NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE DRIFFIELD MUSEUM. I4I 
Greenwell, and the late James Silbourn) have been dispersed, 
and are lost to their native East Yorkshire. Such, 
unfortunately, must be the fate of all private collections if 
not permanently fixed during the life of their original owner, 
as it far too frequently happens that that which one 
generation gathers the next generation scatters. 
I have said ‘‘more to be regretted” because it is possible 
that some future collector might obtain a small collection of 
specimens from the surface of the land, but to make another 
collection from the barrows of this district would be quite 
an impossibility, as they are practically exhausted. From 
these facts it is evident that the neighbourhood has been 
deprived of a great number of its precious relics, which 
were a valuable legacy left by our ancient forefathers, and by 
right should have remained and belonged to the present and 
all future occupants of the district. These valuable remains 
are almost the only reliable records of the customs and mode 
of living of our remote ancestors ; they are the fossil history 
of the district, and they must always be of the greatest 
interest to the neighbourhood in which they have been found; 
it is, therefore, our bounden duty to provide, as far as 
possible, for their safe keeping in the district. Nevertheless, 
I have shewn that, unfortunately, during the last thirty-five 
years this district has been immensely impoverished of its 
archeological treasures, and it is much to be regretted that 
even at the present time the tendency is to favour the 
removal to distant collections any relics which are found in 
this neighbourhood, rather than assist to retain them in the 
district to which they belong by inheritance ; such instances 
have recently come under my notice. At present only three 
of all the eighteen collections I have referred to—viz., fourteen, 
consisting of specimens obtained from the surface of the land, 
and four from the excavations of the barrows, remain in East 
Yorkshire. Surely the East Riding possesses some governing 
body that, before it is too late, will see the wisdom of 
permanently possessing these, and handing them down to 
future governing bodies as a source of education and a 
treasure of permanent value to the district. When this 
is accomplished, and it is known that this collection belongs 
for ever to the district, it will be a centre of donations of 
relics found in and belonging to the neighbourhood (rather 
than the specimens be sent to distant collections, where they 
can only be of minor value), and in time it ought to, and will, 
become a large and very valuable possession. 
