260 



Notes, Archaeological and Historical 



Downton Associated Volunteers. 

 James Bailey, Esq., to be Captain. 

 John Reeves, Gent., to be Lieutenant. 

 John Bailey, Jun., Gent., to be ditto. 

 Henry Rooke, Gent., to be Ensign. 



Malmeshury Volunteer Infantry. 

 Lord Andover to be Major. 



Samuel Haugkton, Gent., to be Lieutenant, vice Coleman. 

 Eleanor Newman, Gent., to be Ensign, vice Smith. 

 Abraham Smith, Gent., to be Ensign, vice Maskelyn. 



Whorwell Volunteers. 

 Frederick Iremonger to be Ensign, vice Rogers. 



West Wilts Volunteer Battalion. 

 — McDowell, Gent., to be Adjutant. 



G. E. Daetnell. 



The Sale of the Collection of Antiquities belonging to | 

 The Be v. E. Duke, of Lake House. 



The collection of antiquities belonging to the Rev. E. Duke, of Lake House, 

 was sold by auction on July 10th, 1895, by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & | 

 Hodge. Nearly all the British articles came from barrows in the neighbour- j 

 hood of Lake — and many of them are figured and described in Hoare's Ancient j 

 Wilts. The fact that they were in this way well known to antiquaries no 

 doubt accounted in some measure for the high prices which they realised, j 

 The Committee of our Society had hoped that several of the lots might have i 

 been secured for our Museum, and so have been kept in the county to which jj 

 they belonged, and the Rev. E. H. Goddard attended the sale on the Society's f 

 behalf. But, unfortunately for Wiltshire, Sir A. Wollaston Franks had set l|J 

 his mind upon them for the British Museum, and in such circumstances local | 

 societies or county museums find but scant mercy at his hands. No one who ij 

 knows anything of the matter can help acknowledging the unwearied industry M 

 and the splendid private generosity by which he has so enriched the [j 

 national collections ; but it is at least an open question whether the cause i j 

 of archaeology is better served by the amassing of great numbers of similar f 

 specimens in London — a large proportion of which cannot be exhibited for want 1 

 of room — rather than by allowing them to find a home in good local museums, | 

 such as our own or that of General Pitt-Rivers, at Earnham, where, in addition j 

 to the intrinsic interest of the several objects themselves, there is the added ij 

 local interest which arises from their being preserved in the localities in which J| 

 they have been discovered. Whatever may be the rights of the question, at 

 a sale the longest purse wins ; and the British Museum accordingly acquired 

 all the most important lots, with two or three exceptions. One of these was 

 Lot 120, "one half or side of a stone mould, in syenite, for casting bronze 

 celts, one face carved for making a single-looped socketed celt 4Jin. long; 



