comparatively modern date, remarkable only for the complete absence of beauty, dignity, or practical convenience, and for a total disregard of the many evidences, still extant, of the character and detail of the original building (see F. T. Dollman, The Priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, London, 1881, 4to).
Blomfield excelled in the charitable but unremunerative art of keeping down the cost, and among his triumphs in this direction is the church of St. Barnabas, Oxford, in which, abandoning his usual and favourite 'perpendicular' English Gothic, he adopted an Italian manner, making use of the basilica type of plan and adding a campanile. The church, though erected at a small cost, is singularly effective.
He carried out several works in connection with schools and colleges besides the examples already mentioned, such as the chapels at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and at Malvern College; additions to the library and master's house at Trinity College, Cambridge; the junior school at St. Edmund's, Canterbury; a chapel for a school at Caversham, Reading; school buildings at Shrewsbury; and the 'great school,' museum, and other buildings at Charterhouse, Godalming. Among his London works not already noted were the Royal College of Music; the important church of St. John, Wilton Road; St. Barnabas, Bell Street, Edgware Road; St. Saviour's, a striking brick building in Oxford Street; St. James's Church, West Hampstead; and the rearrangement of the interior of St. Peter's, Eaton Square. Mention may also be made of the churches of Leytonstone, Barking, Ipswich, and Chigwell, the West Sussex Asylum, and various important works for the Prince of Wales at and near Sandringham; in the diocese of Chichester alone, besides restoring or repairing twelve old churches, Blomfield built no less than nine new ones, of which the most important are All Saints and Christ Church at Hastings, St. John at St. Leonards, St. Luke at Brighton, St. Andrew at Worthing, and St. John at Bognor.
Blomfield, who was a rowing man when young, and had occupied the bow seat in his college eight, when head of the river, was fond in middle life of taking recreation in acting, in which his fine voice, expressive clean-shaved face, and real dramatic talent made him unusually successful. In his professional work he was unfailingly industrious and an excellent draughtsman. In spite of the fact that his large practice necessitated the employment of a good staff of assistants and pupils, he drew a large proportion of his working drawings with his own hands, and even wrote the whole of his own correspondence in a handwriting which to the last retained exceptional beauty. He died suddenly on 30 Oct. 1899, and was buried at Broadway, Worcestershire, where he had his country home. There is in the possession of the family an oil portrait by Mr. Charles W. Furse; exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibition in 1890.
He was twice married: first, in 1860, to Caroline, daughter of Charles Case Smith, who died in 1882, and was the mother of the two sons mentioned below; and secondly to Sara Louisa, daughter of Matthew Ryan, who survives.
Blomfield worked for many years at an office in Henrietta Street, at the corner of Cavendish Square, but latterly his residence and office were at 28 Montagu Square and 6 Montagu Place. In 1890 he took into partnership his two sons, Charles J. Blomfield and Arthur C. Blomfield, who were associated with him in the design of the Magdalen College choir schools and other buildings. They continued several of their father's works after his death, including the development of the Church House scheme and the additions to the parish church at Leamington, and succeeded him in his appointments at the Bank of England, St. Cross Hospital, Winchester, and St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.
[Builders' Journal, 1899, p. 207; Architect, 1899, p. 276, with good photographic portrait; Times, 1 Nov. 1899; R.I.B.A. Journal, 1899, vol. vii. No. 2, p. 36; Chichester Diocesan Gazette, December 1899, No. 72; information from Mr. Arthur Conran Blomfield; personal knowledge.]
BLOXAM, JOHN ROUSE (1807–1891), historian of Magdalen College, Oxford, born at Rugby on 25 April 1807, was the sixth son of Richard Rouse Bloxam, D.D. (d. 28 March 1840), under-master of Rugby school for thirty-eight years, and rector of Brinklow and vicar of Bulkington, both in Warwickshire, who married Ann, sister of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. All the six sons were foundationers at Rugby school, and all attended, as chief mourners, the funeral of Lawrence in St. Paul's Cathedral (D. E. Williams, Sir T. Lawrence, ii. 524-568).
Bloxam was sent in 1814 to Rugby school, where he was a school-fellow of Roundell Palmer, lord Selborne (Selborne, Memorials, 1. i. 74-5,311-15), and obtained an exhibition for the university in 1826. He matriculated from Worcester College, Oxford, on 20 May 1826, and was bible clerk there from that year
