Lionel Henry Cust

“ On their return his parents settled at Cheltenham, where his father practised as an architect, and where Middleton himself was educated, first at the juvenile proprietary school, and afterwards at Cheltenham College. In 1865 he was matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford. Middleton, though far from being an eccentric recluse, or of as weakly a constitution as his appearance seemed to denote, displayed from his youth an acutely nervous and fastidious temperament, liable to strong emotions and to deep depression. ”

“ Sir James Gray and General Gray are noteworthy as two of the original founders of the Society of Dilettanti in 1732, and they were among the leading spirits of the society. General Gray acted as secretary and treasurer to the society from 1738 to 1771, and was well known in society as an amateur of architecture. ”

“ MIDDLETON, JOHN HENRY (1846–1896) , archæologist, architect, professor of fine art, and museum director, born at York on 6 Oct. 1846, was the only surviving child of John Middleton, architect, of York, and Maria Margaret, his wife, daughter of James Pigott Pritchett [q. v.] , architect, of York, and his first wife, Peggy Maria Terry. As a child he was taken by his parents to Italy, where he acquired a love of that country and its language, which lasted throughout his life. ”

“ By an old law in Germany, relating to reigning families, Prince Victor's wife, not being of equal rank, was disqualified from using her husband's title. In consequence Prince Victor assumed the title of Count Gleichen, the second title in the family, by which he was known for many years. After he retired from the navy Count Gleichen devoted himself to an artistic career, for which he had considerable talent. ”

“ He visited America, crossing it to Salt Lake City and the Rocky Mountains, and descending into Mexico. He travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and North Africa. He undertook a special journey to Fez in Morocco to study the philosophy of Plato as taught there, and in the disguise of a pilgrim effected admission into the Great Mosque, which no unbeliever had previously succeeded in doing, and also was presented to the sultan as one of the faithful. ”

“ Loss of fortune, owing to the failure of a bank, caused him to look to sculpture as a serious profession. He had been granted by Queen Victoria a suite of apartments in St. James's Palace, where he set up a studio and entered into regular competition as a working sculptor. He executed several imaginative groups, as well as monuments and portrait busts. Some of the busts were very successful, notably those of the Earl of Beaconsfield, the Marquis of Salisbury, and Sir Harry Keppel. ”

“ Dalton was one of the original committee who in 1755 drew up the first project for the establishment of a Royal Academy of Fine Arts in England. He was one of the original members of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1765, and became their treasurer. He purchased a large house in Pall Mall, to be used as a print warehouse; but as this did not succeed he established there the first nucleus of an academy of arts, under the protection of the king, and induced the former academy in St. ”

“ Of her two sons the elder, John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton-Cust, succeeded his grandfather as second Earl Brownlow, and, dying unmarried in 1867, was succeeded by his younger brother, Adelbert Wellington Brownlow Cust, third and present Earl Brownlow. ”

“ He married, on 25 June 1764, Esther, daughter of Abraham Deheulle, silkweaver, of Spitalfields, but left no legitimate issue. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1767.
[Gent. Mag. 1791,i. 188, 195; Lumisden's Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy; Pye's Encouragement of Art in Great Britain; Cust's Hist. of the Society of Dilettanti.] ”