The Grave Scholarship of Antiquaries

This article explores Romantic‐era representations of antiquarian exhumations; in the process, it participates in the recent scholarly re‐evaluation of antiquarian research during the Romantic period. After a brief overview of the main characteristics of antiquarianism, I present two prose accounts of exhumations – Valentine Green's “An Account of the Discovery of the Body of King John in the Cathedral Church ofWorcester” (1797) and Francis Grose's Olio (1792) – that illustrate the antiquary's fascination with the grave and its contents. I conclude by examining Thomas Rowlandson and William Combe's The English Dance of Death (1815–16) – a collection of illustrated verse satires – which registers the ambivalent status of antiquaries during the Romantic period. Though Rowlandson and Combe are not above using stock jokes about antiquaries, the text also articulates a profound sympathy and gratitude for the mode of research, and advertises its own status as a product of antiquarian values.