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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
The antiquary, professed collector of the manuscripts and records of the past, is popularly ranked with the harmless butterfly-collector. Lytton Strachey characterized him as an “amiable muddler,” and Alexander Pope pilloried his dreary obscurantism.
But who is he in closet close y-pent
Of sober face, with learned dust besprent?
Right well mine eyes arede the myster wight
On parchment scraps y-fed and Wormius hight.
To future ages may thy dulness last
As thou preservst the dulness of the past.
There dim in clouds, the poring scholiasts mark,
Wits who, like owls, see only in the dark,
A lumber-house of books in every head,
For ever reading, never to be read.
These opinions are peculiarly shortsighted, for antiquarianism, the collection and study of old records, has been neither obscure nor harmless in its consequences. Hans Kohn and Carlton Hayes have made clear the considerable part played by antiquaries in stimulating a consciousness of nationalism, the most powerful public emotion of modern times.
2 Dunciad, III, lines 185–194. Pope probably had no grievance against Olsus Wormius, the Danish antiquary, but found his name irresistible.
3 Kohn, Hans, The Idea of Nationalism (New York, 1944), Ch. VIIGoogle Scholar. Hayes, Carlton, Essays on Nationalism (New York, 1926), pp. 52–55Google Scholar.
4 Notestein, Wallace, “The Winning of the Initiative By the House of Commons,” The Raleigh Lecture on History, 1924Google Scholar, from The Proceedings of the British Academy, XI, p. 66Google Scholar.
5 “Few [of the antiquaries] were even dimly interested in the conflict of policies or the science of government.”—Whibley, Charles in a well-written article, “Chroniclers and Antiquaries,” The Cambridge History of English Literature (Cambridge, 1932), III, p. 314Google Scholar. Notestein referred to late Elizabethan antiquarianism as “a pleasant hobby with a small group of men as compared with the antiquarian passion of a larger group in the next reign.” Notestein, , op. cit. p. 65Google Scholar.
6 This manifests itself in the Brute legend, and in translations or editions of the parts of classical authors pertaining to Britain.
7 Agarde, Arthur, “Castles,” in Hearne, Thomas, A Collection of Curious Discourses (London, 1770), I, p. 84Google Scholar.
8 MissSmith's, L. T. “Introduction” to her edition of The Itinerary of John Leland (London, 1907), I, p. ixGoogle Scholar. The commission itself has not been found, although there are references to it. Leland signed himself Antiquarius, but this does not mean that he claimed an official position.
9 “Leland's New-Years Gift,” a letter to Henry VIII, in MissSmith, L. T., op. cit., I, p. xxxviiiGoogle Scholar. Bale called the journey “laborious' in his printing of the letter in 1549.
10 Ibid., I, P. xli.
11 Ibid., 1, p. xxxviii.
12 Fuller, Thomas, Church History of Britain, ed. Brewer, J. S. (Oxford, 1845), IV, p. 307Google Scholar.
13 Pp. 16 ff.
14 “Autobiographical Tracts of John Dee” in Remaines. Historical ami Literary, The Chetham Society, xxiv (London, 1851), pp. 46–49Google Scholar.
15 “Archbishop Parker lo Sir William Cecil,” 08 11, 1561, in Correspondence of Matthew Parser, edited for the Parker Society by Bruce, John and the Rev. Perowne, T. T. (Cambridge, 1853), p. 147Google Scholar.
16 Op. cit., p. 425.
17 Strype quoted in Adams, Eleanor N., Old English Scholarship in England from 1566–1800, Yale Studies in English, LV (New Haven, 1917), p. 18Google Scholar.
18 Adams, , op. cit., p. 38Google Scholar.
19 Joscelyn, John and Parker, Matthew, A Testimony of Anliquiiie (London, 1567). p. 3Google Scholar.
20 Adams, , op. cit., p. 18Google Scholar. Miss Adams' judgement thai before his death “Parker had so organized the Church of England that there was no pressing need of Old English documents to support its policy,” Ibid., p. 36, is substantially true. But the need of historical apologetics continued to be felt, and Archbishop Ussher of Armagh felt that it was one of the most important arguments against the Catholics, who persisted in the belief that their Church was the old one and that the Protesants were innovators. This inspired his work on the religion of the ancient Irish. The Works of James Ussher, edited by Elrington, C. R., 17 volumes (Dublin, 1864), I, p. 57Google Scholar.
21 Gough, Richard, British Topography (London, 1780), I, p. 4Google Scholar.
22 Notestein, “The Winning of the Initiative by the House of Commons,” is invaluable on this matter of relations of King, Queen and Parliament.
23 This account is largely based on the following sources: “Introduction: Containing an Historical Account of the Origin and Establishment of the Society of Antiquaries,” in Arclweologia, vol. I, 3rd ed. (London, 1804), pp. i–xliGoogle Scholar; Rev. Hunter, Joseph, “An Account of the Scheme for erecting a Royal Academy in England, in the Reign of King James the First,” in Archaeologia, vol. 32 (London, 1847), pp. 132–149Google Scholar; and learne, I (ed.) A Collection of Curious Discourses, 2 vols.Google Scholar, already mentioned, containing a number of papers, some dated and some signed, delivered at the meetings of the Society.
24 “Op. cit.,” Archacologta, I, p. iv.
25 The petition, signed by Sir John Dodderidge, Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Lee, is printed in Ibid., pp. iv–v. The criticism of the narrow university curriculum, implied in the petition, was made by several others, among them, SirGilbert, Humphrey in “Queen Elizabethes Achademy,” Early English Text Society, Extra Series no. VIII, Furnivail, ed. (London, 1869), pp. 1–12Google Scholar. Camden implied a similar criticism in founding the first history professorship at Oxford in 1622. Moreover, the grand tour of the continent which in Stuart times was an almost mandatory part of a noble youth's education, was often justified on the ground that it gave the youth a knowledge of other countries and their history, and an experience of men and politics not obtainable in the universities.
26 Hearne, , op. cit., I, p. 173, p. 207, p. 212; II, pp. 187–88Google Scholar.
27 Ibid., I, pp. 267, 272.
28 Ibid., I, pp. 38. 139.
29 Ibid., I, p. 97.
30 Ibid., I, 287.
31 Ibid., I, pp. 289, 292. MissEvans, E. has pointed out that the antiquaries did not usually define what they meant by parliament. “Of the Antiquity of Parliaments in Enpland: Some Elizabethan and Early Stuart Opinions,” History (1938), xxiii, pp. 206–221Google Scholar.
32 Archaeologia, 3rd edition, I, p. xv.
33 Archaelogia. vol. 32 (London, 1847), pp. 132–149Google Scholar.
34 Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wheatley edition (London, 1893), vol. II, pp. 136–137. 11 29, 1661Google Scholar.
35 Quoted in SirHoldsworth, William, A History of English Law (London, 1937), vol. IV, p. 227Google Scholar.
36 Quoted in SirHoldsworth, William, A History of English Law (London, 1938), I, p. 589Google Scholar.
37 A few of these tracts are listed in Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 112, note 2Google Scholar.
38 In the Dedication of The Jurisdiction of Courts, Cromplon indicates that it was written in retirement as a solace of his old age. Another work by Crompton illustrates the diffusive and patriotic interests of the antiquaries. This is The Mansion of Magnanimitie: wherein is shewed the most high and honoeable Acts of Sundrie English Kings, Princes, Dukes …‥ performed in defence of their Princes and Countrie, published in 1599. For other treatises on the justice of the peace, see Putnam, B. H., “Early Treatises on the practice of the justices of peace in the fifteenth and sixtenth centuries,” in Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, VII (1926Google Scholar).
39 Camden, William, Britannia, Gough translation (London, 1806), I, p. 4Google Scholar. Upon Elizabeth's accession Nowell returned to England and, as tutor to the unruly Earl of Oxford, lived in Cecil's house in the Strand, where he shared an interest in antiquities and geography with a group that included Cecil, Parker and Joscelyn. Flower, Robin, “Laurence Nowell and the Discovery of England in Tudor Times,” Proceedings of the British Academy, xxi (London, 1935), pp. 51–52Google Scholar. In 1562 Nowell made a copy of the manuscript which contained the Alfredian translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and a collection of Anglo-Saxon laws. As most of the original manuscript was burned in 1731, Nowell's copy has preserved this version. Ibid., p. 54.
40 William Somner (1598–1669), the historian of Gavelkind, and of Canterbury, and commentator on the laws of Henry I, translated (but he did not publish) Lambarde's Archaionomia into English so “That such Gentlemen who understood only their mother tongue might not be ignorant of these fundamental constitutions.” Kennet, Life of Somner, quoted in Adams, E. N., op. cit., p. 61, note 3Google Scholar.
41 There was a foundation for Saxon lectures at the Abbey of Tavistock. According to Camden, this foundation “continued to the last age,” i.e. till the time of Henry VIII. Camden, Britannia, Gough, trans., I, p. 33Google Scholar.
42 Parker to Burghley, May 9, 1573 in The Correspondence of Matthew Parser, ed. by Bruce, and Perowne, , p. 425Google Scholar.
43 The Newberry Library copy of the Descriplio Brilanniae (Venice, 1548) by Paulus Jovius, the humanist historian who was favored by Clement VII, belonged to William Lambarde and has his Latin marginal notes. A note on p. 3 refers to Jovius' papal sentiments and Jovius' remark on p. 4 about the simplicity of Irish dress caused Lambarde to add that this simplicity of dress contrasts sharply with their devious and treacherous characters.
44 Letter xxii, Lambarde to Camden, in Smith, Thomas, Vila et Epistolae Camdeni (London, 1691), pp. 28–29Google Scholar.
45 Lambarde's own account of the interview in Nichols, John, The Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1786), IIGoogle Scholar, “Queen's Plate and Jewels,” pp. 41–2.
46 Camden, , The History of …. Princess Elizabeth (London, 1688Google Scholar). “The Author to the Reader.”
47 Campion, Edmund, A Historie of Ireland in Ancient Irish Histories (Dublin, 1809) no editors mentioned, vol. I, p. 204Google Scholar.
48 Collins, Arthur, Letters and Memorials of State (London, 1746), p. 90Google Scholar.
49 Manwood, A Treatise of the Laws of the Forest, quoted in Holdsworth, , op. cit., vol. I, pp. 104–5Google Scholar.
50 Manwood, John, A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forest (London, 1598), A1-opp. A2Google Scholar.
51 Trevor-Roper, H. R., Archbishop Land (London, 1940), p. 278Google Scholar.
52 Burton, William, The Description of Leicestershire, 2nd edition (Lynn, 1777). pp. ii–iiiGoogle Scholar.
53 Ibid., p. iii.
54 Ibid., pp. 7–8.
55 Ibid., p. 27.
56 Ibid., pp. 44–45, 60.
57 Ibid., p. 198.
58 SirTwisden, John R. and Ward, C. H. Dudley, The Family of Twysden and Twisden (London, 1939), pp. 3–4Google Scholar: “A pedigree of the Roydon family was prepared to show Elizabeth, the widow of William Twysden of Wye, as heir of the Roydons continuing in her issue the family of her ancestors, and an ingenious arrangement of names and shields placed her in a position as much superior to her sisters as if she had been an eldest son.”
59 Ibid., p. 158.
60 Ibid., p. 155.
61 Sir Simonds D'Ewes professed that he had planned to fit himself for the highest offices of state open to the common lawyer. But perceiving the impending ruin of “the Church of God and the Gospel” “I laid by all these lofty and aspiring hopes; and considering that advice of Jeremiah to Baruch (Jer. XLV. 5), that these were not times for God's children to seek great things in, I resolved to moderate my desires, and to prepare my way to a better life with the greater serenity of mind and reposedness of spirit, by avoiding those two dangerous rocks of avarice and ambition.” The Autobiography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Halliwell, J. O. ed. (London, 1845), I, pp. 306–307Google Scholar.
62 Palmer, W. M., John Layer (1586–1640) of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, A Seventeenth-century Local Historian (Cambridge, 1935Google Scholar), gives an account of his work.
63 Carew, Richard, The Survey of Cornwall (London, 1723), pp. xviii–xixGoogle Scholar.
64 Ibid., p. 2.
65 Parks, George B., Richard Hakluyt and The English Voyages, ed. Williamson, J. A., Publication of the American Geographical Society, no. 10 (New York, 1928), pp. 126, 175Google Scholar. Taylor, E. G. R., Late Tudor and Early Stuart Ceorgraphy, 1583–1650 (London, 1934Google Scholar), and Tudor Ceography, 1485–1583 (London, 1930)Google Scholar, have valuable bibliographies and contain some interesting information about the contents of the libraries of such geographical and antiquarian collectors as John Dee, the Earl of Arundel and his son-in-law. Lord Lumley, Sir Thomas Smith and Samuel Purchas. The Hakluyt Society, following their patron's interests, has published many of the valuable sources in the history of English and European expansion.
66 The quotations from Halcluyl are in Robinson, C. N. and Leyland, John “The Literature of the Sea” in Cambridge History of English Literature (Cambridge, 1932), IV, pp. 83–4Google Scholar.
67 Taylor, K. G. R., Late Tudor and Eaily Stuart Geography (London, 1934), p. 49Google Scholar.
68 Box, E. G., “Kent in Early Road Books of the Seventeenth Century,” in Archaeologia Canliana, 1932, XLIV, Postscript, p. 112Google Scholar.
69 Dee's preface to Euclid (1570) quoted in Taylor, , Tudor Geography, p. 283Google Scholar.
70 John Stow (1525–1605), the annalist and antiquary, although he was of humble origin, omitted to describe many of the scenes of the city in his Survey of London (London, 1598), e.g. he does not mention the theaties.
71 SirSpelman, Henry, The History and Fate of Sacrilege (London, 1853), p. 247Google Scholar.
72 “Spelman reading continental books saw that English law, for all its insularity, was a member of a great European family, a family between all the members of which there are strong family likenesses. This was for Englishmen a grand and a striking discovery; much that had seemed arbitrary in their old laws, now seemed explicable. They learned of feudal law as a mediaeval jus gentium.” Maitland, F. W., The Constitutional History of England (Cambridge, 1920), p. 142Google Scholar. Like many of the antiquaries Spelman planned more than he finished and was led from one incompleted project to another. But his literary remains are admirably critical and written in a vigorous style. “When States are departed from their original Constitution and that original, by tract of time worn out of memory, the succeeding ages viewing the past by the present, conceive the former to have been like to that they live in, and framing thereupon erroneous propositions do likewise make thereon erroneous inferences and conclusions.” Reliquiae Spelmannianae (Oxford, 1698), “Of Parliaments,” p. 57Google Scholar.
73 Camden sought Ussher's assistance in describing the antiquities of Ireland. Ussher to Camden, Oct. 30, 1606, ep. lxi, Smith, , op. cit., pp. 76–85Google Scholar.
74 D'Ewes, , op. cit., II. p. 42Google Scholar.
75 Jordan, W. K., The Development of Religious Toleration in England (1603–1640) (Cambridge, 1936), pp. 479–80Google Scholar. The Selden Society has published many volumes of source material on English Legal History.
76 Symon Archer to Halton (April 8, 1638) in Hamper, William, The Life, Diary and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale (London, 1827), pp. 178–9, noteGoogle Scholar.
77 Earle, John, Micro-Cosmographie (London, 1633), no pageGoogle Scholar.
78 Mermion, Shackerly, The Antiquary (London, 1641Google Scholar).
79 Gardiner, S. R., Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (Oxford, 1906), pp. 179–182Google Scholar.
80 John Selden, Hislorp of Tithes, Dedication.
