Creator
Francesco Bartolozzi, engraver
Title
Portrait of Francis Grose.
Publisher
Drawn by Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Date
Published Guy Fawkes Day 1787
Description
Francis Grose was a militia captain and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His friend Robert Burns called him “a fine, fat, fodgel wight [plump creature] / O’ stature short, but genius bright.” He was the author of two pioneering dictionaries: one of provincial dialects, the other of slang and cant. Unlike most lexicographers, he supplemented his reading with actual fieldwork, roaming the British countryside and making “nocturnal sallies” into shady London neighborhoods to collect the living language.
Source
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 110