The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-09-10 00:00:00

Elliitshirt.

SALISBURY.

limoncErce OF A LIVERPOOL SOLICITOR AT
fhitsente.7Mr. W. Fileamore, of the well
_known

firm of Messrs. Duncan, &mem and Blackmore,
solicitors. of Liverpool, has just made a munificent gift
to his native city of Salisbury. He recently became
Vof the "Squier and Davis Museum," at New
c:77:13,1 for the reception of this collection Mr.
Blackmore has erected in Salisbury a large and
magnificent museum, the total cost of the pft being
estimated at over 110,000. The museum will be open to
the public gratuitously. The inaugural proceedings,
which have been of a highly interesting character,
commenced on Wednesday evening with a grand
conversazione, given by Mr. and Mrs. Blackmore, in the
Museum. The party was • very brilliant one, and every.
gentlemen.sscale, the
cothmieNng 7:ucarrimberiedngoaubtouotn
400 a mbmostlieslibeanrald
Lord Nelson presided, and amongst the company were
the Lord Bishop ~f the diocese, Lindy Herbert of Lea,
the Earl of Pembroke Lady Mary Herbert, the two
members for the city (Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Marsh),
the Mayor of Salisbury (Dr. Lush), and a great number
of the leading scientific men of the day, including •
pimber of American and continental visitors On
Thursday morning there was again a meeting at the
sethe museum. At half-peat one there was a procession
tmivueouf '''' wsomeheowfathneummanbe; of papersobject weintere rrestei
containedillus in
illustra-
tive
the Council-house to the museum, of the Mayor
and Town Council of Salisbury, and deputations from
Devices, Southampton, and Beth, the Wiltshire
Archaeological and Natural History Society, An. The
Bishop occupied the chair. Mr. illackmore read a short
account of circumstances attending his acquirement of
the collection 111111 his transference of it to Salisbury
museum. The Bish qi warmly thanked Mr. Blackmore
for his munificent present, and a formal vote of thanks
was pained to him by acclamation. Thanks were also
given to Mr. Stevens, who has had the arrangement of
the museum, to the visitors. Mayor and Corporation,
and the Bishop. in the evening there was • conver-
satione in the rooms of the Salisbury and south Wilts
museum, of which the Bleckmore museum now forms a
part, and especial attention was paid by the visitors to
the new collection. The museum comprises the Squier
and Davis Si mericsn collection of stone, implements and
other specimens of the stone age from England and
various European countries. We are informed, on the
authority of the ablest judge., that it is the very best
collection of implements of the stone age in this
country. The object of the founder has been to attempt
to illustrate the use and application of the rude
weapon& implements, and ornaments of antiquity, by
exhibiting side by side with them similar specimens in
use among existing race* of mankind. Here will be
found the remains of animals now extinct, which were
deposited in what is called "the drift"—the mammoth,
the cave bear, the cave hrena, and the woolly-heir
rhinoceros. But the chief interest which has been felt in
" the drift" arises from the fact that man shared with
these extinct animals the possession of Europe; for in
the river gravela of the Somme in Prance, and of
Fisherton Meer and other places in England, are
obtained flint implements, made by the simple processes
of flaking and chipping, which affo,ti the first evidence
we possess of man's existence upon earth. The Black-
more Museum is especially rich in this department of
priscau archaeology. The cave series is also well
illustrated with specimens from Donlogne, the
Pyrenees, and Gibraltar, while the singular forms of
animals carved on some of the bones could not fail to
excite the deepest interest and the molt profound
curiosity. The implements of the neolithic period,
consisting of the rubbed stone group, are also well
displayej, while the spezimens found in the British
pit dwellings at Fisherton have an especial claim on
the attention of the inhabitants of this locality. The
Blackmore Museum, where will bepLoesunyind
pre-historic remains of those singular people, the lake.
tobsPet citehreem:tiagedsens
dwellers in Switzerland, are well represented in the
of wheat and barley, spun and wove (tax, tools of horn
stone
ancientdl baindPeaen°,otdPhaleone:ndiawmhppnialeantmroyermnleimewcorecttlenntathe uscdd
welblingsy these
objects,th einselvessoand and their fanialieswi.deThfieeldAmforericanstuaedyriesanoaf
nvestigation.