for his biography. His family was one of respectability in the county, of which his father was a justice of the peace, and his mother was sister or daughter of the Lord Chief-justice Popham. He must have had a liberal education, but probably did not graduate in any of the universities, as he entered his name as a student in the Middle Temple, 16th November, 1602. It may be doubted whether the severer studies of the law occupied him much, for we find him publishing in 1606 his poetical composition, "Fame's Memoriale," an elegiac poem on the death of the earl of Devonshire. While the criticism of Coleridge on this youthful composition, who calls it "stuff," is somewhat too severe, it must be confessed that it gave little promise of that future excellence to which the dramatist attained. An able writer in the Quarterly, on the other hand, speaks of it in terms of undeserved eulogy, as exhibiting "a freedom of thought and command of language of which we have few contemporaneous examples." At this time he was, or feigned to be, the victim of a hopeless passion, and celebrates the cruel beauty under the name of "Lycia the Cruell." From this time the history of Ford is involved in obscurity for more than twenty years, and we can only conjecture that he was occupied in writing for the stage with Decker and others. His next appearance as an author is in 1629, when he published his tragic comedy of "The Lover's Melancholy," a performance which, though possessing many poetic excellencies, is defective both in conception and execution. In 1633 appeared "'Tis pity She's a Whore," written confessedly previous to the former, a tragedy powerful but repelling, in which the awful assemblage of terrific incidents that form the plot are clothed in the finest language of poetry. Even in the age in which it was produced, the charm of its composition could not keep it long upon the stage. Its reproduction in our own day would happily be impossible. Next quickly followed "The Broken Heart," a drama of extraordinary merit, and justly pronounced "a noble effort of genius." In the same year appeared "Love's Sacrifice," which though well received, is in every sense inferior to its predecessor. In 1634 he published "Perkin Warbec," a historical drama not worthy of the pen of its author. The two next years produced successively "Fancies Chaste and Noble"—a light drama with much sprightliness and felicity in delineation of character—and "The Sun's Darling," in the composition of which Decker appears to have had a large share. In 1639 he published "The Lady's Trial." He also wrote "The Witch of Edmonton," with the aid of Rowley and Decker. From this period nothing is known of Ford, nor has even the date of his death or the place of his residence been discovered. "Some suppose," says Hartley Coleridge, "that our author died shortly after the appearance of 'The Lady's Trial,' but inquiries, too late to arrive at certainty, have scented a faint tradition that he withdrew to his native place, married, became a father, lived respected, and died at a good old age." Ford's power lay in tragedy: his plots have generally the fault of being too terrible, and often revolting in their incidents; but his pathos is deep and moving, and though he is often pedantic and obscure in expression, his melody is charming. We close this notice with an admirable criticism by a writer in the sixth volume of the Quarterly Review—"He wrote laboriously, not luckily; always elegant, often elevated, never sublime; he accomplished by careful and patient industry what Shakspeare and Fletcher produced by the spontaneous exuberance of native genius. He seems to have acquired early in life, and to have retained to the last, a softness of versification peculiar to himself. Without the majestic march of verse that distinguishes the poetry of Massinger, and with none of that playful gaiety which characterizes the dialogue of Fletcher, he is still easy and harmonious. His dialogue is declamatory and formal, and wants that quick chase of replication and rejoinder so necessary to effect in representation."—J. F. W.
FORD, Sir John, was born at Up-park, in the parish of Harting, Sussex, in 1605. He was educated at Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree. He held the office of high-sheriff in his native county, and on the breaking out of the civil war, was knighted for his loyalty, at Oxford, in 1643. Having been indicted as accessory to the king's escape from Hampton Court, he was imprisoned, but was soon released, through the influence, it is supposed, of Ireton, whose sister he had married. Ford is remarkable as the originator of some important sanitary improvements in London. By a mechanical contrivance he raised the water of the Thames to the height of about one hundred feet, and thus brought it into the higher streets of the city. He also invented a process of coining copper money which could not possibly be counterfeited. For this invention he failed to obtain a patent in England; but he was successful in his application to the authorities in Ireland, where, after some residence, he died in 1670.—J. B. J.
FORD, Richard, chiefly noted as the author of a unique handbook of Spain, was born in London in 1789; his father, Sir Richard, descended from an ancient Sussex family, had been M.P. for East Grinstead, and was afterwards for many years a metropolitan police magistrate. The author of the Handbook of Spain was Sir Richard's eldest son, and he seems throughout life to have been placed in circumstances which allowed him to devote himself unshackled to travel, study, and society. Educated at Winchester, he graduated at Trinity college, Cambridge, and was called to the bar as a member of Lincoln's inn. From an early age he was a collector of books and works of art; he lived to write books of his own, which attained celebrity; and he might, it is understood, have distinguished himself as a painter, if events had forced him to cease to be an amateur. In 1830 he visited Spain, and spent three years in a study of its present and its past, which resulted in a knowledge of both, unrivalled perhaps in its range. Returning to England, he settled in Devonshire, in the neighbourhood of Exeter, where he built a residence which, with its appurtenances, testified to his vivid remembrance of the Alhambra. He had also a house in town; and hospitable, genial, witty, collecting books and pictures, writing and sketching, he spent to the end of his days the pleasant and intellectual existence reserved for the English gentleman who combines with sociality and opulence a taste for literature and art. After his return from Spain Mr. Ford became a steady contributor to the Quarterly Review, conducted by his friend Mr. Lockhart, the well-known translator of ancient Spanish ballads. Mr. Ford's contributions were chiefly on Spanish topics, and he made use of the opportunity thus given him to bring into prominence the merits of Mr. Prescott and of Mr. Borrow. Mr. Ford's political opinions were those of the Quarterly; and once in 1837 his political zeal combined with his peculiar views on the Spanish question to lead him to publish a caustic pamphlet against Lord Palmerston's policy in the Iberian peninsula. In the summer of 1845 appeared his "Handbook of Spain," one of the earlier of Mr. Murray's well-known series. The results of a most extensive personal knowledge of the localities and scenery of Spain, and of the manners and national character of the Spaniards, were combined with those of a profound study of its history, literature, and antiquities; and the whole was conveyed in a style of which the raciness contrasted singularly with the dryness of ordinary handbooks of tour and travel. The book became at once popular with the general reading public, and is the best introduction yet extant to the knowledge of Spain and the Spaniards. Published in 1845, it reached a third edition in 1855, both the later editions having been nearly rewritten. A work of slighter claims, but pleasant and instructive reading, the "Gatherings from Spain," appeared in 1848. In the winter of 1856-57 Mr. Ford was appointed a member of the Royal commission to report on the best site for a new national gallery. His health had been failing for some time, when, on the 1st of September, 1858, he was removed by death from the social circle which he adorned. A graceful memoir of him was contributed, shortly after his death, to the Times by his friend, Mr. Stirling of Keir, like himself, an accomplished and eminent writer on "cosas de España." Among the minor works of Mr. Ford, not referred to by Mr. Stirling in his notice, is one worth a mention—namely, the descriptive letterpress furnished by Mr. Ford, to accompany some elaborate engravings of the exteriors and interiors of the late duke of Wellington's residences of Apsley House and Walmer Castle.—F. E.
FORD, Simon, an eminent writer of the seventeenth century, was born at East Ogwell in Devonshire in 1619. Having received the rudiments of a classical education first at Exeter grammar-school, and then at Dorchester, he entered Magdalen hall, Oxford. In 1641 he took up his residence in London, and with youthful ardour became involved in the great rebellion. Returning to the university, he entered as a student of Christ Church in 1648, but was expelled the college in consequence of a sermon preached at St. Mary's, in which he denounced the oath called "the Engagement." Having been for a short time
