to lend themselves more readily to the sculptor than to the portrait painter. A bust, by Mr. Hope Pinker, at Wellington represents him better than the paintings. But the best likeness of him is the effigy upon his monument at Canterbury, by Mr. Brock, executed partly from a mask taken from the archbishop's face after death.
His chief works, not reckoning separate sermons or articles, are:
- 'Boy-Life' (sermons at Wellington College), 1874; 2nd edit. 1883.
- 'Singleheart' (sermons at Lincoln), 1877.
- 'The Cathedral: its Necessary Place in the Life of the Church,' 1878.
- 'The Seven Gifts' (addresses at his primary visitation of Canterbury diocese), 1885.
- 'Christ and His Times' (at second visitation), 1889.
- 'Fishers of Men' (at third visitation), 1893.
- 'Living Theology (and other Sermons),' 1891.
Posthumously published were:
- 'Cyprian: his Life, his Times, his Work,' 1897.
- 'Prayers, Public and Private,' 1899.
- 'The Apocalypse,' 1900.
[Life of E. W. Benson, by his eldest son, Mr. A. C. Benson; articles in the Times for 21 and 26 Dec. 1882, 29 and 30 March 1883, 12 and 17 Oct. 1896; Quarterly Review, October 1897; 'Archbishop Benson in Ireland,' by Professor J. H. Bernard.]
BENT, JAMES THEODORE (1852–1897), explorer and archaeologist, born at Baildon on 30 March 1852, was the only child of James Bent of Baildon, near Leeds, by Margaret Eleanor, eldest daughter and co-heiress of James Lambert of Baildon. He was educated first at Malvern Wells, then at Repton school. He matriculated, 8 June 1871, from Wadham College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1875. On leaving Oxford he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn (14 Nov. 1874), but was not called to the bar.
On 2 Aug. 1877 he married Mabel, daughter of Robert Westley Hall-Dare of Theydon Bois, Essex. Bent possessed considerable linguistic abilities, and having a taste for travelling, in common with his wife, spent a portion of each successive year in exploring little-known localities. He visited San Marino in 1877 and 1878, and wrote a small book on the republic, which he published in 1879. A considerable portion of 1879 and 1880 he spent in Italy, and during this period composed a 'Life of Garibaldi,' which appeared in 1881; but his volume on 'The Cyclades, or Life among the Insular Greeks,' published in 1885 after two winters spent among the islands, was his first work of note. A great portion of the years 1885, 1886, and 1887 was passed mainly in Karpathos, Samoa, and Thasos, where Bent noted local traditions and customs, copied inscriptions, and excavated in search of ancient remains. His observations provided him with ample material for numerous articles in reviews and magazines, and contributions to the 'Archæological Journal,' the 'Journal of Hellenic Studies,' and the ' Journal of the Anthropological Institute.' Owing to the action of the Turkish authorities he was prevented from conveying to England marbles and monuments which he had purchased and discovered in Thasos, but the inscriptions from his impressions were published in 1887. The winter of 1888-9 he spent in archæological research on the coast of Asia Minor; he determined the position of the city of Lydæ in Caria, and probably also that of Cæsarea. The numerous inscriptions which he collected from the sites of these cities and from those of Patara and Myrawere published in vol. X. of the 'Journal of Hellenic Studies,' and were reprinted in 1889.
In 1889 Bent visited the Bahrein Islands in the Persian Gulf, where his observations and excavations led him to maintain the belief that here was the primitive site of the Phoenician race; the following year he travelled in Cilicia Tracheia. In 1891 he undertook an expedition in Mashonaland for the purpose of investigating the ancient remains which were known to exist, but of which no exact accounts had been published, though a description of the Zimbabwe ruins had been given on 24 Nov. 1890, at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, by G. Philips. The more important ruins, especially those of Zimbabwe, were now for the first time carefully examined and measured, and excavations were made. Bent came to the conclusion that the authors of the ruins were a northern race coming from Arabia, and closely akin to the Phoenicians, with strong commercial tendencies. He returned to England in 1892, and published his work, 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland,' in November of that year; the book was favourably received, and a third edition appeared in 1895. A four months' journey in Abyssinia in the spring of 1893 enabled him to pursue his investigation with regard to a primitive Arab race, and afforded material for a work entitled 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians,' published in 1893. Bent's valuable impressions of inscriptions, which are dealt with by Professor H. D. Müller in a special chapter of this volume, have added materially to the discoveries of archaeologists who had previously studied Abyssinian antiquities.
Seven journeys in all were undertaken by
