Warwick William Wroth

“ When in 1847 John Hearne, the publisher, issued a ‘Supplement’ to Ainslie's ‘Illustrations of the Anglo-French Coinage,’ 1830, Cuff, in conjunction with Edward Hawkins, supervised the printing of the work, and contributed descriptions of coins, chiefly from his own cabinet. Cuff was engaged for more than forty years in coin collecting, and his collection, which consisted chiefly of Saxon and English coins, was a remarkable one, and contained many pieces of great rarity. ”

“ Walpole sneered at the ‘Knight of the Brazen Milk-pot.’ Many of Knight's bronzes had belonged to the Duc de Chaulnes, who died at the beginning of the French revolution. Knight sent an agent as far as Russia to hunt up the bronzes from the Paramythia find, one specimen of which had reached England. His collection of Greek coins was no less remarkable, and was especially rich in the money of Sicily and Magna Græcia, beautiful series which he had the good taste to appreciate (cf. Knight's article on Syracusan coins in the Archæologia, xix. 374 f.) ”

“ Junius was a man of kindly nature and blameless character. A laborious student, he rose at four all the year, worked till one, then engaged in ‘walking or running,’ and again worked from three till eight. A portrait of him, sketched by Vandyck, hangs in the Bodleian Library. An engraving of this by G. Vertue is prefixed to the ‘Etymologicum Anglicanum,’ and there is another, by Burghers, prefixed to C. Rawlinson's ‘Boethius,’ 1698, a work printed from the Gothic and Saxon types left by Junius to the university of Oxford. ”

“ These differences seem to have been adjusted, and Hamilton died quietly at his Piccadilly house at 10.10 a.m. on 6 April 1803. His wife was at his bedside, and Nelson held his hand. He was buried at Milford Haven. In character Hamilton is described (Southey, Life of Nelson) as being a mild and amiable man. From studying antiquities he had learnt (he said) 'the perpetual fluctuation of everything,' and that the present hour was the sweetest in life. 'Do all the good you can upon earth, and take the chance of eternity without dismay.'
Hamilton had no child by his second wife. ”

“ Twenty-three specimens from Knight's own collection were included in the book, and Knight wrote the text, consisting of concise descriptions and a fairly creditable introduction on the history of ancient art. He was one of the contributors to the second volume of the ‘Specimens,’ edited by W. S. Morritt. Unlike the other dilettanti of the time, Knight cared little for ancient marbles, and his collection included only a few specimens. He chiefly appreciated bronzes, coins, and gems. ”

“ The marble weighed nearly two tons, but Clarke improvised a machine by which it was slowly moved over the brow of the hill of Eleusis to the sea in about nine hours. The Princessa, merchantman, freighted with this statue and with Clarke's other Greek marbles, was wrecked near Beachy Head, not far from the home of Mr. Cripps, whose father saved what he could from the wreck. All the marbles were rescued but a manuscript of the 'Arabian Nights,' procured by Clarke at Cairo, was greatly damaged, and several cases of his drawings and plants were broken up and their contents dispersed. ”

“ Elgin accordingly thought it advisable to throw open his collections to public view, and arranged them in his own house in Park Lane, and afterwards at Burlington House, Piccadilly. Upon the supreme merits of the Parthenon sculptures all competent art critics were henceforth agreed. Canova, when he saw them, pronounced them the works of the ablest artists the world has seen.' After some preliminary negotiations, a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1816 to inquire into the desirability of acquiring the Elgin collection for the nation. ”

“ Hamilton was one of the first Englishmen who collected and appreciated Greek vases. He valued them chiefly as good models for modern artists, and is said to have ridiculed antiquarians by training (1780) his monkey to hold a coin-collector's magnifying glass. Hamilton renounced collecting after 1772, but the passion revived, and in 1787 Goethe (Italienische Reise, 27 May 1787) found his private art-vaults at Naples full of busts, torsos, vases, and bronzes. Tischbein once saw Hamilton at Naples in full court dress helping a ragged lazarone to carry a basketful of vases. ”

“ During his leisure hours Croker worked at medal-engraving and tried to improve his knowledge of drawing and modelling. On the expiration of his apprenticeship he visited most of the large towns of Germany in the practice of his profession as jeweller. He afterwards went to Holland, whence he came to England towards the end of 1691. In England he engaged himself to a jeweller, but at last began to work exclusively as a medallist. In 1697 he was appointed an assistant to Captain Harris, the chief engraver of the mint, who practically handed over the execution of his work to Croker. ”

“ Though Akerman's contributions to numismatics are in great part obsolete, he did good work in his day, especially in popularising the study of coins in England; and the Numismatic Society and its journal continue to prosper.
[Proceedings of the Numismatic Society of London for 1874, published in the Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xiv. (new series) , pp. 13–19.] ”

“ His father had a large collection of paintings, and dealt largely in publications on art, while he also was acquainted with many artists and engravers, to whom he gave commissions for illustrating books. From the time when Carpenter gave up his own business till 1845 he seems to have had a good deal of spare time, much of which he spent in studying the prints and drawings of the great masters in the British Museum. ”

“ In his introduction to the ‘Specimens’ Carter states that, ‘having explored at different times various parts of England for the purpose of taking sketches and drawing of the remains of ancient sculpture and painting, his aim is to perpetuate such as he has been so fortunate as to meet with by engraving them.’ While the ‘Specimens’ was in progress, Carter also published ‘Views of Ancient Buildings in England’ (drawn and engraved by himself) , 6 vols. ”

“ OUDART, NICHOLAS (d. 1681) , Latin secretary to Charles II, was born at Mechlin in Brabant. It is conjectured by Wood (Fasti, i. 492) that he was the son or nephew of Nicholas Oudart of Brussels, an official of Mechlin who died in 1608. He was brought to England by Sir Henry Wotton, 'who afterwards trusted him with his domestic affairs' (Wood, loc. cit.) ”

“ He was educated at the Bath grammar school, and instructed in art by his father. In 1772 he gained a Society of Arts premium, and in that year came to London to study at the Royal Academy. In 1776 he visited Rome, and there studied under Mengs, together with Fuseli and Northcote. On returning to England in 1780 he painted for some time, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1781 and 1782. ”

“ He had specially studied Pausanias and Pliny's ‘Historia.’ His short-sightedness always rendered reading difficult for him, though he had ‘a microscopic power of discernment’ for objects such as gems. His writings on ancient gems are original, and evince the experience of the practical collector. In England they have stimulated an interest in glyptography, though they are often marred by defects due to insufficient numismatic and archæological training. King died in London, after a brief illness, of a bronchial cold, on 25 March 1888. ”

“ In 1721 he assumed the surname and arms of Leake, on being adopted as the heir of Admiral Leake, who had married his wife's sister, Christian. Stephen Martin Leake was educated at the school of Michael Maittaire [q. v.] In 1723 he was admitted of the Middle Temple, and sworn a younger brother of the Trinity House. In 1724 he was appointed deputy-lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets, and in this capacity distinguished himself during the rebellion of 1745. In 1725, on the revival of the order of the Bath, he was one of the esquires of the Earl of Sussex, deputy earl-marshal. ”

“ CLARKE, JAMES (1798–1861) , antiquary, of Easton in Suffolk, born in 1798, was a diligent collector of antiquities of various kings, particularly of those found in his own county. He became a member of the British Archæological Association in 1847, and took great interest in its proceedings. He was a frequent exhibitor at its meeting of coins and other antiquities, of which he contributed short notices to the pages of its journal, none, however, of great importance. ”

“ Burges had a strong preference for French gothic, and possessed a very considerable antiquarian Knowledge. The designs made by him for original buildings were characterised, as has been well remarked, 'by force and massiveness of general style and composition, combined with great pictnresqueness of detail.' Although he had not the extensive practice of several architects contemporary with him, his work was always distinguished by its originality, and bore the distinct impress of his own personal thought and taste. ”

“ In 1792 he made a good finish to his labours by an excavation, in conjunction with Prince Marco Antonio Borghese, on the territory of the ancient Gabii (marbles found there by him are now in the Louvre) . The excavations at Hadrian's villa were undertaken by Hamilton with James Byres and Thomas Jenkins. With the last named Hamilton often acted in partnership. Hamilton sold the antiquities which he discovered or bought up, but did not adopt the lax trading principles of the Roman art-dealers of his day. ”

“ KEY, THOMAS HEWITT (1799–1875) , Latin scholar, born in Southwark, London, on 20 March 1799, was the youngest son of Thomas Key, M.D., a London physician, by his second wife, Mary Lux Barry. Charles Aston Key [q. v.] , the surgeon, was his half-brother. The family of Key was an old one, settled for six hundred years at Standon in Staffordshire, and for about two hundred of them at Weston Hall. Thomas was educated for nearly ten years at Buntingford grammar school, Hertfordshire, where, under the Rev. Samuel Dewe, Latin, French, and mathematics were especially well taught. ”

“ He came to England at an early age, and was engaged for several years as a teacher of modern languages in the university of Oxford. He was also French master at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. He was a good mathematician, and is stated (Gent. Mag.) to have spoken fluently 'nearly all the European languages,' and to have been 'well versed in Arabic, Latin, and Greek.' In 1818 he left Oxford with two university friends and visited the towns of northern Italy. ”

“ Between 1823 and 1828 Duke contributed to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ chiefly on Wiltshire antiquities. In his ‘Druidical Temples of the County of Wilts,’ London, 1846, 12mo, he maintained that the early inhabitants of Wiltshire had ‘pourtrayed a vast planetarium or stationary orrery on the face of the Wiltshire downs,’ the earth being represented by Silbury Hill, and the sun and planets, revolving round it, by seven ‘temples,’ four of stone and three of earth, placed at their proper distances. ”