bothering your head about the past
BATTY, John.
London: George Redway … 1883. [Bound with:]
KERSLAKE, Thomas. The Liberty of independent historical Research … 1885.
Two works, 8vo, pp. 34; and pp. 66, with a drop-head title; very good copies bound in contemporary green buckram, some spotting to endpapers; ownership inscription of John E. Prichard to title-page.
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London: George Redway … 1883. [Bound with:]
KERSLAKE, Thomas. The Liberty of independent historical Research … 1885.
First edition of The Liberty of independent historical research, second edition of The Scope and Charm of Antiquarian Study.
‘What is the use of bothering your head about the past?’ asks John Batty, a Yorkshire antiquary; he provides an answer in this beguilingly written guide to the pleasures of antiquarian study. From ‘monumental erections’ to ‘caves, tumuli, and barrows’ via ‘heraldry’, ‘ancient wills’ and ‘painted glass’, his guide is as exhaustive and charming as the title promises. The bookseller Thomas Kerslake takes an altogether less relaxing view of antiquarian study in The Liberty of independent historical Research, a scathing criticism of General Pitt Rivers’s excavation of the Pen Pitts in Somerset. He conjures up an image of antiquaries ‘panic‑stricken’ in the face of State interference in the preservation of ancient monuments, before going on to reaffirm (as he had argued in two previous papers) that the Pen Pitts were the remains of a buried city, not as Pitt Rivers (more plausibly) claimed, a quarry.
