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

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essays The Invention <strong>of</strong> Tradition <strong>in</strong> particular Trevor-Roper’s contribution, ‘The<br />

Highland Tradition <strong>of</strong> Scotland’ had a greater scope and <strong>in</strong>fluence and cont<strong>in</strong>ues to<br />

generate debate. 75 This has tended, however, to emphasise <strong>the</strong> extent to which romantic<br />

antiquarianism <strong>in</strong>troduced ideas and <strong>in</strong>deed objects that have s<strong>in</strong>ce come to be regarded<br />

as bogus. It is true that widely received op<strong>in</strong>ions about Shakespeare, <strong>the</strong> Bayeux Tapestry<br />

and tartan, among o<strong>the</strong>r th<strong>in</strong>gs, might now be different without <strong>the</strong> efforts <strong>of</strong> antiquaries<br />

dur<strong>in</strong>g this period and <strong>the</strong>se questions will be addressed. My aim, however, is not to<br />

debunk but, as it were, to ‘rebunk’, to see <strong>the</strong> antiquarianism <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se years <strong>in</strong> its context<br />

and as far as possible on its own terms as its mean<strong>in</strong>gs shifted <strong>in</strong> relation to <strong>the</strong> particular<br />

material, religious, historical, architectural or narrative subject matter with which it<br />

engaged, to understand it as a form <strong>of</strong> romantic enquiry <strong>in</strong> pursuit <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> variable<br />

compound <strong>of</strong> illusion and au<strong>the</strong>nticity.<br />

75<br />

See <strong>in</strong> particular Kidd, ‘Lord Dacre and <strong>the</strong> Politics <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Scottish Enlightenment’ and <strong>the</strong> subsequent<br />

exchange between Kidd and Ferguson.<br />

34

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