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

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The British <strong>in</strong> Normandy: architecture, topography and antiquarian connections<br />

after 1815<br />

By <strong>the</strong> time Brita<strong>in</strong>’s enforced isolation ended <strong>in</strong> 1815 antiquarian curiosity about <strong>the</strong><br />

Cont<strong>in</strong>ent was at fever pitch. For one th<strong>in</strong>g, as <strong>the</strong> Quarterly Review po<strong>in</strong>ted out, antiquaries<br />

were runn<strong>in</strong>g out <strong>of</strong> domestic material:<br />

Every nook <strong>in</strong> our island has now been completely ransacked… <strong>the</strong> humbler antiquary <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Ancient Borough ekes<br />

out his octavo with chronicles <strong>of</strong> Shreeves and Mayors… It would be difficult to name any structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ‘olden<br />

time’ which has not been transmitted <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> portfolio and <strong>the</strong> library. 78<br />

Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore <strong>the</strong> great architectural debate on <strong>the</strong> national orig<strong>in</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Gothic had been largely<br />

stymied, as far as publications were concerned, s<strong>in</strong>ce Whitt<strong>in</strong>gton’s Survey, though this had been<br />

vigorously refuted by Milner and Carter. 79 The brief visits <strong>of</strong> 1814 had done little more than<br />

whet appetites. Even Douce, whose <strong>in</strong>terests were not primarily architectural, seems to have been<br />

ask<strong>in</strong>g de la Rue for <strong>in</strong>formation about French Gothic which <strong>the</strong> Abbé was sure he could<br />

provide.<br />

Vos antiquaires paroissent disputer beaucoup sur les differens styles d’architecture… il est facile de saisir les<br />

differences de style suivant les differens ages, et comme je puis les fixer par des dates certa<strong>in</strong>es, il ny aura je crois<br />

rien a repliquer sur ce que j’en pourrais dire. [Your antiquaries seem to argue a great deal about <strong>the</strong> different styles<br />

<strong>of</strong> architecture, it is easy to fix <strong>the</strong> differences <strong>of</strong> style by <strong>the</strong> various periods and as I can ascerta<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>m accord<strong>in</strong>g<br />

to secure dates I th<strong>in</strong>k <strong>the</strong>re will be no possibility <strong>of</strong> disput<strong>in</strong>g my conclusions.] 80<br />

De la Rue was to say <strong>the</strong> least over-confident on this po<strong>in</strong>t for, as he did admit, ‘on a tres<br />

peu travaille en france sur ce sujet.’ [Nobody has done much work on this subject <strong>in</strong> France.] 81<br />

In <strong>the</strong> years that followed Waterloo English antiquaries <strong>in</strong>vaded Normandy, extend<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />

78<br />

Quarterly Review, 25 (April 1821), p. 113.<br />

79<br />

Milner, Treatise on Ecclesiastical Architecture, Chapter 4, and Carter, Gentleman’s Magaz<strong>in</strong>e, 79, (1809), pp.<br />

523-526 and pp. 627-630.<br />

80<br />

Douce/de la Rue letters, f60v, 24 October, 1814.<br />

81<br />

Douce/de la Rue letters, f38, 28 March, 1813.<br />

125

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