NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRIFFIELD 
MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES AND GEOLOGICAL 
SPECIMENS. 
By J. R. Mortimer. 
T was the great London Exhibition of 1851 that first 
decided my taste for scientific enquiry. Afterwards, 
Mr. Edward Tindall’s geological and archeological 
collections, at Bridlington, fired me with a strong desire 
to make a similar collection. A curious chalk cast was 
the first specimen I obtained, whilst a small ammonite, 
which I bought from Mr. Tindall, was the first of its kind 
I possessed. 
My brother, the late Robert Mortimer, of Fimber, had 
a like love for collecting. 
For the first ten or twelve years the late Edward Tindall, 
of Bridlington, and the late George Pycock, of Malton, were 
almost our only rivals; yet we accumulated specimens but 
slowly. We had, however, during this period, trained many 
of the farm servants in the Fimber neighbourhood to dis- 
tinguish and keep for us any geological and archeological 
specimens they could find. The small collection we then 
made mainly consisted of chalk fossils and a very few stone 
and flint tools. These we exhibited in cases, in my offices 
at Fimber. Small though this display was, it seemed to 
stimulate others to indulge in the same hobby, and soon 
our neighbourhood was more or less periodically visited 
by the thirteen competitors hereafter named and _ their 
agents, during a period of about 35 years, ranging from 
1861 to 1896. None, however, of these enthusiasts, except 
Mr. Tindall and Mr. Chadwick, collected geological 
specimens, though all of them were active competitors for 
stone, flint, and bronze weapons. They constantly visited 
the district, and, not infrequently, bought from the very 
field labourers whom we had trained to distinguish these 
specimens, by overbidding us, and so running up the prices. 
The combined energies of these gentlemen would, I 
believe, obtain from the same area quite three times the 
large number of stone, flint and bronze tools, and weapons, 
that have been collected by my brother and myself, now 
