We are inclined to date concern for historic buildings from the time of Ashbee and Morris, but an interest in `relics' was already developing two centuries earlier in the wake of Cromwellian destruction. With the New Learning, the relative peace and easier travel the 18th century brought, antiquarianism flowered. Even before 1800 enthusiasts were busy sketching parts of Tudor London before they disappeared; and as enthusiasm for the Gothic and for the pre-Raphaelite world expanded, new discoveries were made – and sometimes faked.

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