BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1024, 13 January 1911, Page 9

BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME.

A CHEAT IMPERIAL CENTRE OF cur/ruRE. '■'Rome," said Sir Rer.i'.ell Rodd, in his eloquent address at the annual meeting of the British School at Rome, "is the fountain-head of all the humanities, , the first and most important centre of areliaelogical study in the world." "There could be no better and more cogent argument," writes "The Times," "than these words embody' for the plea which his. Majesty's Ambassador in Rome advanced with so much grace and force on behalf of the British School at Romo as potentially 'a great national and Imperial centre of culture, where the students of the five nations' —the United Kingdom, that is, and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa—'should meet .and., .exchange ideas, whence they .should carry back .to their respective homes and universities, a touch of inspiration and enthusiasm acquired, at. the authentic, spring aiid • sourco from which ..all modern civilisations are derived.

"This Is a great ideal, worthy alike in its Imperial and .in its academic aspects of-' Cecil Rhodes' himself, and one not seldom in his thoughts. Excellent as is the,work'which.the British School at Home,; with, its .slender.' resources, and the meagre equipment which is all that those slender resources have been able to supply, has done during the last ten years, it must be acknowledged that the school still falls far short of the noble ideal sketched out for it by' Sir Rennell Rodd. It is the youngest institution of the kind in Rome, and one of the poorest. Its total incomo for last year did not greatly exceed £1100, and of this sum £500 i's precarious, beinr; dependent on a limited ,and therefore terminable grant from the Treasury. ' France gives a grant of £2900;. ii year.to.her School,of Archaeology, and lodge's it inn' Government building. The Prussian Historical Institute receives over £3500 a year. The German Imperial .Archaeological Institute receives £1650.

"The study of:-art'and archaeology, as it is. pursued in ..the British: School at Rome, is no mere dilettante pursuit. It is the serious and scientific study of tho origins'of.all Western civilisations, and of their multifarious evolution. Other, centres of study and research may contribute anil have contributed elements that are quite indisneiisablo to this inspiring and all-embracing pursuit.,.. But. as all roads load, to Home, so all tho various streams of .invostigatioiriinto, the culture, thought, and works of tho past •ultimately meet in Romo and thence radiate again with renewed and transmuted fertility of in-spiration-to all tho civilisations of the modern world. " 'I am,' said Sir Eennell Rodd, 'far Jfrom depreciating tho magnificent work which lias of recent yeays been accomplished in other fields, the unveiling of tho lost secrets of oarlv cults aud dynasties,-' and the revelation of the , sources of inspiration which contributed' :to make the grandeur that was' Home.. I would not advocate in tho st-ndqiit any exclusive, loyalty;' but I would- iiisis't on tho fact that no student of archaeology, no student of architecture or sculpture, can afford to neglect tho lessons that Rome has to tench, and "that' 'the last stage in his-course of study 'should bo the co-ordination of his .:.experiences in tho inspiring ntmospliero of-the Capital of Nations.'"