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

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and enthusiastic antiquary who was appo<strong>in</strong>ted first director <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> museum immediately<br />

requested and was granted permission to hire Langlois ‘pour l’aider dans la régie et<br />

l’adm<strong>in</strong>stration du musée’ [to help him with <strong>the</strong> organisation and adm<strong>in</strong>istration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

museum]. 79 Hav<strong>in</strong>g rejected <strong>the</strong> second floor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> build<strong>in</strong>g as be<strong>in</strong>g unable to take <strong>the</strong> weight<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> architectural fragments he <strong>in</strong>tended to display, Deville opted <strong>in</strong>stead for <strong>the</strong> cloisters,<br />

where <strong>the</strong> collection is still displayed today.<br />

As well as bear<strong>in</strong>g out Ferrey’s puzzled observations about Langlois’s social stand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />

France, <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> museum around him suggests ano<strong>the</strong>r permutation on <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>me <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

romantic <strong>in</strong>terior. Langlois became, if not exactly an exhibit, <strong>the</strong>n literally a liv<strong>in</strong>g part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

museum, <strong>in</strong>habit<strong>in</strong>g it and order<strong>in</strong>g it from with<strong>in</strong>. His own collection was absorbed <strong>in</strong>to it<br />

dur<strong>in</strong>g his lifetime, and not only <strong>the</strong> antiquities. Deville, who was obviously fond <strong>of</strong> Langlois<br />

personally, <strong>in</strong>corporated Langlois’s sword, left over from his military service, <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> display. 80<br />

Wander<strong>in</strong>g through <strong>the</strong> cloisters <strong>in</strong> Rouen, as Quasimodo wandered through Notre Dame,<br />

Langlois would have passed through his own history, among objects that had characterised his<br />

career and to some extent formed him. After his death <strong>the</strong> museum rema<strong>in</strong>ed, like <strong>the</strong> shell <strong>of</strong> a<br />

snail, its outl<strong>in</strong>es describ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> space his curious character once occupied.<br />

The Sacred Interior: Sara Losh at Wreay<br />

While it is difficult to imag<strong>in</strong>e two less similar characters than Langlois and Sara Losh,<br />

<strong>the</strong>y are neighbours at that end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> spectrum where <strong>the</strong> antiquarian space is <strong>in</strong>separable from<br />

character and belief and where irony and comedy have no place. Losh’s church was remarkable<br />

<strong>in</strong> many ways. It has been discussed as symbolic architecture and <strong>the</strong>re will be a little more to<br />

say about it <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> next chapter. However, it can also be considered briefly as an unconventional<br />

part <strong>of</strong> a more conventional trend, well established by <strong>the</strong> 1840s, <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g historic<br />

79 Flavigny, Musée Départmental des Antiquités,p.15.<br />

80 Richard, ‘E-H Langlois’, p. 35.<br />

192

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