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

Britton could not resist pointing out that the book, which appeared under Dodsworth’s
name, was in fact the work of a Mr Hatcher, ‘who wrote, in a very able manner, the entire
volume’. 108 The possibility that personal animus as much as critical judgement informed
Britton’s remarks about the cathedral is borne out by the fact that when he came to write
the Cathedral Antiquities, at which time he and Dodsworth were on speaking terms
again, Britton found that the removal of the tombs had been ‘advisable’, merely noting
that ‘there are persons who have reprobated this proceeding’ without including himself in
their number. 109 This self-protective side of Britton caused some contemporaries as well
as later commentators such as Clark and Summerson to shudder. Since his tour of 1798,
however, when he ‘was introduced to, and formed acquaintance with, many public
persons, whose friendship and correspondence proved valuable in after life’ Britton had
never lost sight of the necessity of patronage and the need on occasion for popular
antiquarianism to seek a commercially expedient compromise with informed opinion. 110
The Beauties and the Architectural and Cathedral Antiquities floated to success
on a sea of other popular publications. As well as numerous individual local histories
there were ever more books and periodicals for the general reader. Edward Brayley
founded, although he quickly lost control of, The Antiquarian and Topographical
Cabinet, which, from 1807 offered readers accurate, if miniature, depictions of subjects,
by far the majority of which were medieval and architectural. In 1815 Volume One of
The Antiquarian Itinerary, comprising specimens of architecture, monastic, castellated,
and domestic; with other Vestiges of Antiquity in Great Britain, first appeared. It was
written by James Storer, co-author since Brayley’s departure of The Antiquarian Cabinet.
The quality of the text was sufficient for Dawson Turner to rely on it and, significantly,
the title put the emphasis explicitly on architecture, rather than topography. By 1826, the
year when Milner’s death and that of John Nichols marked the passing of a generation of
antiquaries, popular interest in medieval architecture was rising steadily. As well as
108
Britton, Autobiography, (1850), 1, p.123.
109
Britton, Cathedral Antiquities, 2, p.87. Relations were not so greatly improved, however, that Britton
could forbear from pointing out that Hatcher’s book was typographically ‘remarkable, by the meagre and
careless composition of every page’ [Britton, Autobiography, (1850), 2, p.126n].
110
Britton, Autobiography, (1850), 1, p.139.
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