17 JANUARY 1947, Page 4

Having decided that the first week in the year was

a good time for a sit-down strike I sat down very successfully somewhere in Dorset. The sedentary posture was not, in fact, incompatible with a good deal of locomotion, which led me, among other desirable objectives, to the Pitt-Rivers Museum in the very inconsiderable village of Farnham (not, of course, to be confused with the Surrey Farnham). This really is an astonishing discovery. I say discovery, because the number of intrepid explorers who reach this particular goal is still insignificant. You go off a main road on to a secondary road, and (guided by a signpost) off the secondary road on to a side road, pass a solitary farm-house and then find yourself confronted with the surprising spectacle of a statue of the Emperor Augustus at the road-side---eocre properly at the lane-side. Just across the road is the museum—mainly anthropol gical—dealing with the whole evolution of man and his handiwork, particularly his handi- work, from the eolithic age down to the pottery of Worcester and Crown Derby and Wedgwood china. The museum owes its origin to General Pitt-Rivers, founder of the well-known Pitt-Rivers museum at Oxford, who lived at Rushmore on the borders of Wiltshire close by. Its interest is largely local, for this part of Dorset is crowded with Ancient British and Roman remains, and the best tribute I can pay it is that its ten moms, with every object described with ideal lucidity left me, whom museums invariably reduce to chill misery, completely fascinated.