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

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foundation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> British Archaeological Association and <strong>in</strong> 1842 he brought out a new<br />

edition <strong>of</strong> Strutt’s Complete view <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> dress and Habits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> People <strong>of</strong> England. The<br />

author <strong>of</strong> a pamphlet appeal<strong>in</strong>g for <strong>the</strong> establishment <strong>of</strong> a national <strong>the</strong>atre Planché was<br />

also responsible <strong>in</strong> 1869 for re-arrang<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> armour collections <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Tower <strong>of</strong> London<br />

<strong>in</strong> chronological sequence.<br />

Walter Scott (1771-1832)<br />

By far <strong>the</strong> best-known <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> subjects <strong>in</strong> this <strong>the</strong>sis, much has been written about<br />

Scott. His career as an antiquary has not, however, been so much discussed. His<br />

boundless energy found outlets <strong>in</strong> antiquarian publications and activities as various as<br />

<strong>the</strong>atre design, architecture, decoration and <strong>the</strong> antiquarian re-<strong>in</strong>vention <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Hanoverians <strong>in</strong> Scotland. Most importantly he gave both to antiquaries <strong>the</strong>mselves and to<br />

<strong>the</strong> read<strong>in</strong>g public an image and a narrative for antiquarianism <strong>in</strong> this period.<br />

John Sobieski Stolberg (?1795-1872) and Charles Edward Stuart (?1799-1880)<br />

Born John Carter Allen and Charles Mann<strong>in</strong>g Allen and generally known as <strong>the</strong><br />

Sobieski Stuarts, <strong>the</strong>y were <strong>the</strong> sons <strong>of</strong> an English naval <strong>of</strong>ficer, Thomas Allen but<br />

claimed to be <strong>the</strong> grandsons <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Young Pretender. The Oxford Dictionary <strong>of</strong> National<br />

Biography dismisses <strong>the</strong>m as ‘imposters’, which is mislead<strong>in</strong>g. They undertook serious<br />

antiquarian research as well as a certa<strong>in</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> forgery. In 1829, with Sir Thomas<br />

Dick-Lauder, <strong>the</strong> antiquary and novelist, <strong>the</strong>y developed <strong>the</strong> Vestiarium Scoticum, f<strong>in</strong>ally<br />

published <strong>in</strong> 1842, a study <strong>of</strong> highland dress, supposedly based on a late fifteenth-century<br />

manuscript, which was never forthcom<strong>in</strong>g. In 1845 <strong>the</strong>y published The Costume <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Clans which rema<strong>in</strong>s a controversial work. Described by Hugh Trevor-Roper as a<br />

brilliant mixture <strong>of</strong> ‘scholarship and forgery’, it has more recently been defended by<br />

Scottish historians as an accurate record <strong>of</strong> early Highland dress. To an extent <strong>the</strong><br />

bro<strong>the</strong>rs’ claims, however false <strong>in</strong> orig<strong>in</strong>, became true with time. Many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tartans <strong>in</strong><br />

use today have no o<strong>the</strong>r source than <strong>the</strong>ir work and <strong>the</strong>ir sister and two <strong>of</strong> Charles’s<br />

children married <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> aristocracy.<br />

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