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![[picture: Front Cover, Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, Vol I]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/tn/000-Front-Cover-q75-349x500.jpg "[picture: Front Cover, Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, Vol I]")
Francis Grose, Esq., FAS., The Antiquities of England and Wales, Being a Collection of Views of the Most remarkable Ruins and antient Buildings, Accurately drawn on the spot. To each view is added An Historical Accounf of its Situation, when and by whom built, with every interesting Circumstance relating thereto. Collected from the best authorities.
London, Printed by C. Clarke, for S. Hooper, No. 212 High Holborn, opposite Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, M.DCC.LXXXIII [1783]
My copy of Volume I is falling apart, but that at least means I don’t have to worry about damaging the binding when I scan the pictures. I took a photograph of this book open to the title page.
I wish I had more volumes of this series. I also obtained volume 3, but it came without the maps, unfortunately. The perils of eBay!
The maps in this series of books were originally engraved in about 1694 for John Seller’s Anglia Contracta. John Seller was a noted map maker and publisher of the second half of the 17th century, known especially for his sea charts. Years later Francis Grose got hold of the engraved plates for the maps and used them in this popular series of Antiquities, removing the John Seller cartouche. The colour in the maps would have been added by hand after printing.
There is a short biography of Francis Grose from 1814.
Captain Francis Grose is also known for compiling dictionaries. I have a copy of his Provincial Glossary. He also wrote a dictionary of slang; Project Gutenberg has made a text version of an 1811 version of this (I have a fac simile edition) and I have used this as a starting point, corrected many errors, and put it online as the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
There is also an entry in the Nuttall Encyclopædia for Captain Francis Grose.
Title: The Antiquities of England and Wales Vol I
Published by: C. Clarke, for S. Hooper
City: London
Date: 1783
Total items: 53
Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.
![[picture: Tolmen St. Mary's Scilly. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/wm/big/00p135-Druidical-Antiquities-07-q75-263x200.jpg "[picture: Tolmen St. Mary's Scilly. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.]")
Tolmen St. Mary’s Scilly. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.
This Tolmen Stone on St Mary’s, the largest of the the Isles of Scilly, was destroyed in 1869 by explosives, so that the granite underneath it could be quarried. [more...]
[$]![[picture: Druidical Circle near Keswick in cumberland. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/wm/big/00p135-Druidical-Antiquities-10-q75-787x200.jpg "[picture: Druidical Circle near Keswick in cumberland. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.]")
Druidical Circle near Keswick in cumberland. From the Druidical Antiquities Plate.
I remember visiting this stone circle one November, drawn to the spiritual nature of the place. It was cold and rainy, and as group of very determined hikers walked past me one of them, seeing I was cold and barefoot, sneered at me and said “you’d have done better to have stayed at home.” Perhaps he thought that I was unhappy, or that I was hiking. [...] [more...]
[$]![[picture: The grand Door of Barfreston Church in Kent.]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/wm/big/000p111-Grand-Door-of-Barfreston-Church-q75-146x200.jpg "[picture: The grand Door of Barfreston Church in Kent.]")
The grand Door of Barfreston Church in Kent.
On some of these arches is commonly over the key-stone represented God the Father, or our Saviour surrounded with angels; and below a melange of foliage, animals, often ludicrous, and sometimes even indecent subjects. Partly of this sort is the great [...] [more...]
![[picture: Reading Abbey Plate 2]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/wm/big/016-Berkshire-ReadingAbbey-plate2-q75-291x200.jpg "[picture: Reading Abbey Plate 2]")
![[picture: The New or Water Tower, Chester]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-Antiquities/wm/big/38-the-new-or-water-tower-chester-267x200.jpg "[picture: The New or Water Tower, Chester]")
The New or Water Tower, Chester
Published Novr. 7, 1783, by S. Hooper. Sparrow sculp.. The battlements were added in the 1640s during the Civil War, when Chester was besieged. There’s more about this at bwpics.co.uk. [more...]
[$]Francis Grose, Esq., FAS., The Antiquities of England and Wales, Being a Collection of Views of the Most remarkable Ruins and antient Buildings, Accurately drawn on the spot. To each view is added An Historical Accounf of its Situation, when and by whom built, with every interesting Circumstance relating thereto. Collected from the best authorities.
London, Printed by C. Clarke, for S. Hooper, No. 212 High Holborn, opposite Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, M.DCC.LXXXIII [1783]
My copy of Volume I is falling apart, but that at least means I don’t have to worry about damaging the binding when I scan the pictures. I took a photograph of this book open to the title page.
I wish I had more volumes of this series. I also obtained volume 3, but it came without the maps, unfortunately. The perils of eBay!
The maps in this series of books were originally engraved in about 1694 for John Seller’s Anglia Contracta. John Seller was a noted map maker and publisher of the second half of the 17th century, known especially for his sea charts. Years later Francis Grose got hold of the engraved plates for the maps and used them in this popular series of Antiquities, removing the John Seller cartouche. The colour in the maps would have been added by hand after printing.
There is a short biography of Francis Grose from 1814.
Captain Francis Grose is also known for compiling dictionaries. I have a copy of his Provincial Glossary. He also wrote a dictionary of slang; Project Gutenberg has made a text version of an 1811 version of this (I have a fac simile edition) and I have used this as a starting point, corrected many errors, and put it online as the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
There is also an entry in the Nuttall Encyclopædia for Captain Francis Grose.
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