Yol. 54.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Hx 



' Ornamental Glazing Quarries,' containing many drawings by his 

 own hand. At the same time he began his extensive collection of 

 rubbings of monumental brasses which was eventually presented to 

 the Society of Antiquaries. He acted as Secretary of the Exhibition* 

 of Medigeval Art held at the Society of Arts in 1850, the first of 

 many similar displays, and it was probably the knowledge of the 

 subject which he then showed that led Mr. Hawkins, the Keeper of 

 the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum, to propose 

 that he should enter the Museum as an assistant, which he did in. 

 the year 1851. The department was then a mere collection of odds 

 and ends ; when Sir A. "W. Pranks retired it occupied more than 

 one-half of the upper floor of the building. The post of Principal 

 Librarian of the Museum was off'ered to him, but he declined it, 

 feeling that his proper vocation lay in his own department. He 

 was a man capable of warm friendships, which was in itself a 

 benefit to the Museum, and it ma}^ safely be said that it is to his 

 friendship with Mr. Henry Christy, Mr. Felix Slade, Mr. John 

 Henderson, and Mr. William Burges, and to the advice and help which 

 he gave them in forming their various collections, that the Museum 

 owes their valuable bequests. In March 1864 Mr. Henry Christy 

 invited Sir A. W. Eranks, in company with Mr. W. J. Hamilton, 

 Prof. T. Rupert Jones, Sir Douglas Galton, Sir John Lubbock, and 

 Sir John Evans, to examine some of the bone-caves on the Vezere, 

 Dordogne district, in the South of France ; and he heartily joined 

 Mr. Christy in the study of stone implements. In the preface to 

 * Heliquiae Aquitanicae,' it is stated : — ' In bringing together 

 and arranging the varied materials . . . useful in archaeology and 

 anthropology the directing counsels of Mr. A. W. Franks, F.R.S., 

 have been constant and efficient, like his courtesy and knowledge/ 

 Other sections besides his own bear witness to his catholic taste 

 and great liberality, and he was not infrequently requested by 

 Government to give his judgment on proposed purchases. As soon 

 as his retirement from the Museum became inevitable under the 

 Order in Council he was placed on the Standing Committee, and 

 took, up to the time of his death, an active part in the business of 

 the Museum. He was for some time Director of the Society of 

 Antiquaries, a post involving the editorship of the society's publica- 

 tions, and in 1891 he was nominated president for the usual period 

 of seven years. His principal discovery in archaeology was to 

 separate the work of the age which produced what he called ' Late 

 Celtic ' antiquities — perhaps the most artistic productions of any 



