The Travels and Travails of Francis Grose, F.S.A.

Abstract

Francis Grose (1731-91) initiated the eighteenth-century's most extensive series of published illustrations of ancient monuments. A thousand plates with accompanying descriptions, based on his and others ‘views and researches, appeared in The Antiquities of England and Wales (1772-6, Supplement, 1777-87), of Scotland (1789-91) and of Ireland (1791-5). He combined the role of popularizer with original contributions to the study of folklore, slang and military antiquities, but has received little scholarly attention for several reasons. His own drawings are indifferent artistically, so he scarcely features in art history. His books and pictures were sold on his death, and no archive of his papers is known to survive. The largest collection—about 380 pictures given to the publisher and now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries—are his reductions of views for the engraver to copy for The Antiquities of England and Wales. They yield little information on the circumstances of the original drawings. He did not sign his pictures, so many may survive without, or with wrong, attributions. Dudley Snelgrove, F.S.A. (1906-92) amassed much material by and on Grose, but published nothing and the pictures are now dispersed though his notes, lately presented to the Antiquaries, are a valuable quarry. For a century the Dictionary of National Biography has provided the authoritative biography, which relied on obituaries, contemporaries’ fond recollections and a few letters printed by John Nichols.

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