Museum Statistics 



387 



The number of visitors to the Linlithgow Museum is stated 

 to be twenty annually ! 



At Guildford (Surrey's capital), the Archaeological Museum 

 is visited by about 400 people annually. 



As to Frome, we read that the number of visitors is 

 " practically nil " and it is equally melancholy to read that 

 " the Museum has no separate income, and nothing has been 

 spent on it for several years." 



There are at the present time at least fifteen towns in 

 Great Britain with a population in excess of 50,000, yet with- 

 out museum or art gallery of any kind. Amongst these may 

 be mentioned Birkenhead, Rhondda, Gateshead, Bournemouth, 

 Coventry, Wigan, and Greenock. 



Our Gazette keeps before it two main objects, the first 

 being to convince Municipal bodies and others that Educa- 

 tional Museums are essential to educational progress, and 

 ought to be provided in every town of any considerable size. 

 Our second object is to explain how best the formation of 

 such Museums may be attempted, and to give such aid as we 

 can to their realisation. The statistics given above reveal 

 a state of things which abundantly justifies our effort. 

 Leaving aside the Metropolitan cities, the Museums of the 

 United Kingdom appear to be dotted about like plums in an 

 impoverished bun on the " here am I, where art thou ? " 

 principle, few and far between, and without any regard to 

 the local requirements. Wigan, with its population of 60,000, 

 has no Museum, whilst Ilkley, with only 7,000 not only 

 has one, but boasts an attendance of 4,000 annually. Nothing 

 can be more obvious than that local zeal rather than local 

 need has been the chief influence in determining the location 

 of Museums. There is as yet no general recognition that 

 Museums are a necessity, and their formation a duty which 

 is laid upon the educated classes, and more especially upon 

 those in civic authority. 



It is obvious that some of the Museums named in the 



