Excerpt from Notes on the Present and Future of the Archaeological Collections of the University of Oxford

Can nothing be done to protect, utilize, con solidate, and properly arrange the Archaeological Collections belonging to the University of Oxford Not even the most bigoted admirers of the status quo can think that their present condition is credit able to Oxford as a Place of Learning, while all Archaeologists must regard it as simply disgraceful. Every Oxford man, indeed it may almost be said every Englishman - for is not Oxford the glory and the pride of England - who considers the subject, must allow that duty and piety towards those who in past times enriched the University with their gifts and their bequests, no less than regard to the present and coming generations of students, alike demand the radical reform of the present system, or rather the contemptuous and apathetic want of system which prevails in the University with respect to the treasures of ancient art committed, for educational purposes, to its care. This being so, it may perhaps be allowable for an old Oxford man, who deeply loves his Alma Mater, although, unhappily for himself, no longer connected with it, to make a few remarks and suggestions on the subject, and this the more so, since words of blame will come with greater grace and with less offence from an outsider than from a resident in the University itself.

Of the immense importance of Archaeological Collections to those engaged in the teaching or in the study of classical authors, or of ancient and mediaeval History, little need be said, as it is evident to all. Two illustrations only will suffice. The History of Egypt is written upon her ancient monuments, and the student of Herodotus who has before his eyes a well-arranged collection of Egyptian antiquities will learn more of the arts, manners, customs, mythology, and religion of the ancient Egyptians in a week than he would in months employed in the study of books. Works of ancient art are indeed the flesh and sinews which cover and give life to the dry bones of History; the flowers which sweeten and embellish the waste places of laborious study. How interesting and instructive, moreover, to the students of mediaeval English History would be a fine collection of the local antiquities of Oxford and its neighbourhood, and how it would help them to re-people the Past, and to realize the actual state of the University and City in the Middle Ages! These obvious truths, forgotten or disregarded in Oxford, are recognized and acted on elsewhere. Cambridge spends her hundreds a year in augmenting and improving the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum; even Aberdeen 1s buying medals, and the generous Head Master of Winchester is at his own expense forming a cabinet of coins, the better to teach History to the lads of his noble school. Oxford alone does nothing, or, if she does anything, does it in the spi1it of jealousy and rivalry her counsels are divided; there 1s no central or controlling authority every man's hand is against his brother and the result, so far as Archaeology is concerned, is complete chaos.

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