William Camden

Abstract

Abstract Antiquarians, like poets, are born not made. There can be no rational explanation why some people are irresistibly fascinated by the remains of the past, impelled to make long journeys to view mounds of rubble, or moved to spend dim hours in libraries over half-legible manuscripts. It is an instinct, a passion. William Camden experienced it as a lifelong emotion. ‘Even when he was a schoolboy, he could neither hear nor see anything of an antique appearance, without more than ordinary attention and notice. ‘1 At Oxford in the 1560s ‘it was not in his power to keep within doors: the bent of his own Genius was always pulling him out, not to impertinent visits and idle diversions, but to entertainments he relished above all these; stately Camps and ruinous Castles, those venerable Monuments of our Fore-fathers ‘.2 He was fortunate to find illustrious and sympathetic sponsors, among whom Philip Sidney and Fulke Greville were persuaded that this passion for antiquities might be made to serve a patriotic cause by illustrating English history, so that Englishmen might better understand the nature and merit of their own country.