Agricultural History Review, Volume 69 Part 1 (2021), p. 149

This book brings to light the achievements of an extraordinary antiquary and natural historian. In her introduction, Emily Sloan characterizes Major Hayman Rooke (1723–1806) as ‘an unjustly neglected provincial figure’ (p. 4). The succeeding chapters of her book prove that this claim is by no means special pleading. Sloan convincingly establishes Rooke’s importance as a scholar and draughtsman, and she clearly defines his place within the intellectual and cultural networks of his age.

As this latter statement suggests, Sloan’s book is much more than a biographical study. Her approach to Rooke’s contributions to antiquarianism and natural history is, as she explains, informed by her interest in ‘uncover[ing] something of a broader culture of landscape’ in Britain during the Hanoverian era (p. 8). This culture, as Sloan argues, was strongly conditioned by the epistemological tendencies of the Enlightenment; it was a culture in which empirical evidence and visual documentation were increasingly viewed as imperative. Rooke’s work as a draughtsman and as a scrupulous researcher, when viewed in this context, distinguishes him as much more than just a notable regional figure. Rather, we come to see him as an exemplar of the sensibilities that helped to establish the standards of modern historical, archaeological and scientific research.

Sloan’s book is divided into four chapters, the first of which presents a detailed account of Rooke’s life. In addition to documenting his 24-year military career, Sloan delves into his time in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, where he settled following his retirement from the army in 1761. Sloan situates Rooke at the centre of a noteworthy social circle in the Midlands, which included influential landowners, such as the Dukes of Portland, and cultural authorities, like Humphry Repton, as well as learned individuals, such as Samuel Pegge, and literary figures, like Anna Seward, who composed a poem in Rooke’s honour. As Sloan points out, Rooke had earned a reputation as a competent draughtsman and engineer during his military career. He was, moreover, widely travelled, and his skills and social connections were an asset to the antiquarian and natural-historical research he chose to pursue in retirement.

Sloan addresses this research in the subsequent chapters of her book, and her second chapter, which deals with Rooke’s studies of meteorology, arboriculture and agriculture, will likely be especially interesting to readers of this journal. In addition to paying due attention to Rooke’s contribution to the General view of agriculture in the County of Nottinghamshire (1798), Sloan provides an insightful examination of the investigations of oak trees and ancient forests for which Rooke is principally known today. As she emphasizes, Rooke’s interest in these subjects reflected ‘his patriotic, political and patriarchal ethos’, as well as his wonder in the marvels of the natural world (p. 83); it also affirmed the fundamental practicality of his inquiries. As the pamphlets and papers Rooke published make clear, he was interested not only in contributing to the advancement of knowledge, but also in bringing about improvements in planting and landscape planning.

Sloan draws similar conclusions in her third and fourth chapters, which deal with Rooke’s antiquarian research. In these chapters Sloan considers Rooke’s studies of prehistoric and Roman Britain in turn, and she places particular emphasis on the significance of his commitment to precise documentation and careful excavation. As Sloan stresses, Rooke showed extraordinary care during his excavations at Arbor Low, in Derbyshire, in 1782, two years before Thomas Jefferson’s often-cited excavations in Virginia. Rooke recorded not only the position and condition of the artefacts found, but also the steps taken during the dig. At a time when antiquaries such as Bryan Faussett and James Douglas were ripping through ancient barrows at the rate of a dozen a day, the methods Rooke applied were ‘highly unusual’ indeed (p. 104). What is more, as Sloan avers, these methods affirm the long-lasting influence of Rooke’s military career, which also provided him with connections around the country. ‘His army background’, she writes, ‘gave him not only the training in observation, topographical drawing and tactical manoeuvring which helped to inform his approach […], but also supplied him with a ready network of friends and contacts through whom he gained access to a range of sites and artefacts’ (p. 150).

In sum, Sloan’s book achieves its stated aim of ‘broadening our understanding […] of eighteenth-century antiquarianism’ (p. 4). This reviewer would have liked for her to have developed aspects of her argument further. Her discussion of the use of drawing as a mode of recording and communicating knowledge, in particular, could have been elaborated, and more connections could have been drawn with other recent evaluations of eighteenth-century topography. Still, Sloan’s study of Rooke makes an important contribution to our knowledge, and it provides a useful contrast to the parodic depiction of provincial antiquaries that can limit our appreciation of their achievements. Rooke, as Sloan shows, was no jealous hoarder, and his wide-ranging research cuts against the grain of the county histories often associated with the learned culture of his age. He may have never produced a magnum opus, but he was a talented and good-natured man who shared his work and took a share in supporting the work of others.

Sloan’s book is handsomely designed and illustrated with grayscale figures and colour plates of Rooke’s watercolour and pen and ink drawings. The book also includes a set of appendices, which provide a bibliography of Rooke’s publications and a chronology of his activities based on Sloan’s original archival research. These additional resources further enrich this valuable book, which will be an indispensable aid to anyone wishing to learn more about Rooke and his world.