Fawkes’s <i>Fairfaxiana</i> , <i>c.</i> 1815–25: A collection of the past to reform the future

Abstract Stephen Bann, in Scenes and Traces of the English Civil War (2020), noted how perceptions of the period developed over time through artistic and written interpretations. Collections of items pertaining to the war were amassed in many country houses and were one way in which individuals engaged with the war's events and legacy. Farnley Hall, near Otley in Yorkshire, the seat of Walter Fawkes (1769–1825), MP and patron of the arts, was a prime example. This paper considers not only how this collection was formed, but also how Fawkes chose to display the items, re-creating an immersive, lived-in museum experience. Fawkes is best known today as an early patron of the renowned landscape artist J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). He commissioned the painter to create illustrations of his collection, which are unusual in Turner’s oeuvre. They reveal not only Fawkes’s antiquarian interests but also an autobiographical and political meaning, reflecting societal concerns in early nineteenth-century England.