Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

Aberdeen, 25 had excavated the amphitheatre on the Pnyx in Athens and noted discouragingly in
his Preface to Whittington’s book that ‘The subject [of Gothic architecture] is not in itself very
generally interesting’ 26 , while the anonymous editor’s note at the end suggested that:
It may excite some degree of regret, perhaps, that a writer, possessed of the qualifications which distinguished the
author of the foregoing work, should have confined his talents to a discussion of so limited and partial an interest as
the progress of Gothic Architecture. 27
Emanating from such an alien milieu Whittington’s treatise might have sunk without trace and
indeed the Society of Antiquaries seems to have paid little attention to it. By now, however, the
subject was, whatever Whittington’s friends thought, of immense and widespread interest far
beyond the Society. His book was much discussed. Dawson Turner for one took it with him
when, at last, France was once again accessible.
All London in Paris: 1814-15
The Treaty of Paris, which brought an end to the war, was signed on 30 May 1814. That
very morning Dawson Turner set off from London with his wife, two of his daughters and two
friends, including Charles Lyell the geologist, for Paris, where they arrived on 10 June. 28
Historic art and architecture were, at this stage of his life, not Turner’s principal interests, botany
had until now been his main occupation. This visit to France sparked the beginning of a new
commitment to antiquarian enquiry. His copy of Whittington’s Survey in hand he inspected St
Denis and the Ste Chapelle. ‘Nous voici donc a Paris’ he wrote in his journal, ‘in the midst of the
wonders of the world, full of expectations & hope & anxiety & bent upon acquiring
information.’ 29 He and his party were interested in and observant of everything from theatre
scenery to table manners but among their main objectives were the Louvre and Lenoir’s Musée
25
The account of Aberdeen’s career is taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
26
Whittington, An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France, Preface, p. xiv.
27
Whittington, An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France , p.172.
28
Turner, ‘Journal of a Tour to France, 1814’.
29
Turner ‘Journal of a Tour to France, 1814’, f107.
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