Antiquaries: The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth-Century BritainEighteenth-century Britain saw an explosion of interest in its own past, a past now expanded to include more than classical history and high politics. Antiquaries, men interested in all aspects of the past, added a distinctive new dimension to literature in Georgian Britain in their attempts to reconstruct and recover the past. Corresponding and publishing in an extended network, antiquaries worked at preserving and investigating records and physical remains in England, Scotland and Ireland. In doing so they laid solid foundations for all future study in British prehistory, archaeology and numismatics, and for local and national history as a whole. Naturally, they saw the past partly in their own image. While many antiquaries were better at fieldwork and recording than at synthesis, most were neither crabbed eccentrics nor dilettanti. At their best, as in the works of Richard Gough or William Stukeley, antiquaries set new standards of accuracy and perception in fields ranging from the study of the ancient Britons to that of medieval architecture. Antiquaries is the definitive account of a great historical enterprise. |
Contents
Preface | 5 |
Introduction | 17 |
Antiquarian Societies | 81 |
1 | 362 |
6 | 415 |
8 | 432 |
Popularisation | 450 |
Notes | 457 |
Other editions - View all
Antiquaries: The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth-Century Britain Rosemary Sweet No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbey amongst Anglo-Saxon anti antiquarian arch Archaeologia argued Bodleian Library Britain Britannia British Library British Topography Britons buildings Cambridge Camden Carter Cathedral Celtic Charles Lyttelton church civilisation classical coins collections correspondence county history culture Domesday Book druidical Druids Ducarel early ecclesiastical Edinburgh edition Edward eighteenth century engravings Essay established evidence Francis Grose Gentleman's Magazine George Gothic architecture historian History and Antiquities identified illustrations importance interest Ireland Irish James Joseph Letters literature manuscript medieval Michael Tyson modern monuments Morant Nichols Observations origins Oxford past Paton Pennant period picturesque political Pownall preservation publication published record Richard Colt Hoare Richard Gough Roman antiquities Royal Society ruins Samuel Pegge Saxon scholars scholarship Scotland Scottish seventeenth century Sir John Clerk social Society of Antiquaries Strutt study of antiquities Stukeley's style Thomas Thomas Hearne Thomas Pennant topographical Tour tradition vols London volume Walpole Welsh whilst Whitaker William Stukeley wrote