Francis Grose (ca. 1731-1791), born in Middlesex, served for more than twenty years in the army, particularly the Hampshire and then the Surrey militia, until he emerged as one of the period's greatest antiquarians. He published The Antiquities of England and Wales in 1772-76, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785, and subsequently other antiquarian collections on Scotland, Ireland, and the English military. His amusing occasional poems are typical of an 18th-century man of letters. He died in Dublin in 1791 and is buried in Drumcondra churchyard.