land Court, Bristol, and the exchanges of Bristol (1740–3) and Liverpool (1748–55), the latter in conjunction with his son. He died on 23 May 1754, and was buried at Swainswick.
Wood's writings consist of: 1. ‘The Origin of Building, or the Plagiarisms of the Heathens detected,’ fol., Bath, 1741: a whimsical attempt to identify the origin of the orders with the architecture divinely revealed to the Jews. 2. ‘Description of the Exchange at Bristol,’ Bath, 1745, 8vo. 3. ‘Choir Gaure, vulgarly called Stonehenge; described, restored, and explained,’ 1747, 8vo. 4. ‘Essay towards a Description of Bath,’ London, 1742, 2 vols. 8vo; 1749, 1765. This work contains much information as to Wood's buildings, and several illustrations of them. 5. ‘Dissertation upon the Orders of Columns and their Appendages,’ Bath, 1750, 8vo. He also left in manuscript descriptions of Stanton Drew and of Stonehenge, 1740 (Harl. MSS. 7354, 7355).
His son, John Wood (d. 1782), was associated with many of his father's works, and the streets laid out in Bath by the younger Wood were largely schemed by the elder. He brought to completion in 1764 the Circus which his father had designed, and in 1767–9 built the Royal Crescent, an ellipse containing thirty houses of the Ionic order. The upper or new assembly rooms were begun by him in 1769 (completed in 1771 at a cost of 20,000l.), and in 1776 he built the Hot Bath and the Royal Private Baths in Hot Bath Street. He was also engaged upon York Buildings, of which the York House Hotel is the chief part (1753), Brock Street (1765), St. Margaret's Chapel (1773, since a skating rink), Edgar Buildings (1762), Princes Buildings (1766), Alfred Street (1768), Russell Street (1775), Belmont (1770), and Kelston Park (1764), sometimes attributed to the elder Wood. Outside Bath he executed Buckland, Berkshire, for Sir R. Throckmorton; and Standlynch for James Dawkins (Woolfe and Gandon, Vitr. Britannicus, 1767, i. pl. 93–7, ib. 1771, ii. pl. 81–4). The church of Langridge, near Bath, is erroneously associated with his name in the ‘Architectural Publication Society's Dictionary.’ He appears to have designed the church of Woolley and that of Hardenhuish, near Chippenham (consecrated 1779). He died on 18 June 1782, and was buried near his father in the chancel of Swainswick church.
[Peach's Bath Old and New, 1888; notes and information from Mr. R. E. M. Peach and the Rev. C. W. Shickle; Arch. Publ. Society's Dict.; Builder, 1856 xiv. 386, 1858 xvi. 550; Britten's Bath and Bristol, 1829, pp. 13, 38; Building News, 1858, iv. 773.]
WOOD, JOHN (1801–1870), painter, son of a drawing-master, was born in London on 29 June 1801. He studied in Sass's school and at the Royal Academy, where in 1825 he gained the gold medal for painting. In the two previous years he had exhibited ‘Adam and Eve lamenting over the Body of Abel,’ and ‘Michael contending with Satan,’ and in 1826 he sent ‘Psyche wafted by the Zephyrs.’ These and other works displayed unusual powers of invention and design, and gained for him a great temporary reputation. In 1834 he competed successfully for the commission for the altar-piece of St. James's, Bermondsey, and in 1836 gained a prize at Manchester for his ‘Elizabeth in the Tower.’ During the latter part of his career he painted chiefly scripture subjects and portraits, which he exhibited largely at the Royal Academy and British Institution down to 1862. His portraits of Sir Robert Peel, Earl Grey, John Britton (in the National Portrait Gallery), and others have been engraved, as well as several of his fancy subjects. Wood died on 19 April 1870.
[Art Journal, 1870; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
WOOD, JOHN (1811–1871), geographer, born in 1811, entered the East India Company's naval service in 1826 and rose to the rank of lieutenant. At the close of 1835, through the exertions of government, the Indus was opened for commerce. The first to take advantage of this concession was Aga Mohammed Rahim, a Persian merchant of Bombay, who purchased a steamer for the navigation of the river. At his request, and with the permission of government, Wood took command of the vessel, named the Indus, which started on 31 Oct. 1835, and returned to Bombay in February 1836, leaving him on the banks of the river to ascertain the area of the annual inundation and the rise and fall of the tide. On the conclusion of these observations he returned to Bombay, and on 9 Nov. was appointed an assistant to the commercial mission to Afghanistan under the command of (Sir) Alexander Burnes [q. v.] Wood drew up a report of the geography of the Kábul Valley and discovered the source of the Oxus. In October 1838 Burnes mentioned Wood's services to the government with the highest praise. His industry was cut short by the differences which arose between Burnes and the governor-general, George Eden, earl of Auckland [q. v.], and Wood accompanied his chief into retirement.
