his large and valuable anthropological collec- 

 tion (the gathering together of which had occupied him the greater part of his 

 life) on the condition that it should form the nucleus of an educational institu- 

 tion. Although the idea was well received in many quarters, the Government 

 rejected the offer, on the ground that it was undesirable to have two separate 

 ethnographical museums in London. The collection was exhibited for some 

 years at South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums, but was eventually 

 presented to the University of Oxford. 



Ttiere is one feature of this collection to which special reference should 

 be made ; that is the illustration of the origin and development of decoratixe 

 art. It is largely owing to these striking series in his collection exemplifvin^'^ 

 the Evolution of Design that has led many to devote themselves to this study 

 with excellent results. Papers by the General on this subject will be found 

 in the Join . Anthrop Inst., vol. iv., p. 293 ; Pruc. Royal Inst.,, vii., pt. 6. 



As an example of the manner in which the General brought his powers of 

 observation and varied knowledge of things to bear on his system of collectin" 

 one cannot do better than turn to his Dcvdopinent and Distribution of Primitiv 



