To search the RPR site click here
S&SWM PR papers L1 - L200
Here are transcriptions of some of the letters between L201-400 in Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum Pitt-Rivers papers
If you would like to see the originals of these letters then please contact Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.
Part I
There follows transcriptions of all the letters deemed relevant to the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers research project in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum's Pitt-Rivers papers collection. They were transcribed in May 2011. It is hoped that all the letters in the collection (relevant to this project or not) can be scanned and made available in the near future.
For letters from L201 on see other Parts.
L1
29 Weymouth Street
Portland Place
London
17 Oct. 1881
My dear Pitt Rivers
Many thanks for your note I will pack up the flakes _ (one arrow head is very pretty_) in a cigar box & take them to the Lon & S. West Station this afternoon address'g to you to Tisbury Station. I suppose you send for parcels.
As to the payment for the them [sic] I will leave it to you - there are 33 & they belong to Clarke of Zagazig Egypt - he collected them himself at Helwân whither he went for the baths - he states they are rare there now s he was 8 days picking them up, & does not know the value at all. Whatever you send me I will forward to him.
Your two Stele have come - they are very fine - in fact the larger one is splendid. pity both are cracked. I will take great care & do my best towards giving you their history. The large one is of later date than the small one - Ptolemaic I should think - the sign [drawing] is used for [drawing] w'ch denotes a late period. I take it to be the stela of a Priest adoring Osiris who is accompanied by Iris & Nepthys.
With best regards
I am,
Yrs very sincerely
F.G. Hilton Price.
-------
L2
Trin[ity] Coll. Cambridge
Nov 21 1881
Dear Pitt Rivers
I am sending off the Chinese spears [see separate entries] to you and I enclose also the Irish swords. There is one very long one another ordinary one and a third broken. I think I may ask for £9 for the three. The spears are £10. It is a troublesome job trying to dispose of the antiquities for Mr Banks widow as I have to get them priced by experts & then find a buyer. If you dont want the swords you can send them to the Genl. Sec. Burlington House
Yours [illegible]
Thos MKenny Hughes
-----
L5
15 Kensington Gore
S.W.
Jan. 2. 82
My dear General
I have been looking over my curios from Egypt I am sorry to find nothing of any value but I send a parcel today, containing a few things I got near Luxor. Some may be [illegible]. The [illegible] certainly are & worthy of a place in yr. Egyptian collection at Rushmore.
We have had nothing but rain here for the last week.
Kindest regards to Mrs Pitt Rivers & all the party.
Yrs very truly
G.I. Bridges
I shall direct the parcel to Tisbury Station.
-----
L8
Linden, Wellington, Somerset,
Sep. 24. 1882
Dear Gen'l Pitt-Rivers
Before long I suppose we may hear of your Museum being settled at Oxford. I am not only interested in this on public grounds, but the University establishing your Collection may affect a scheme suggested to me by Rolleston years ago, as to a Readership at Oxford which might help to bring Anthropology into the University course. If all goes right with your Museum, it is likely that I may be asked to give on or two lectures at Oxford with a view to some permanent appointment coming afterwards. All this is in the clouds as yet, but some months ago Max Müller asked me to drop on my way and see Moseley as Rolleston's successor, and some other men whose voices would be important in the matter. It looks as if something may come of it, thanks to the impulse given by you to Anthropology at the University. It is true that the appointment if made will be by no means a lucrative one, but I think I could do more effective work in such a position than anywhere else, while there is work left in me. Since I was at Oxford I have been expecting to meet you somewhere and talk to you about the idea, but as there seems no immediate prospect of seeing you I write instead, only adding that the people interested at Oxford are anxious that nothing should be said further at present, as to make it known would complicate matters
Believe me yours very truly
Edward B. Tylor
----
L12
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
4 St Martin's Place W.C.
16th Oct'r 1882
Dear General Pitt Rivers
The November number of our Journal has just been completed, and I shall immediately commence the preparation of the succeeding number, which will include your Boomerang paper. In fact I called at the Rooms on Saturday, and begged Mr. Bloxam to let me have all the papers which are in his hands. I do not know whether he holds your MS., but if it is still in your hands I shall be grateful to you for it. Now as to the illustrations. It seems to me such a pity that your artist should first draw the objects on paper and the lithographer then copy them on stone. It gives just double labour. If your draughtsman cannot work on stone, or on lithographic transfer-paper, why not get him to draw what you want as line drawings on paper, and then have them transferred to a wooden block by one of the photographic processes.
This is a cheaper and more rapid process than lithography; and moreover it has the advantage that the blocks are always in your possession, so that they can be used in any other paper at a future time, whereas if the lithographer copies on to stone he rubs off his work after the interval of a few months and all his labour is lost!
Only your artist must remember that the photographic processes can only reproduce lines, and all shading must be represented in this way. A wash of colour, or a number of lines running indistinctly together, cannot be permitted. The pen if not the brush should be used.
Our meetings commence on Nov. 14, and we ought to hold a Council Meeting a fortnight before, namely on Oct. 31. Can you favour us with anything for the first night? Dr Parker who has been for 8 years in Madagascar, as Court Physician, has called upon me with a paper which he wants read on the first evening. But it will not take more than 1/2 an hour to read, and therefore I want another communication. Moreover Philology is not a very attractive subject to open the session. Do pray oblige us, if you can, with a short communication to start with, and then Dr. Parker can follow.
Very faithfully yrs.
F.W. Rudler
…..
[Part only] L18
In a letter from H.S. Milman dated 27 October 1882 to Pitt-Rivers, Milman says 'In your "Mount Caburn" Plates you have added your name or initials as draughtsman. That point I leave to you, merely mentioning of in case you should have forgotten it.' [in the plates for the paper on 'Caesar's camp' Folkestone].
----
L22
Ludwell, Salisbury
Nov. 7. 82
General Pitt-Rivers
Sir
I questioned my son respecting the old sword. He tells me that he bought that one, and another, in Shaftesbury market, from a man from Salisbury who had a stall there for several weeks, selling all kinds of old Government Stores. In fact there was a lot of them bought by different people.
Isaac Bennet called at his house about twelve months ago, seeing it over the fireplace he bought it of him I beg to remain Sir
Your obedient servant
William Gatehouse [illegible]
P.S. The man’s name who sold them was Robert Trowbridge
----
L40
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
4 St Martin’s Place W.C.
8 XII 1882
Dear General Pitt-Rivers
Will you be able to preside at our Meeting next Tuesday? If you can conveniently exhibit any recent acquisition I shall be very grateful, for I fear that our programme is but scantily filled, and that the evening will be tame unless we make an effort to enliven it by an exhibition.
I shall be very glad to have the stone implement of Capt. Burton’s which is to be engraved for our journal, and I am also anxious to receive your plate of boomerangs
Most faithfully yrs
F.W. Rudler
General Pitt Rivers FRS &c &c
----
L41
The Red House
Ascot
9.12.82
My dear Pitt Rivers
You have obtained my address at Queens Gate Gardens but you have neglected to give me your own, your letter bearing no other date than Nov (?Dec) 3. and the "here" mentioned it being clearly not Rushmore which is also alluded to. Carry Gordon, however, who is here to day advices me to write to you at Rushmore and I have followed her counsel.
It would I fear be impossible for me to indicate what specimens I wish to keep without seeing them. I do not even know what part of my collection you have received and should be glad to learn. The things were sent straight from the Melbourne Exhibition in two ship loads one of which has not yet arrived. All I know is that the spears, some of which are particularly fine, have not come yet. I have an especially good collection of priests bowls - the flat wooden bowls on high stands - and I hope these which were really the most valuable articles reached you in good condition.
I do not think that the Oxford folks [presumably the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford] would make any difficulty about receiving the collection on the same conditions as yourself viz that of my retaining the right during the next (say) five years to claim the return of a few articles from among those deposited. Very likely the right would never be really exercised as I am never likely to have a house suitable for the reception of more of these sort of articles than I already have here.
Yours very faithfully
Arthur Gordon
-----
L42
17 Robertson Terrace
Hastings
Dec’r 9.82
You may probably have heard that some brief Memoir of the late Professor Rolleston, is about to be published by his friends Prof'r Turner of Edinbro', and Prof'ss Goldwin Smith; I venture to ask if you can help Mrs Rolleston in her desire to obtain from friends, any letters or Personal recollections, they may be able to contribute towards the Memoir now in progress or towards a later volume, which she hopes to put together of Reminiscences, chiefly interesting to her own family and intimate friends.
Any letters, or other material you are so good as to entrust me with, will be carefully returned, copies, or extracts from them, having been made as you may direct.
----
L 49
... I am inclined to think it will be the best and cheapest way to have Mr Tomkin's pen & ink drawing copied by one of the new photographic processes. It is not so soft as lithography, but then a lithograph is rubbed off the stone after printing and can never be used again, whereas the new processes furnish a metal block which can [sic] used whenever required in the future. [Rudler to Pitt-Rivers dated 14 December 1882]
----
L52-53
P-R gives £100 towards the setting up costs for Dorchester Museum
----
L54
British Museum
Dec 18th ‘82
Dear Sir
In answer to your enquiries about the small terra cotta figure you had of me I beg to say that it was stated to have come from Mycenae.
You may have noticed similar ones in the Schlieman collection at S. Kensington
I am
Sir
Yours obediently
Wm Talbot Ready
It is supposed to be a [insert] winged [end insert] figure of a fate, or, of Minerva
---
L56
The Red House
Ascot
20.12.82
My dear Pitt Rivers
I went the other day to 4 Grosvenor Gardens, and saw my clubs etc: It would be quite impossible for me to make a selection from them as they lie there, and, at present, I have little room for such things here.
If you do not object, and Oxford does not object, I had much rather they should go to the Museum about to be built, subject to the one condition that, during my life time, I may take out individual articles. On my death, in any case, the whole to be theirs. And if this be accepted, I can make it a very much handsomer present; for I have cases more of very fine specimens at Haddo, unopened, and what is, I believe, an unique collection of priests bowls, here, which shall all be thrown in. By the way, the bowls at 4 Grosvenor Gardens are not Priests Bowls, but Oil Bowls. The priests bowls are always raised on high stands, and are so shallow as to be well nigh flat.
I wish you would come here some day, and see my collection of Fijian pottery. I mean to keep the best specimens of that, but there are plenty to spare, which you might think worth having.
Remain
Yours ever faithfully
Arthur Gordon
Excuse this paper. I did not see until I had done, that I was writing on two sheets. Probably I should never use the privilege I wish to retain!
---
L62
[Answered 2 Jany '83]
The Red House
Ascot
31.12.82
My dear Pitt Rivers
I wrote to you on the 20th inst: about the proposed gift of my whole Fijian collection to Oxford, but have not heard from you again on the subject.
Meanwhile, my own University, Cambridge, has accepted a gift of Fijian articles from Mr AP Maudslay, and wishes me to add mine. His collection, mine, and Baron von Hügel's, combined, would certainly make a very fine show of purely Fijian objects. I fancy you must know Anatole von Hügel, the writer of the enclosed letter, which please read, - (if you can, for it is a vile hand,)- and return to me.
With all good wishes for the New Year, I remain
Yrs very faithfully
Arthur Gordon
----
L70
Copy
Rushmore, Salisbury
15. Jan. 83
Sir
In reply to your letter of the 5th inst, in which you ask me to lend some Ethnographical objects from my Museum at South Kensington for the forthcoming Exhibition at Amsterdam, I beg to inform you that at the present moment the removal of the entire collection to, and its acceptance by the University of Oxford is under consideration. Until a decision has been arrived at with reference thereto, I regret to be unable to offer any loans of objects.
As soon as this matter is settled I will [insert] if possible [end insertion] endeavour to comply with your wishes.
I am
Sir
Your Obedient Servant
Fredk James
---
L71
Answered 20 Jany
Free Public Museum, Liverpool
Mayer Museum 16 January 1883
Dear General Pitt Rivers
I dare say you have forgotten me, but I take the liberty of reminding you of my existence, & of my visit to you when staying with Lord Wolverton last year, in order to ask you to look at the enclosed proof [still with letter] of a circular we are going to issue, & to ask whether you think you could lend us your collection of Early Navigation things, now at South Kensington?
They would be of real service here, & as much appreciated in a collection of this kind as in London, if not more. We should want them for 2 or 3 months only. I believe they only fill 3 or 4 cases, & would not involve a very serious moving.
Hoping you will consider us favourably, & with kind regards to yourself and Mrs Pitt Rivers
I am very truly yours
Charles I. Gatty
Curator
P.S. I hope your excavation on the downs has repaid you for your trouble.
----
L79
[Answered 6.II.83]
Linden
Wellington Somerset
Feb. 4. 1883
Dear Genl Pitt Rivers
I am to give two lectures on Anthropology at Oxford in the Museum* Lecture-Room on Thursday 15th & Wednesday 21st at 2.30. In saying something of your Collection, I am thinking of the following as points one may mention intelligibly without having the specimens to show - viz. parrying-stick & shield; spring-trap & bow; survivals of armour. Also your stone implement in wall of Egyptian tomb. Is there any other topic connected with the educational use of the Collection which you think should be brought forward if there is opportunity?
I am glad to hear that the Oxford arrangements for the Museum seem in a fair way of settlement, but sorry to learn that you had been unwell lately. Hoping to have a better account now I am
[illegible salutation]
Edward B. Tylor
* That is, the lecture room in the Oxford University Museum [of Natural History] where Tylor was Keeper.
----
L80
Linden
Wellington Somerset
Feb. 5. 1883
Dear Genl Pitt Rivers
I thought I had somewhere in print the account how you were led by serving on an Arms Commission to find that improvements could only be made by small successive stages. If you have printed it anywhere could you send me the passage or reference to it, or if not, will you kindly tell me what it is lawful to say about it in a lecture when mentioning the collection
[illegible salutation]
Edward B. Tylor
----
L83
Linden
Wellington Somerset
Mar. 1. 1883
Dear General Pitt Rivers
I have looked at the figures of daggers &c in my little book & see that the spear-dagger art ** requires correction. Will you send me a sketch of the line of development as it seems to you to have come about. You will find in Wilkinson the art ** (perhaps from Rosellini as most are) of soldiers with spears & daggers of similar form of blade. Also, I should be much obliged if you would make an ideal line of development for the sabre, for I do not think I quite understand your view. It will be sometime before I can do anything as to a new edition, but I should like to get the evidence straight.
Will you take the trouble to go to the Athenaeum Club on Monday next March 5. My brother-in-law Alfred Harris is one of those up for election, and I am sure you would vote for him if you knew him
[illegible salutation]
Edward B. Tylor
** Word illegible but looks like art or cut
----
L84
[Written on Athenaeum Club paper]
48 Great Cumberland Place W.
March 5 1883
Dear Sir
For some time I have taken an interest in the historical development of swords and swordsmanship, and I have promised to give a discourse on the subject at the Royal Institution on Friday, June 1.
Two years ago I inspected your admirable collection at S. Kensington (as to which I am glad to see that the University in which I have lately become a Professor is wiser than the nation) – and I learnt much from it, and from the catalogue.
Mr E.B. Tylor informs me that some earlier and fuller papers of yours on the history of weapons are printed in the Transactions of the United Service Institutions and – as he rather gives me to understand that his name will be sufficient introduction – I venture to ask if you could let me have the use of any spare copies of these papers, or otherwise furnish me with the references to them.
I need hardly add that I should be exceedingly grateful for any other indications or suggestions you might think it worth while to give me.
In 1881 I published in the St James’s Gazette a series of articles on “The Development of Fencing,” in which I touched on the history of the weapon itself – but in subordination to the manner of using it, of which I shall not say so much this time.
I remain
Yours sincerely
F. Pollock
Major-Gen. Pitt-Rivers &c &c
[There is a follow up letter dated August 2 1883] from Pollock enclosing copy of his RI address and talking further about a kind of sword found by Schliemann which Pollock cannot get to the bottom of]
---
L86
Chubb & Sons
Lock and Safe Compy Ltd
Patent Safe and Detector Lock Warehouse
128 Queen Victoria Street
London EC
March 21st 1883
Major General Pitt Rivers
4 Grosvenor Gardens
S.W.
Dear Sir,
I am unable to find out where those wooden locks came from today but may perhaps be able to do so in the course of a week or so. I hope to be able to go up & see your collection next week I will then see if we could spare any of our locks, so as to complete your collection, but I have so much pressing work on just now that I am afraid I cannot look into the matter before then.
I enclose an old pamphlet * that may be of some use to you.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully
John C: Chubb
Copy of yellow paper-bound pamphlet 'On the Construction of Locks and Keys' by John Chubb, Assoc. Inst. C.E. Institute of Civil Engineering vol IX
----
L87
Copy [written by PR]
4 Grosvenor Gardens
S.W.
March 23 1883
Dear Sir Thomas
Thanks for your note & its enclosure. I received a round Robin some time ago on the subject of the Hunt which I fully intended to have answered but having a good many irons in the fire of one sort or another I quite forgot all about it.
I had however, been asked before and I then said that as Lord Rivers did not subscribe he being essentially a sportsman I did not see why I who am not a sportsman should do more than he did. It is I think a mistake to suppose that all country gentlemen ought to be cast in exactly the same mould the [word illegible] piece of which is that sporting is well cared for & other more important things are neglected. I have just presented to the University of Oxford my museum which has cost me six thousand pounds at least and most of my subscriptions & donations follow that line rather than the usual work besides which I am paying a heavy succession duty and I dare say you are not aware that owing to arrears being regarded as personality and all my rents being [insert] paid [end insert] 6 months in arrears the whole [section scored out] the first year’s income after I inherited went to Lady Rivers. This property is therefore heavily used at the present time. Well as it appears there is a chance of the Hunt coming to an end and that temporary assistance will be valuable I have told my agent to pay 20£ towards it for the present year. …
---
L88
NB a secretary must have written this draft as it is not written by PR]
4 Grosvenor Gardens
SW
March 22nd 1883
My Dear Hogg
I am sorry to hear that owing to some misunderstanding you have been put to the trouble of getting my son elected for the Carlton. I knew nothing of his name having been put up and my son himself was quite taken by surprise, not having calculated on your active political influence getting him elected so soon. He and I are entirely of one mind in regard to politics. Parties and principles have been so shuffled of late that it is difficult to decide which party to belong to and men of moderate opinions may find themselves on opposite sides whilst holding the same views. The conservative party is disorganized at present and if moderate councils prevail with the present government I think a good liberal may do more towards opposing Radicalism and Socialism by supporting them than by joining the opposition. Moreoever in Dorsetshire I do not think that any conservative is likely to put up who can successfully oppose Mr Portman’s son if an election took place now. If the Government will only let us alone and allow us to manage our own affairs instead of interfering with their Grandmotherly Legislation we should be disposed to use any county influenced we may have in their support, but if the same kind of legislation were to be introduced in England that has been pursued in Ireland we should at once join the conservative ranks. You will see from this that Alex. Is not prepared to join the Carlton at present, at the same time I may thank you for having interested yourself on his behalf which I am sure which has been done [sic] as much from a friendly feeling as from a wish to recruit your own party
Yours sincerely
----
L94
124 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW
Ap 10/ 83
Dear Sir,
I have today dispatched the spades and hope they will arrive safely. The one with the wedge driven in for the foot to rest on came from the I. of Colonsay; it is called a "ceaba" and an illustration of it appears in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol 5 p 113 also in Drummond's Scottish Arms. The other spade with the peg projecting at right angles to the shaft, for the foot to rest on came from Shetland but I have never seen any drawings of similar ones published. In Caedmon's paraphrase of the scriptures (see Archaeologia vol 24) a man is shewn digging with a "ceaba" so that this was probably the usual form of spade employed in England in the 10th cent. In the sculptures on Lincoln Cath. is also a similar spade. The hand plough I got in the I. of Skye and was in use at the time; it does its work well and is quite adapted for the soil. The local name for it is a "caschrom" (see Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol 3 p 463 and Drummonds Scottish Arms) There is a curious form of implement used in Shetland for cutting the strips of turf which are employed for roofing instead of thatch see sketch [drawing] but I have not get a specimen. The Chinese lock is opened by inserting the key with the T shaped end in a vertical plane; it is then pushed forward and when it has got through the thickness of the door and lock case the T shaped end is turned round thus bringing it into the horizontal plane, it is then pulled back a little so as to catch under the notches of the tumblers and these are lifted by raising the key. The method of using the key is exactly similar to the case of Norse lock except that it lifts tumblers instead of depressing the ends of a spring. The fact of no Saxon lock-cases being found with the keys would go to show that the cases were made of wood or some perishable material. I should think it more probable that they were like the Norse locks than the Chinese. I enclose a rough tracing of a scale drawing of the Chinese lock which will render its construction more intelligible.
I must apologize for such a lengthy communication, but I am very much interested in these matters and scarcely know when to stop when I once begin
I remain
yrs vy truly
J. Romilly Allen
---
L97
Cork
Ap. 17 1883
My Dear Sir
It affords me great pleasure to comply with your request.
There are quite forty different pattern spades made by Scott & Co of Cork, which are used in the Southern and Midland Counties and in various districts of Ireland. I have elected two of different shapes that will illustrate the series. All are used with 4 feet handles. The English Labourer is not afraid to bend his back. The Irishman works and leans more upon his spade and stands almost upright.
In the North of Ireland a spade is used with a straight 3 foot shaft strapped and with a wide tread, and blade varying from 15" to 16" in length and tapering from 6" to 5" These are made in Newry Coal Island & elsewhere. [Drawing]
If I can at any time be of any use to you here it will afford me much pleasure
Believe me
Yours most truly
Robert Day
Scott & Co will forward the spade and advice RD
---
L100
Nash Mills. Hemel Hempstead
June 8 1883
My dear Pitt Rivers
I have glanced over your Essay on Locks and Keys which is very interesting You will find a few verbal suggestions and corrections in pencil. ... As to the subject itself you have paid much more attention to it than I have - I am not however sure that the Saxon T ended articles are really keys. They generally occur in pairs and have often their an iron loop connecting them. Was there not some connection between Rome and China for steel? I have an impression that Pliny mentions it - See my Bronze book p. 10 If steel, why not locks. Your Greek words want the accents to be added - I am sorry I have not more time to go into the matter - I called the other morning in the hopes of seeing you but found in were off to Oxford.
[Illegible salutation]
John Evans
----
L101
Muskau, Silesia
Prussia
June 20th 83
Dear Sir
The enclosed drawings [5 sheets in all, most with at least 2 drawings] represented the crême de la crème of my collection. Two of the vessels resemble Charcoal burners but as they have no ventilating holes through the stem, I scarcely think they can have been used for that purpose.
The drawings are of the actual size of the objects. One of the bronze rings is rather interesting as a piece of oxydized iron, probably a part of another object [word illegible] is still attached to it.
There are besides 3 double Urns and 2 of willow-leaf pattern, as Prof. Rolleston called them. I will take £20 for everything.
I have also quite a unique collection of toys, that is, very minute vessels, some only one inch high, that I found with childrens cinerary bones.
Should you wish to buy my whole Collection of 23 Cinerary urns, some very large 100 other vessels and 22 toys altogether 145 vessels, including those of which I send drawings today, I will sell the lot for £60. I know if you were to allow me to send them on approval, you would be very pleased with them. Hoping to hear from you soon,
I am
Dear Sir
Yours truly
E. Clement
[See Add.9455vol1_p164 /1 and on]
----
L102
Hargrave R.
Kimbolton
June 21/ 83
My dear Sir
I have heard from Mr Watson that you would like to have the lock for June 28th; would you wish the bunch of springs with it? and would you like the Roman padlock which I found at the Camp at Irchester? I will also ascertain with precision ... [words illegible] the former were found.
I will, on receipt of your answer send them (per Midland) addressed by Mr Knight-Watson
Yours truly
Rob. S. Baker
----
L103
Hargrave
Kimbolton
June 25/ 83
My Dear Sir
You mistake. The lock I am going to send you isfrom BedfordCastle.
The enclosed paper happened to come into my hands so I sent it to you, the lock figured in it is another found atNorthamptonCastle. this is (I think) in the Northampton Museum
I will send you a copy of the paper to which the plate belongs when it comes out, if you will remind me
I have packed up the following articles which I dispatch today or to morrow by Rail to Knight-Watson
1. Lock from Bedford Castle
2. Bunch of springs
3. Lock from Irchester
4. Portion of another
5. 3 bronze keys from Irchester
6. a lot of iron keys from Irchester
7. key from Northampton Castle
8. Key from the Nene Valley
9. Bunch of springs picked up here
Yours truly
Rob. S. Baker
---
L104
The Red House
Ascot
30.8.83
My dear Pitt Rivers
I received, the other day, a fragmentary, unsigned, note, which, from internal evidence, I may safely conclude to be from you.
You say you expect to be in London again, "before long". Could you kindly give me any more definite idea as to the probable time; I mean, of course, only approximately?
I ask, because Von Hügel is ready to come up at any time, but is likely to be livingout of town for some months yet.
He is to come here to pack up my collections here, and I should like to arrange it so that he could do both things at one time
You speak of "the box" in which my things were. Messrs King report having sent you three boxes full, but very likely you wrote "the box" in a generic sense, to signify the articles had been taken out of what they were packed in.
Yrs very truly
Arthur Gordon
----
L106
4 Grosvenor Gardens
5 Feby 83
Dear Mr Tylor,
Thanks for your note. If I were going to lecture about my collection, I should draw attention to the value of the arrangement, not so much on account of the interest which attaches to the development of the tools, weapons in themselves, but because they best serve to illustrate the development that has taken place in the branches of human culture which cannot be so arranged in sequence because the links are lost and the successive ideas through which progress has been effected have never been embodied in material forms, on which account the Institutions of Mankind often appear to have developed by greater jumps than has really been the case. But in the material arts, the links are preserved, and by due search and arrangement can be placed in their proper sequence.
The psychological continuity can therefore be better demonstrated by means of them than by means of the Institutions and Religions of Mankind they should therefore serve as a preliminary study for the Anthropologist who will by that means have to appreciate the gaps that are to be found in the latter and avoid the errors which the apparent absence of continuity may in some cases engender, and show how in studying the Institutions of Mankind those missing links must be supplied by conjecture which in the material arts can be arranged in rows so obvious that those who can run may read.
This is what I consider to be the main use of my collection for educational purposes. Each object must be regarded as the representative of an idea or a combination of ideas. The continuity is not in them, but in the human mind that begets them and have hence the analogy that exists between the development of the arts and the development of species: both follow the operation of physical laws.
As regards the details, a selection might be made from any of the following points:- the development of the shield from the parrying stick, the development of the boomerang by the selection of natural forms of bent sticks, the division of the bow into two classes, the simple and the composite, possible origin of the latter and of the former from the bow trap, the bow trap suggested by two hunters pressing through the jungle, the foremost letting the branches spring back in the face of the hindmost, as every sportsman knows. The development of clubs of natural origin, of the ornamentation upon them, ornamentation as derived from from [sic] disused appliances. The distribution of iron corrugated blades in India, Africa and Europe, the distribution of the double bellows, of skins, and its development. The origin of the Greek "kopis" blade in the bronze leaf-shaped sword. The cases of realistic representations of the human form and the cases of conventionalized ornamental forms, the development of bronze axes and gradual formation of a socket; Primitive drawings, those of savages compared to those of European children, drawing power of savages under European influenced; the distribution of the outrigger canoe, the development and distribution of loop, coil and fret ornaments and their connection; the transition of form in ornament New Ireland, New Guinea block (pulley) ornament, & transition, European peasant wood carving. The development of door locks; the changes of the impressions on coins, the way in which the arts of savages may be made to illustrate those of prehistoric or non-historic times, notably the quiver of the Assyrians explained by that of the American Indian hunter, primitive clothing, weaving and basket making, and distribution of spindle whorls, the substitutes for pottery, personal ornaments, its derivation from armour and copies of natural forms, primitive bagpipes, origin of wind and vibrating musical instruments, conch-shell trumpets, their distribution; Jew's harp, nose flutes, sounding boards, wooden drums, parallel development of the body of a fiddle from a gourd in India and Africa, use of a separate bow for each string in Africa; similar forms of the votive offerings in Europe and the East, distribution of emblems of maturity, Isis and Horus, Virgin & child, India, Peru &c; use of crow's feet in the various countries, development of agricultural implements, origin of money and of objects used as a a means [insert] medium [end insert] of exchange, distribution of fire sticks and lamps, Games, origin of the Hookah in a Coconut, and gradual transition of its form in brass.
I should be glad if you would kindly mention that I look upon my Museum as being in no way an exception from the ordinary laws affecting all human affairs in regard to development, and that so far from considering it perfect as it is, I cannot conceive any idea of finality in a Museum of the kind. It might embrace all the arts of Mankind, but all that can be done is to keep on perfecting certain typical series which shew the sequence best. In doing this an arrangement to shew the distribution of like objects must necessarily precede an arrangement to show developments. I have on one or two occasions had to carry on the first arrangement for some years before the course of development became apparent, and then a new arrangement commences, so that a collection of this kind must necessarily be in a constant state of transition. The difficulty of collecting links is of course very great as one only tumbles upon them accidentally but I believe that any traveller who had previously obtained an idea of the course of development in a Museum of this kind might add enormously to the number of links and varieties in the country from which they come and so add largely to the Museum. There has however been no instanceas yet of any traveller who has systematically collected on this plan, and one can therefore form an idea of the great increase which may become necessary hereafter, and the necessity of allowing space for it, either by a larger building than is necessary to contain the present collection, or by building it in such a situation that an extra room can be added to it at some future time. If you would like to have any large diagrams showing the sections of the tombs in which the Egyptian flints were found I shall be happy to send them to Oxford.
Yours very truly
A. Pitt Rivers.
-----
L118
124 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW
July 28/ 83
I write to acknowledge the receipt of your admirable monograph on Locks, for which I hope you will accept my very best thanks. It contains an immense amount of valuable information on the subject and being treated from the "development" point of view all the facts fall into their places [insert] so [end insert] naturally and complicated problems assume a simplicity, which must carry conviction, even to such back-sliders as the British Museum authorities, that this is the only rational method to employ. As no doubt you intend to describe other portions of your anthropological collection in a similar way it will help greatly to revolutionise the antiquated systems of arrangement adopted at most museums and make the public take a more intelligent interest in such matters than they do at present.
I am glad to find that you have considered the few notes I sent you of sufficient importance to be commented on and utilised in your book. I venture to enclose one or two remarks on the plates, which illustrate your work, in case the facts I mention may be new to you. When I wrote my paper on wooden locks for the Soc. Ant. Scot. I had not had the advantage of studying your collection, and was only working on the surface so to speak.
I remain
Yrs very truly
J. Romilly Allen
-----
L119
Mainz 39th July 1883
A follow up letter following PR’s visit to him the previous year [the letter is written on his behalf by Oscar Irehmann], saying he has more antiquities to sell. it seems unlikely that Pitt-Rivers bought further (if he did they are not listed). The letter includes descriptions of the further objects for sale and two drawings]
---
L121
21 John Street
Bedford Row W.C.
Aug. 8th 1883
My dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers
“Loughton Camp Committee of the British Association”
We have now go together all our evidence resulting from four sections through this earthwork & are waiting to draw up a report to send in to the Southport meeting next month. It is essential that you as a member on the Committee should see all the specimens & give us the benefit of your opinion upon them. Mr Cole & myself would therefore be much obliged if you could name some evening next week when we could call upon you with the relics. An hour would enable you to make comments & look through the whole series. An early reply would oblige as there is not very much time between this & the meeting to get all things arranged & the drawings completed.
Hoping you are well,
Yours very truly
R. Meldoth [sic]
If you should be engaged or going away, one night this week would do. Please name your own time.
----
L122
The Red House
Ascot
10.8.83
My dear Pitt Rivers
I have kept you so verylong waiting for my final decision as to the disposal of that part of my collection which is with you that I certainly cannot complain of any delay on your side in replying to my note of the 1st.
At the same time, I think it as well to write again, not in the least with the view of hurrying you, but to let you know that Von Hügel will be in town in about a fortnights time and is quite willing then to undertake the packing if you have no objection to his doing so.
Yrs very truly
Arthur Gordon
[the note referred to presumably lated 1.8.83 does not appear to have survived]
-----
L123
214 Piccadilly
London W14 Aug 1883
Dear Sir
Enclosed is a list of the copies of your book that we should prepare to send out to the press – will you kindly make any alterations or additions you may think advisable, return it to us for carrying out. Please also to tell us how many copies of the book you wish sent to yourself
Yours truly
Charles [surname illegible]
Lieut. Gen. Pitt Rivers
Locks & Keys
5 British Museum & other Libraries
Notes & Queries
Antiquarian Magazine (Mr E. Walford)
Athenaeum
Academy
Saturday Review
G.A. Lalaby 46 Macklenburgh … [illegible]
Pall Mall Gazette
British Quarterly Review
Times
Daily News
Standard
---
L127
[Answered 19 Sept 83]
29 Weymouth Street
Portland Place London
15 Sept 1883
My dear Pitt Rivers
I was very sorry to miss seeing you on Thursday. I came in they tell me just 3 minutes after you left. I would have called to see you next day, but I was likewise informed you were leaving town, so imagining you might be going to Rushmore I send you this line.
My aunt said something about pottery & your forming a new museum - I have determined to part with all my London antiqs as I shall not keep so many collections - they take up too much space.
It consists of a considerable quantity of pottery, glass, iron, bronze &c tobacco pipes - Also some very fair spec’s of Peruvian pottery. I am now going into the country for a holiday. In a fortnights time I expect to be with Greenwell at Durham.
With best regards to Mrs Pitt Rivers & yourself
I am
Yrs very sincerely
FJ Hilton Price
---
L159
Office of the Civil Commissioner
of Queenstown
South Africa
3rd November 1884
Sir
I hear quite accidentally that you may care to purchase a fairly good specimen of Bushman's painting that I have. I became possessed of it by chance. It was chiselled or rather wedged off a large rock at Glen Grey in Jambockieland three months ago, and is, if not unique, at least almost so, as I believe with the exception of two specimens in the British Museum, there are no otherexcepting on the surface of the rocks themselves in the various Bushman's Caves in this Country.
It is of course difficult to affix a value on such a thing and were I well off I wd prefer to ask to [illegible] I took an exaggerated view of its value at first, as I did not know of the two specimens in the Museum but now that I know of them I would say that £7 or £8 would not be unfair.
If you care to give not [possible misread] there it is and I will take every care to pack and have it carefully shipped to any place you may choose. The size is some 4 ft x 2 1/2 ft the weight of the stone being some 170 lbs or so, the paintings are in a fair state of preservation - and of the animals usually depicted Ostrich (verygood, almost artistic) Buffalo, some antelopes &c.
A strong packing case with equally strong iron bands to hinder its giving - would be all that wd be wanted and this I of course can easily get.
I am Sir
Your obedient Servant
W.J.J. Warneford
To General Pitt-Rivers
[Copy of answer]
Rushmore
Salisbury
28 Nov. 84
Sir
In reply to your letter of the 3 Nov. I shall be happy to give £7 for the Bushman carving if you will guarantee its safe arrival in London. Have you a drawing of it?
Yours truly
A. Pitt Rivers
----
L160
Weitfa Llanelly
South Wales
Miss Gwyn Jeffreys presents her compliments to General Pitt-Rivers and begs to thank him for his note received this morning. Last week she gave the order to an experienced man who will convey the statues &c safely to General Pitt Rivers’ house. The price Miss Gwyn Jeffreys put upon the statuette was £10: she hopes some day in the Autumn General Pitt-Rivers will allow her to clean the statuette a little as she feels that it must have become dirty being at the Academy.
July 27th 1885
----
L161
Copenhagen Museum ...
9 August 1885
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for the very interesting book you were so kind to send me. I have been very pleased to read it.
I am very sorry that I have not been able to give you an answer belonging the Nydam boat. When I returned to Denmark I could not go directly to Copenhagen and when I arrived I did not find Mr Stephensen who made the model of the Nydam boat in the Museum. Now this time I found him. He made not the model alone, when he made it, he only directed the fabrication; and then man who worked it under his inspection, is not alive. But Mr Stephensen thinks that he will be able to get an other, who could make a new model under his direction. But he has not found one not yet. He thinks it will cost 150-180 Kroner £9-£10. He should prefer one, who was accustomed to make models of ships and boats. As soon as I am getting better information and an hable [sic possibly misread] man has been found I shall write again.
I remain
Yours very truly
Valdemar Schmit
Lieut General Pitt Rivers Esq London
----
L165
61 Bedford Gardens Kensington W
50 Glebe Place Chelsea
Sep 21st 85
Miss Gwyn Jeffreys presents her compliments to General Pitt Rivers and begs to acknowledge with thanks the cheque received this morning the letter having been forwarded her from Wales. She is working in her studio which is the above address and when General Pitt Rivers returns to Town Miss Jeffreys will be very pleased to see him here at any time convenient to himself if he will let her know.
---
L175
Studio
50 Glebe Place
King’s Road SW
November 2nd (1885)
Miss Gwyn Jeffreys presents her compliments of General Pitt-Rivers and wishes to say she will be very pleased if General Pitt-Rivers could call here at her studio within the next few days as she has just completed a statuette which she hopes General Pitt-Rivers will do her the pleasure to accept instead of the one in the Academy. Her brother in law Prof. Moseley told her of the accident which had happened to it once therefore Miss Jeffreys thought she would try to replace it by another as nearly similar as possible under the circumstances. And if General Pitt-Rivers could come one day soon before it goes to be baked Miss Jeffreys would like to show it to him
----
L177
Studio 50 Glebe Place
King’s Road SW
Miss Gwyn Jeffreys presents her compliments to General Pitt-Rivers thinking probably he has not received a letter from her written a week ago asking him if he could find it convenient to call at her studio to see a statuette which she has completed & begs General Pitt-Rivers to accept instead of the one in the Academy. Miss Gwyn Jeffreys writes again as she would like to know if there is any chance of General Pitt-Rivers being able to call on her soon before she sends the statuette to be baked
Nov 10th 1885
----
L178
Letter from printer asking how many copies of Excavations of Cranborne Chase PR wants producing:
Copy answer on reverse says
Sir, General Pitt Rivers desires me to inform you that he wishes 250 copies printed of “Cranborne Chase’ at the price named in your letter of Dec 1 [1885] viz £19.16.0 and bound as you propose.
---
L179
55 Rathbone Place
London W
Dec'r 11th 1885
Dear Sir
I sent you enclosed by this post the only lot I was able to get for you from Dr Neligan's sale
Lot 91 bought £18.0.0
Lot 92 bought 14.0.0
Lot 93 bought 8.0.0
(the one sent) Lot 94 bought 8.0.0
Lot 95 bought 9.9.0
Lot 96 bought 9.0.0
Lot 97 bought 5.10.0
I carried up most of the lots above your commission but someone had unlimited commission. They [insert] (the gold ones) [end insert] were remarkable as being very light (for weight). Lot 92 was the best of the two first lots but was not quite so long. Lot 93 was in some points the most remarkable. it was very thin and [insert] to me [end insert] undoubtedly funereal - that is, specially manufactured for funereal purposes. Lot 94 the one I have got for you is by far the most curious of all - the shape & form are quite unique. I feel uncertain as to its use. It might be either an armilla-torque or head-ornament.
About the so-called Douglas thing, the fudge was so very apparent to me that as you had not seen it & left the matter to my discretion I would not carry it beyond £3. the outside value.
There was no proof in the vessel of its history and to call it a reliquary was I think christening it with a vengeance. It was probably a scent case. The “description attached” was from Dr Neligan’s pen & historically inventive.
Trusting to have the favour of an acknowledgement & your approval I am Sir
Yours obediently
W. Ready
[This is Add.9455vol2_p181 /9]
----
L188
c.o. W.C. Sillar Esq
St James’s Lodge
Blackheath
Jan. 29. 1886
Dear General Pitt-Rivers
I have returned from Australasia, and am going to stay at this address for a fortnight. Two letters from you are among the correspondence I found awaiting me – one a request that I should examine the remaining skulls from your recent diggings: the other a kind invitation to visit you at Rushmore. The latter is out of date, & perhaps the former may be so too & that I intend, if I hear nothing further from you, to call at 4 Grosvenor Gardens the first day I can do so; and if the skulls are there I should much like to examine them: if you still wish any notes of mine upon them I shall of course be pleased to furnish them.
After a fortnight I shall return home & resume my practice.
Believe me
Yours very truly
John Beddoe
----
L192
St James’s Lodge
Blackheath
Feb. 11. 1886
Dear General Pitt-Rivers
I am sorry that I cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to Rushmore at this time – I am already entangled with engagements in London on Saturday next, and at Clifton on Monday & following days.
If however you should be at Rushmore a little later, say a fortnight hence, & could renew the invitation, I would do my best to avail myself of it. Probably the easiest thing for me would be to run down from Bristol on a Saturday, returning on a Monday.
On Tuesday evening there was a discussion at the Anthropol’l over Garson’s scheme for a international arrangement about craniometry –
We all agreed fairly. Flower spoke against the plan of measuring length from the globella; but said that as much continental & many English men were against him, he was ready to concede the point.
Believe me
Yours very truly
John Beddoe
---
L193
University Museum, Oxford
Feb 18 1886
Dear General Pitt-Rivers
The enclosed rough tracing & particulars of the Baskir Tatars’ water-mill which is like those we saw in the Lewis, has been done some time. But I kept it waiting in order to send with it a curious old fashioned kind of padlock which an old man still sells in the Oxford cattle-market. It seems however that the maker is ill, for after repeated trials I have failed to find him, so I send the water-mill paper by itself. There is another Asiatic mention of the upright Norse mill but I cannot for the moment find it. The roof of your museum has at last the slates on so I trust it will be fit to receive its contents before long.
Believe me
Yours very truly
Edward B. Tylor
[Enclosure a tracing of plate I, Pallas, Reise durch veischielene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs St Petersburg 1771-6 p. 45 and text [presumably from same source]
L193
Rushmore, Salisbury
March 1. 86
Dear Mr Tylor
Many thanks for sending me the drawing of the Baskir Water mill. It is very interesting both in its resemblances & its variations from the Norse mill we saw. The fact of their supposing it to have been invented themselves does not of course prove that it was so and the ... [word illegible] is a likely one for the ... [words illegible] to have spread, the account does not speak of an arrangement of levers to raise the upper millstone for the purpose of grinding fine or coarse but the drawing .... [2 words illegible] to me to shew that such an arrangement does exist as in the Norse Mill. I have got my Norse Mill set up in a little house similar to the one we saw it in and I have found near here an old ... [word illegible] in a frame with apparatus for grinding fine & coarse like the Scotch ones.
I have been much amused by the papers on Genesis between Gladstone Huxley and others. [insert illegible] Nothing better than Huxley's papers ever appeared in Punch. But what are we to think of a leader of men like Gladstone allowing himself to be squashed and quizzed about like an indiarubber doll in the iron hands of a Huxley simply by [word illegible] to realize his own ignorance, was ever [word illegible] so punished before. As to Professor Drummond's theology we must have been theologists all our lives without knowing it. I dont see how by his philosophy the Bible differs from other good books or why parts of Shakespeare should not be taken out & [word illegible] with it, parts of the Bible expunged & burnt or sold in Holly... St with french letters & the new book brought out as an improved version of the Bible. If the Bible is only part of the evolution of human ideas there is the evidence of inspiration in the class of ideas beyond another why are not the arts & sciences [3 words illegible] all inspired I believe that Professor Drummond when he has done with his [word illegible] theology will come [word illegible] a collection of primitive locks & keys odds & ends of [2 words illegible] like some other [word illegible] & respected people. I hope Mrs Tylor is well & that you are none the worse for the barbarous ordeal you underwent in my company at Caldermouth
Yours very truly
A Pitt Rivers
Transcribed by AP as part of the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project, 2011
