MORTIMER : THE HISTORY OF THE DRIFFIELD MUSEU3I. 95 
(viz., that of the late Lord Londesborough, the Rev. Canon 
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 collec- 
tions, 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. 
Frora these lamentable facts it is evident that the neighbour- 
hood has been deprived of a great number of its precious relics, 
which were a valuable legacy left b}'- 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. Never- 
theless, I have shown that, unfortunately, during the last thirty- 
five years this district has been immensely impoverished of its 
archaeological 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 neigh- 
bourhood, 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. 
