Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/121

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Locker-Lampson
107
Lockhart

whom, Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson, is an attaché in the foreign office.

'London Lyrics,' Locker's solitary volume of original verse, has appeared in many forms since its first issue in 1857. A second edition followed in 1862, and in 1865 Messrs. Moxon included a selection from its pages in their 'Miniature Poets.' This was illustrated by Richard Doyle [q. v.] A second impression followed in 1868, and the Doyle illustrations were subsequently employed in an issue of 1874 prepared for presentation to the members of the Cosmopolitan Club. In 1868 an edition of 'London Lyrics' was privately printed for John Wilson of Great Russell Street, with a frontispiece by George Cruikshank, illustrating the poem called 'My Mistress's Boots.' To this succeeded editions in 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878, 1885 ('Elzevir Series'), 1891 and 1893. Besides these Locker prepared a privately printed selection in 1881, entitled 'London Lyrics,' and in 1882 a supplemental volume, also privately printed, entitled 'London Rhymes.' Of the former of these volumes a few large-paper copies were struck off, which contained a frontispiece ('Bramble-Rise') by Randolph Caldecott (sometimes found in two 'states'), and a tail-piece ('Little Dinky') by Kate Greenaway. In America 'London Lyrics' was printed in 1883 for the Book Fellows' Club of New York, with inter alia some fresh illustrations by Caldecott; and in 1895 the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Ohio, a body which had borrowed its name, by permission, from Mr. Locker's Sussex home, put forth a rare little volume of his verse, chosen by himself shortly before his death, and entitled 'Rowfant Rhymes.' It includes a preface by the present writer and a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. Most of these books contain the author's portrait, either from an etching by Sir John Millais, which first saw the light in the Moxon selection of 1865, or a pen-and-ink full-length by George Du Maurier. There are other American editions, some of which are pirated.

'Lyra Elegantiarum,' as above stated, appeared in 1867. The first issue was almost immediately suppressed because it included certain poems by Landor which were found to be copyright, and a revised impression, which did not contain these pieces, speedily took its place. An American edition followed in 1884, and in 1891 an enlarged edition was added to Ward, Lock, & Co.'s 'Minerva Library.' In preparing this last, of which there was a large-paper issue, Locker had the assistance of Mr. Coulson Kernahan. 'Patchwork' was first printed privately in quarto for the Philpbiblon Society, and afterwards published in octavo in 1879. No later edition has been published. In 1886 Locker compiled the catalogue of his books known to collectors as the 'Rowfant Library.' It comprises, besides its record of rare Elizabethan and other volumes, many interesting memoranda, personal and bibliographical. Since Locker's death an appendix to the 'Rowfant Library' has been issued, under the title of 'A Catalogue of the Printed Books &c. collected since the printing of the first Catalogue in 1886 by the late Frederick Locker-Lampson,' 1900. It is inscribed to the members of the Rowfant Club, has a preface by Mr. Birrell, and memorial verses by various hands.

Locker's autobiographical reminiscences were published posthumously in 1896 under the title of 'My Confidences;' the volume was edited by Mr. Birrell.

[Century Mag. 1883 (by Brander Matthews); Miles's Poets and Poetry of the Century; Slater's Early Editions, 1894; Eowfant Ehymes, 1895; Nineteenth Century, October 1895 (by Coulson Kernahan); Scribner's Mag. January 1896 (by Augustine Birrell); My Confidences, 1896.]

A. D.

LOCKHART, WILLIAM EWART (1846–1900), subject and portrait painter, was born on 18 Feb. 1846 at Eglesfield, Annan, Dumfriesshire. His father, a small farmer, managed to send him, at the age of fifteen, to study art in Edinburgh, where he worked with Mr. J. B. Macdonald, R.S.A., and for a short time in the life school; but in 1863 his health gave way, and he was sent to Australia. Returning greatly benefited by the voyage, he settled in Edinburgh, and, in 1867, paid the first of several visits to Spain, where he found material for some of his finest works. In 1871 he was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1878 became academician, while he was also an associate (1878) of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-colours, and for some years a member of the Royal Scottish Water-colour Society. He had occupied a prominent position as a painter of subject pictures and portraits in Scotland for many years; but when in 1887 he was commissioned by the queen to paint 'The Jubilee Celebration in Westminster' he went to London, where he afterwards devoted himself principally to portraiture.

His pictures in both oil and water-colour are marked by considerable bravura of execution and much brilliance of colour, but are rather wanting in refinement and subtlety. They are always effective and telling, how-