Octavian Blewitt

“ Peter Cunningham, in announcing his death in the ‘Town and Table Talk’ of the ‘Illustrated London News,’ said that ‘English artists were mourning the loss of an old friend.’ There were few of whom this could have been said with more perfect truth, for it would have been difficult to find any one who was more beloved by a large circle of friends at home and abroad, or who was more regretted by his professional contemporaries, many of whom had reason to cherish his memory with affection as that of a man ever ready to show kindness to others, and never likely to forget it when shown to himself. ”

“ During all these years Brockedon's love of art and literature was divided with his love of mechanical and scientific pursuits. As far back as 1819 his taste for mechanics led him to turn attention to the mode of wire-drawing then in use. Brockedon invented a mode of drawing the wire through holes pierced in sapphires, rubies, and other gems. He patented this invention, and visited Paris in connection with it ”

“ Brockedon's portrait is now a conspicuous object in the Uffizi of the Florence Gallery near those of Reynolds and Northcote.
2. Brockedon was meanwhile earning for himself a reputation as an author. In 1824 he made an excursion to the Alps for the purpose of investigating the route of Hannibal, and the idea of publishing 'Illustrations of the Passes' occurred to him. During the summers of 1825, 1826, 1828, and 1829, he was led in the course of his journeys to cross the Alps fifty-eight times, and to pass into and out of Italy by more than forty different routes. ”