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

one another and their first collaboration was a ballad, The Powder Tax, or a Puff at the
Guinea Pig, a satire on the new tax on hair powder which despite being ‘ridiculous in the
extreme’ generated considerable sales. 77 Its success was marred, however, by the fact
that the song was pirated by a printer in Covent Garden whose illegal version far outsold
the authors’. The experience was indicative. Commercial difficulties and popular success
would continue to characterise their partnership, which lasted more than sixty years.
It was for their topographical and architectural publications that they became best
known and the story of Britton’s career has been well told, not least by himself. 78 He
brought, eventually, a much higher standard of accuracy to the description and especially
the illustration of medieval architecture and by the sheer quantity as well as the quality of
his publications, from the first version of the Beauties of Wiltshire in 1801 to the revised
edition of his study of Wells cathedral in 1847, he contributed enormously to the
popularity of Gothic architecture as a topic of polite interest. As well as Brayley, Britton
collaborated with Edward Willson and, less happily, with A C Pugin (c1768-1832).
Unlike Milner, who, having benefited from a thorough, formal education, came to
his subject with a profound and fully-formed understanding which developed through his
life but never changed fundamentally, Britton was a self-educated man whose continuing
education is both an implicit and at times an explicit theme of his published work. The
author of two autobiographies he was a master of the confessional style of antiquarian
writing. His doubts, triumphs and quarrels all flow through the pages of his books
creating a reciprocal, if not always harmonious, relationship with his readers. He was
candid about his disappointments and those of his subscribers, typically informing the
restive readers of his Chronological History… of Christian Architecture that:
77
Britton, Auto-biography, (1825) p.27.
78
Apart from Britton’s own works Crook ‘John Britton and the Genesis of the Gothic Revival’, is the best
and fullest account of his career. For a more detailed appreciation of his contribution to architectural history
see Buchanan, ‘Robert Willis and the Rise of Architectural History’, pp.100-1.
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