in Guy's Hospital, where he was engaged continuously in the practice of the art which he originated and brought to perfection, though it died with him. He constructed during this period more than a thousand models of anatomical preparations, from dissections made by John Hilton (1804–1878) [q. v.], and of cases of skin disease selected by Thomas Addison [q. v.] Most of these models are preserved in the museum of Guy's Hospital, but many fine specimens of his work are to be seen at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, New York, as well as in the various towns of Alabama, New South Wales, and Russia. Towne was awarded a prize for his work at the first International Exhibition of London in 1851.
Towne was a sculptor as well as a modeller, and executed the marble busts of Sir Astley Cooper and Dr. Addison which now adorn the museum of Guy's Hospital. In 1827 he made an equestrian statue of the Duke of Kent, the queen's father, which was afterwards deposited in the private apartments of Buckingham Palace, and a little later he made a statuette of the great Duke of Wellington, while an excellent bust of Bishop Otter, first principal of King's College, London, came from his hands, and was placed in Chichester Cathedral in 1844. He died on 25 June 1879. Towne married, 20 Sept. 1832, Mary Butterfield, and by her had several children.
Mr. Bryant says of his work: ‘There can be no question that as models, whether anatomical, pathological, or cutaneous, they are not only lifelike representations of what they are intended to show, but that as works of art they are as remarkable as they are perfect. Not only are they accurate copies of different parts of the body, but they are among the very first attempts which have been made in this country to represent the different parts of the human body by wax models, and they are the more remarkable when it is borne in mind they are the outcome of an entirely self-taught genius.’
In 1858 Towne delivered at Guy's Hospital a short course of lectures on the brain and the organs of the senses and of the intellect. These lectures were elaborated into a series of suggestive papers ‘On the Stereoscopic Theory of Vision, with Observations on the Experiments of Professor Wheatstone,’ which commenced in the Guy's Hospital ‘Reports’ for 1862, and ended with one on ‘Binocular Vision’ in the volume for 1870.
[Obituary notice by Mr. Bryant in the Guy's Hospital Reports, 1883, xli. 1; biographical notice in the History of Guy's Hospital, by Wilks and Bettany, 1892; additional particulars kindly given to the writer by Thomas Bryant, esq.]
TOWNELEY or TOWNLEY, CHARLES (1737–1805), collector of classical antiquities, was the eldest son of William Towneley (1714–1741) of Towneley Hall, by his wife Cecilia, daughter of Ralph Standish of Standish, Lancashire, and granddaughter of Henry, sixth duke of Norfolk. He was born on 1 Oct. 1737 at Towneley, the family seat, near Burnley, in the parish of Whalley, Lancashire. He succeeded to the estate on his father's death in 1742, and about this time was sent to the college of Douay, being afterwards under the care of John Turberville Needham [q. v.] About 1758 he took possession of Towneley Hall (see views in Whitaker's Whalley, ii. 186, 187). He planted and improved the estate, and lived for a time the life of the country gentleman of his day.
A visit to Rome and Florence in 1765 led him to study ancient art. He travelled in southern Italy and Sicily, but made Rome his headquarters till 1772. In 1768 he bought from the Dowager Princess Barberini the marble group of the Astragalizontes, and began to form a collection of antiquities. In spite of the competition of the Vatican Museum he rapidly increased his collection, chiefly by entering into an alliance with Gavin Hamilton (1730–1797) [q. v.], and more cautiously with Thomas Jenkins, the banker at Rome. He shared in their risks and successes in making excavations in Italy.
In 1772 he came to live in London, and after a time purchased No. 7 Park Street, Westminster (now, with Queen Square, renamed Queen Anne's Gate). He complained of his noisy neighbours in the Royal Cockpit, but, having purchased the house as a ‘shell,’ he was able to fit it up suitably for the reception of his statues and library. He still occasionally visited Rome, and continued to receive fresh acquisitions for his collection till about 1780, partly from Italy, through his agents Hamilton and Jenkins, and partly by purchases in England from Lyde Brown and others. In addition to marbles, Townley's collection contained terra-cotta reliefs (many of which were procured by Nollekens), bronze utensils, some fine gems, and a series of Roman ‘large brass’ coins purchased for more than 3,000l. Townley, like his friend, Sir William Hamilton, imbibed with eagerness the fanciful theories of P. F. Hugues (‘D'Hancarville’), most of whose ‘Recherches sur l'Origine des Arts de la Grèce’ was written at Townley's Park Street house. Townley himself published nothing beyond a disserta-
