Francis Grose

Francis Grose (c. 1731–1791) was an English antiquary and lexicographer, the son of a Swiss-born jeweler. After serving as Richmond Herald and a militia officer, he published his drawings of ruins as The Antiquities of England and Wales in several volumes from 1773 and later the antiquities of Scotland and Ireland. His Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785, compiled partly on night walks through the slums of London, recorded the slang of thieves, sailors and gentlemen with relish; it was enlarged after his death as the 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum. He was a friend of Robert Burns, who wrote Tam o' Shanter for him.