Naseby’s Pioneering Archaeologist
Spurred into action by the false presumptions of Thomas Carlyle, the antiquarian Edward FitzGerald sought to piece together the momentous events of June 14th, 1645, reports Martin Marix Evans.
In his book Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations (1845), the Scottish writer and historian Thomas Carlyle states of Naseby:
Ample details of this Battle ... are to be found in Sprigge . . . who has also copied a strange old Plan of the Battle ... By assiduous attention . . . the Narrative can still be, and has lately been, pretty accurately verified.
In this he was much mistaken, but possibly on firmer ground than previous commentators as he had the opportunity of being the bene ficiary of the pioneering work of one Edward FitzGerald, the son of the lord of the manor of the small Northamptonshire village that gave its name to one of the most momentous battles in British history.
Born in Suffolk on March 31st, 1809, FitzGerald was famed for his translations of classical texts and of the Rubáiyat. His father had inherited land at Naseby and in 1823 had erected an obelisk to commemorate the battle on a vacant windmill mound on the road north-east of the village. Twelve years later, FitzGerald began his own study of the battlefield.
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