The National Portrait Gallery contains busts of Benjamin West and George Canning, and a medallion of Kirke White, by Chantrey, and a portrait of the sculptor by Thomas Phillips, R.A.
In face Chantrey resembled Shakespeare and had a beautiful mouth. In early life he lost his hair through a fever in Ireland and never recovered it. He possessed great natural intelligence and sagacity. Though not well educated, he had a large store of accurate information, and took great interest in geology and other sciences. He built a foundry to cast his own works in bronze. His manners were somewhat rough and his language strong, but his notions with respect to character and conduct were refined, and he was considerate for the feelings of others. An excellent mimic, of a cordial merry humour, he was a capital companion and host. He gave good dinners, and was devoted to fishing and shooting. A brace of woodcocks which he killed at Holkham with one shot have become historical. He carved them beautifully (1834) and presented the work to Mr. T. W. Coke, afterwards Lord Leicester, of Holkham. The epigrams made on the occasion by Lord Jeffrey, Dean Milman, Marquis Wellesley, and others, have been collected and published in a volume called 'Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks ' (1857). This is Lord Jeffrey's:
Their good and ill from the same source they drew
Here shrined in marble by the hand that slew.
At Lord Egremont's, at Petworth, he was a favoured guest. Here he used to meet Turner, the landscape painter, with whom he was always on pleasant terms. With artists generally he was popular, and was generous and liberal to the younger members of the profession. He was not ashamed of his humble origin, and preserved to the last an affection for Sheffield. He rebuilt the cottage of his mother (who had married again shortly after his father's death), and presented to the Cutlers' Hall casts of his busts of West, Scott, Canning, and Playfair. When his old friend Rhodes fell into distress, he sent him regularly the interest of 1,000l.
[Holland's Memorials of Sir Francis Chantrey; Jones's Recollections of Life, &c., of Sir F. Chantrey; Rhodes's Peak Scenery; Muirhead's Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Thornbury's Life of Turner; Nollekens and his Times; Mrs. Bray's Life of Stothard; Encyclopædia Britannica (1876); Lockhart's Life of Scott; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, National Gallery, and National Portrait Gallery.]
CHAPMAN, EDMUND (fl. 1733), surgeon, a country practitioner, commenced midwifery practice about 1708. In 1733 he was in practice in Drake Street, Red Lion Square, London, and published 'An Essay on the Improvement of Midwifery, chiefly with regard to the Operation, to which are added Fifty Cases, selected from upwards of Twenty-five Years' Practice.' He was one of the earliest systematic writers on this subject in this country, and published as much as he could discover of Hugh Chamberlen's (concealed) methods of delivery with the forceps. A second edition appeared in 1735, entitled 'A Treatise,' &c., with large additions. In 1737 Chapman replied in a pamphlet to some criticisms made by Douglas in his 'Short Account of the State of Midwifery in London and Westminster.' The dates of his birth and death are not known.
[Georgian Era, 1832, ii. 555; Chapman's works cited.]
CHAPMAN, GEORGE (1559?–1634), poet, was born in the neighbourhood of Hitchin about the year 1569. Wood gives 1557 as the date of his birth, but the portrait prefixed to 'The Whole Works of Homer' inscribed 'Georgius Chapmannus Homeri Metaphrastes. Aeta: LVII. MDCXVL' In 'Euthymias llliptus, or the Teares of Peace,' 1609 Chapman alludes to the fact that he had been brought up in the neighbourhood of Hitchin. William Browne, in the second book of 'Britannia's Pastorals,' styles Chapman 'The learned Shepheard of faire Hitching hill.' Passages effectually dispose of Wood s conjecture that the poet belonged to the family of Chapmans of Stone-Castle in Kent. Wood is confident that Chapman was educated at Oxford, but he gives no precise information. It is usually assumed that he spent some time at Oxford and afterwards proceeded to Cambridge. 'In 1574, or thereabouts,' writes Wood, 'he being well grounded in school learning was sent to the university, but whether first to this of Oxon, or that of Cambridge, is to me unknown; sure I am that he spent some time in Oxon, where he was observed to be most excellent in the Latin tongues, but not in logic or philosophy, aud therefore I presume that that was the reason why he took no degree there.' Warton in his 'History of English Poetry,' states (without giving any authority) that Chapman passed two years at Trinity College, Oxford.
In 1594 Chapman published 'Σκὶα [sic] νυκτὸς. The Shadow of Night; Containing Two Poeticall Hvmnes. Deuised by G. C. Gent.,' 4to, with a dedicatory epistle to
