828 REPORT— 1888. 



might then be devoted to showing the evolution of such modern arts as could be 

 placed in continuity with those of antiquity. 



In order that the best objects might be selected to represent the different 

 periods and keep up the succession of forms which woidd constitute the chief 

 object of the museum, I would confine the exhibition chiefly to casts, reproduc- 

 tions, and models, the latter being, in my opinion, a means of representing 

 primitive arts, which has not yet been sufficiently made use of, but which in my 

 own smaU local museum at Farnham, Dorsetshire, I have employed to a consider- 

 able extent, having as many as twenty-three models, similar to those now 

 exhibited, of places in which things have been found within an area of two miles. 



The several sections and rings would be superintended by directors and 

 assistants, whose function it would be to obtain reproductions and models of the 

 objects best adapted to display the continuity of their several arts and periods ; 

 and the arts selected for representation should be those in which this continuity 

 could be most persistently adhered to. Amongst these the following might be 

 named : — Pottery, architecture, house furniture, modes of navigation, tools, 

 weapons, weaving apparatus, painting, sculpture, modes of land transport and 

 horse furniture, ornamentation, personal ornament, hunting and fishing apparatus, 

 machinery, fortification, modes of burial, agriculture, ancient monuments, domesti- 

 cation of animals, toys, means of heating and providing light, the use of food, 

 narcotics, and so forth. 



Miscellaneous collections calculated to confuse the several series, and having 

 no bearing on development, should be avoided, but physical anthropology relating 

 to man as an animal, might find its place in the several sections. 



I have purposely avoided in my brief sketch of this scheme giving unnecessary 

 details. Any cut-and-dried plan would have to be greatly altered, according to 

 the possibilities of the case, when the time for action arrived. My object is to 

 ventilate the general idea of a large anthropological liotunda, which I have always 

 thought would be the final outcome of the activity which has shown itself in this 

 branch of science during the last few years, and which I have reason to believe is 

 destined to come into being before long. In such an institution the position of 

 each phase of art development shows itself at once by its distance from the centre 

 of the space, and the collateral branches would be arranged to merge into each 

 other according to their geographical positions. 



The advantages of such an institution would be appreciated, not by anthro- 

 pologists and archaeologists only. It would adapt itself more especially to the 

 limited time for study at the disposal of the working classes, for whose education 

 it is vmnecessary to say that at the present time we are all most deeply concerned. 

 Although it is customary to speak of working men as uneducated, education is a 

 relative term, and it is well to remember that in all that relates to the material 

 arts they have, in the way of technical skill and handicraft, a better groundwork 

 for appreciating what is put before them than the upper classes. That they are 

 able to educate themselves by means of a well-arranged museum, my own expe- 

 rience, even with the imperfect arrangements that have been at my command, 

 enables me to testify. Anything which tends to impress the mind with the slow 

 growth and sfcibility of human institutions and industries, and their dependence 

 upon antiquity, must, I think, contribute to check revolutionary ideas, and the ten- 

 dency which now exists, and which is encouraged by some who should know better, 

 to break drastically with the past, and must help to inculcate conservative prin- 

 ciples, which are urgently needed at the present time, if the civilisation that we 

 enjoy is to be maintained and to be permitted to develop itself. 



The next subject to which I would draw your attention is the present working 

 of the Act for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, with the carrying out of 

 which I have been entrusted during the last five years. 



It is unnecessary to speak of the measures that have been taken in other 

 •countries which have preceded us in the work of protecting ancient monuments. 

 Their system of land tenure and division of property is different from ours, and the 

 same measures are not equally applicable. 



