of his drawings in the former district are dated 1803, 1820, and 1831, and he was at work in Cumberland in 1805; and Sir John St. Aubyn, M.P., has some interesting examples of Cristall's drawings of Cornish cliff-scenery. Queen Victoria occasionally named the subject to be delineated by the Sketching Society, of which Cristall was also a founder and a prominent member; and she selected his ‘Daughters of Mineus’ as a specimen of the artist's powers. Writing to Joseph Severn in 1829, T. Uwins, R.A. (Memoirs of Thomas Uwins, 1858), observes: ‘Our old friend Cristall used to say, “the art was not so difficult as it was difficult to get at the art! the thousand annoyances and embarrassments that surrounded him perpetually, and kept him from sitting down fairly to his easel, sometimes overwhelmed him quite.”’ He was nevertheless an indefatigable worker, and was especially laborious in his delineations of nature with the black-lead pencil. He also painted some of the figures for Barrett and Robson in their landscapes.
In 1812 he married an accomplished French widow (a Mrs. Cousins), a lady of some fortune. He continued to devote most of his time to painting, and latterly, after 1821, was almost always sketching out of doors in his old districts as well as in the beautiful scenery of the Wye. He lived while in London in Kentish Town, Thavies Inn, Chelsea, Lambeth, Paddington, and Hampstead Road, and for seventeen years at Grantham Court, Goodrich, Herefordshire, returning to London after his wife's death. He died without issue at Douro Cottages, near Circus Road, St. John's Wood, London, on 18 Oct. 1847, and was buried by the side of his wife at Goodrich, where there is a monument to his memory. The whole of his works remaining unsold at his death were dispersed at a three days' sale at Christie & Manson's, commencing on 11 April 1848. Specimens of his art may be seen at the South Kensington Museum; but perhaps his finest work was the wreck scene, exhibited at the Exhibition of Old Masters in Burlington House a few years ago. They fully establish Cristall's claim to be regarded as one of the founders of the English school of water colours. Many of his pictures have been engraved, including a few of his classical compositions for the use of his pupils. Some of the latter he published at 2 Lisson Street, New (now Marylebone) Road, in 1816.
[Recollections of F. O. Finch; Literary Journal, 1818; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 97, sup. 1142; Memoirs of Thos. Uwins, R.A.; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School; Letters from the President and Secretary of the Royal Water-colour Society; family correspondence and papers.]
CRITCHETT, GEORGE (1817–1882), ophthalmic surgeon, was born at Highgate in 1817, studied at the London Hospital, and became M.R.C.S. in 1839 and F.R.C.S. (by examination) in 1844. He was successively demonstrator of anatomy, assistant-surgeon (1846), and surgeon (1861 to 1863) to the London Hospital. He was a skilful surgeon and operator, introducing some valuable modes of treatment of ulcers, and showing boldness and capacity in large operations. From 1846 he was attached to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, and became one of the best operators on the eye. Numerous important operations were much improved by him. He was elected a member of the council of the College of Surgeons in 1870, was president of the Hunterian Society for two years, and of the International Congress of Ophthalmology held in London in 1872. In 1876 he was appointed ophthalmic surgeon and lecturer at the Middlesex Hospital. He died on 1 Nov. 1882.
Critchett published a valuable course of lectures on ‘Diseases of the Eye’ in the ‘Lancet’ in 1854. He was extremely kind, courteous, and generous, had a refined artistic taste, and great love for athletic sports.
[Lancet, British Medical Journal, Medical Times, 11 Nov. 1882.]
CROCKER, CHARLES (1797–1861), poet, was born at Chichester of poor parents 22 June 1797. In his twelfth year he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and he worked at this trade for twenty years, meantime composing verses which he wrote down at intervals of leisure. Some lines which he sent to the ‘Brighton Herald’ having attracted considerable attention, a list of subscribers was obtained for the publication of a volume of his poems, from which a large profit was obtained. Among his warmest friends was Robert Southey, who asserted that the sonnet ‘To the British Oak’ was one of the finest, if not the finest, in the English language. In 1839 he obtained employment from Mr. Hayley Mason, the publisher of his works, in the bookselling department of the business, but in 1845 he resigned this situation for that of sexton in Chichester Cathedral, to which was soon afterwards added that of bishop's verger. He thoroughly mastered all the architectural details of the building, and his descriptive account of it to visitors was generally followed with more than usual interest. He also published a small handbook on the building entitled ‘A
