he left to his widow; he was interred in the Marylebone burial ground. By the consequence of his various battles, stated the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' aided by great irregularity of living, he had reduced himself to a most pitiable situation for the last eighteen months, and at last fell a martyr to his indiscretions. Portraits are given in 'Pugilistica' and 'Boxiana,' in which Egan remarks upon his likeness to Napoleon. A link between the silver and golden ages of the prize-ring, Belcher was 'as well known to his own generation as Pitt or Wellington.' Like the latter he is commemorated by an article of attire, a 'belcher' or blue and white spotted neckerchief, though the term is applied loosely to any particoloured handkerchief tied round the neck. His character and appearance are highly eulogised in Dr. Conan Doyle's novel, 'Rodney Stone' (chaps. X. and XV.) In 1805 a very brief but blood-thirsty 'Treatice (sic) on Boxing by Mr. J. Belcher' was appended to Barrington's 'New London Spy' for that year.
A younger brother, Tom Belcher (1783–1854), was scarcely inferior as a pugilist to Jim. He won battles in succession with Dogherty, Firby, and some fighters of less repute, but he was badly defeated by Dutch Sam (Samuel Elias, 1776–1816). He was an accomplished boxer and sparrer, and at the Tennis Court, during Cribb's proprietorship, he defeated with the gloves such experts as Shaw the lifeguardsman, John Gully [q. v.], and the coloured bruiser, Molineux. Tom Belcher, who is described as 'gentlemanly and inoffensive,' died at Bristol on 9 Dec. 1854, aged 71, universally respected, having earned a competence as tavern-keeper at the Castle, Holborn, subsequently kept by Tom Spring [see Winter, Thomas],
[Miles's Pugilistica, vol. i. (portrait); Egan's Boxiana, i. 120, 334; Fistiana, p. 7; Gent. Mag, 1811, ii. 194; Sporting Review, 1884; Badminton Library, 'Boxing,' p. 1.35; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 45; Blackwood's Mag. xii. 462; European Mag. lx. 157.]
BELL, JOHN (1811–1895), sculptor, was born at Hopton, Suffolk, in 1811, and was educated at Catfield rectory, Norfolk. He studied sculpture in the Royal Academy schools, and exhibited his first work at the Royal Academy, a religious group, in 1832. In 1833 he exhibited 'A Girl at a Brook' and 'John the Baptist' at the Academy, and two statuettes at the Suffolk Street Gallery, followed by 'Ariel' in 1834. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 'Psyche feeding a Swan' and 'Youth, Spring, and Infancy;' in 1837 'Psyche and the Dove,' and a model of 'The Eagle-Shooter,' the first version of one of his best statues. In 1837, the year in which Bell established his reputation, he also exhibited two busts, 'Amoret' and 'Psyche,' at the British Institution, Later works were 'Amoret Captive' (1838), 'The Babes in the Wood,' and 'Dorothea' (1839), a subject from Cervantes, which was repeated in marble in 1841 for Lord Lansdowne. Bell repeated 'The Eagle-Shooter' in 1841, and exhibited it with a 'David' in Suffolk Street, A 'Madonna and Child' (Royal Academy, 1840) was his first attempt at devotional sculpture. In 1841 he exhibited 'The Wounded Clorinda,' and in 1842 he repeated 'The Babes in the Wood,' which had become very popular, in marble. The latter work is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1844 Bell contributed his 'Eagle-Slayer' and 'Jane Shore' to the second exhibition at Westminster Hall of cartoons and other works designed for the decoration of the new houses of parliament. He afterwards obtained commissions for statues of Lord Falkland and Sir Robert Walpole (1854) for St, Stephen's Hall, Westminster, Among his other public works in London are a statue of Lord Clarendon at the Foreign Office, the Wellington monument in marble, with statues of Peace and War (1855–6), at the Guildhall, the Guards' Memorial in bronze (1858–60) in Waterloo Place, and the marble group of 'The United States directing the Progress of America,' part of the Albert Memorial, Hyde Park, a model for which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869. A large copy of this work in terra cotta is at Washington. Two of Bell's chief works are at Woolwich, a marble statue of 'Armed Science' (1855), in the royal artillery mess-room, and the Crimean artillery memorial (1860) on the parade. A bust of Sir Robert Walpole (1858) is at Eton, and there is a large monument to James Montgomery in Sheffield cemetery. Many of Bell's best works are in private collections; for instance, 'Lalage' (1856) in Lord Fitzwilliam's collection at Wentworth Woodhouse; the bronze version of 'The Eagle-Slayer' at the same place; 'Andromeda' belongs to King Edward VII, 'Imogen' to Lord Coleridge, 'Eve' to Lord Truro.
Bell's earlier work had shown vigour and imagination, and a departure from the frigid classicism which had prevailed in English sculpture before his time; but his later works at the Royal Academy, such as 'The Cross of Prayer' (1864), 'A Cherub' (1865), 'The Foot of the Cross' (1860), 'Mother and
