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manner; and in November, 1820, they appeared under the title of "Letters written during a Tour through Normandy, Brittany, and other Parts of France in 1818."

In 1819, Mr. C. Stothard laid before the Society of Antiquaries the complete series of his drawings from the Tapestry, and a paper highly honourable to his discrimination, in which he proved, from internal evidence, that the Tapestry was coeval with the period immediately succeeding the Conquest, to which tradition had assigned it; satisfactorily refuting the assertions of the Abbe de la Rue. This little treatise was printed in vol. XIX. of the Archæologia. On the 2nd of July Mr. Stothard was unanimously elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In the autumn of the same year, he made a series of exquisitely-finished drawings for the Society, from the paintings then lately discovered on the walls of the Painted Chamber.* Fearlessly ardent in his pursuit, he took his stand on the highest and most dangerous parts of the scaffold, erected for the repairs; and, on one occasion there, narrowly escaped the sad fate which afterwards befel him. He was preparing, just before his death, the materials for a paper addressed to the Society of Antiquaries, concerning the age of these curious decorations.

In September, 1820, he made a tour to the Netherlands, for the benefit of Mrs. C. Stothard's health, and illustrated her yet unpublished account of that journey, with some of the finest drawings of local scenery and architecture that his pencil had produced.

About two months since, he published No. 9 of his Monumental Effigies, with splendid vignette illustrations, heraldic and architectural. He prepared No. 10 for publication, and finished a large plate of the Royal Effigies at Fontevraud, coloured after the original monuments; and another, of Geoffrey Plantagenet, coloured as a fac-simile of the enamelled tablet

* In these drawings he exhibited his ingenious recovery of the long-lost art of raising gold, as embossed, on the surface of the material; a mode which contributes so much to the rich splendour of the old illuminated MSS.

before mentioned: these, from the great expense incurred in the colouring, were to be published for collectors, separately from his work. Indefatigable in the pursuit of our national antiquities, Mr. Stothard had begun a work on Seals, and has left behind him many unpublished drawings of the scarcest of our Regal and Baronial Seals: among the former may be mentioned an impression of the Conqueror's, which he laboriously restored by the junction of the broken fragments, preserved with William's charter to the city of London, in the Town-Clerk's Office, Guildhall.

A short time previously to his death he commenced the collection of materials for a work to illustrate the age of Elizabeth, which the pens of able contemporaries had rendered a popular subject. The compilation of the letter-press for this work, from the MSS. authorities in our public libraries, he resigned to his wife and brother-in-law. The drawing he made of the Effigy of Elizabeth, in Westminster Abbey, has been ranked among the finest productions of his pencil: it may at the same time be observed, that he considered the figure itself as an excellent and characteristic portrait of that monarch.

Having been solicited, by the Rev. D. Lysons, to make some drawings for the Account of Devonshire, collected for the Magna Britannia, on the 16th of May last, he quitted his affectionate wife, at her father's house, where they resided, never to meet her more on this side that "bourn whence no traveller returns." He traversed a considerable part of Devonshire on foot, exploring the churches in his way, and making sketches of the country, according to his practice, as he proceeded. He arrived at Bere Ferrers, and on Sunday, the 27th of May, after attending Divine Service, addressed the Vicar of that place, the Rev. Henry Hobart, for permission to draw the stained glass in the east window of the church for Mr. Lysons. Prepossessed, as Mr. Hobart says he was, in favour of Mr. Stothard, by his manner, he received him with marked attention, and insisted that, during his stay at Bere, he should partake of the hospitalities of his house and table. the following Monday, the 28th of May, Mr. Stothard began,

On

by means of a ladder, to make tracings from the fragments of stained glass remaining in the window: among these was a portrait of the founder of the church. Elevated on the north side of the altar, just above the tables containing the Creed and the Decalogue, the step of the ladder (dreadful to relate!) gave way! He fell, and in the effort to save himself, probably turned round: his head, as is conjectured, came in contact with the monument of a knight in the chancel, and he was, in all probability, killed on the spot, by a concussion of the brain. The time of his fall is not precisely known, as he was alone in the church; but, from the state of the drawing on which he was engaged, it is imagined to have occurred between 3 and 4 o'clock. It is not true, as reported, that his watch stopped at the moment from the shock. Singular to observe, he received his death-blow from one of those very effigies that had so long been the subject of his pursuit; and the fall which terminated the career of the artist, literally snapped the pencil in twain which he held in his hand. The most humane and respectful attention was paid to his remains by the worthy Mr. Hobart. His venerable father, (who had lost, many years before, his eldest son by an accident equally terrible and sudden*,) repaired to the spot, accompanied by a friend, and on the 4th of June, followed, for the second time, the pride of his heart and of his hopes, to a premature grave.

* He was accidentally shot by a school-fellow.

A. J. K.

487

No. XVI.

JOHN BONNYCASTLE, Esq.,

PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, AT THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY, WOOLWICH.

JOHN BONNYCASTLE was born at Witchurch, in the county of Buckingham: his parents, although not in affluent circumstances, contrived to bestow upon their son a respectable education. At an early age the favorable opinion which his friends entertained of his acquirements, induced him to seek his fortune in London. In this great metropolis his growing taste for mathematics became strongly fixed, from an association with friends of congenial habits and pursuits. Many of these friends have since attained considerable eminence in various departments of literature.

At the early age of eighteen years, Mr. Bonnycastle married a young lady of the name of Roll, whose liberal and cultivated mind gave fair promise of many domestic hours. The hopes he cherished were, however, speedily blighted by her untimely death.

Soon after this event, the Earl of Pomfret engaged him as a private tutor to his sons (the present Earl, and the Hon. General Fermor). That he was perfectly qualified for the task, every one who had the pleasure of his acquaintance will readily admit, when they recall to their memory the almost universal knowledge which he possessed, although he was nearly selftaught, not having in his early youth received the advantages of a classical education. And yet from our intimacy with him, we can assure our readers that no one, even amongst those who had received an University education, could be better acquainted with Homer, Virgil, Horace, the Grecian tragedians,

and the Classics in general, than the worthy subject of this memoir. With the French, Italian, and German literature he was intimately acquainted. It is true, he could not speak those languages, but he read and knew the best of their authors. In a knowledge of the English language, no one could surpass him in appreciating the merits of our best authors in every class of composition. Like his friend Fuseli, he was a great admirer of Shakspeare, and so strongly was his immortal lines fixed upon his memory, that, on the mention of a single word in the works of that incomparable poet, he would finish the sentence and give the proper emphasis.

Mr. Bonnycastle remained about two years at Easton, in the county of Northampton; the situation he then filled, he left in consequence of being appointed one of the Mathematical Masters at Woolwich, where, for more than forty years, he devoted a considerable portion of his time daily in discharging the duties of his profession; the remainder was employed in writing elementary works ou the most useful branches of the Mathematics. How competent he was, has been demonstrated by the numerous editions which have been printed of those volumes. His first work was, "The Scholar's Guide to Arithmetic," the thirteenth edition of which is now selling. Those upon Algebra and Mensuration have long ranked as standard school-books. His "Treatise upon Astronomy" is the most popular of all works upon that sublime science; chiefly arising from the perspicuous manner in which the subject is treated, and its lucid style of composition; it has become a general library book, and will long remain as a testimony of the religious sentiments, benevolence, and great attainments of its author. Yet this very book was written by Mr. Bonnycastle, at Bath, under circumstances of peculiar depression, arising from a nervous complaint, to which he was very subject, in the early part of his life.

So far we have considered Mr. Bonnycastle as a man possessing talents of a varied, universal description, and as an author of elementary works in various branches of Mathematics; but it now remains to add a few words respecting his private character, from an intimate acquaintance with him for

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