an unsuccessful project for bringing over to the Church of England the presbyterians and other protestant dissenters. It is said that the hatter judged from his early writings that he would be of their side, and were greatly disappointed when he disavowed the right or expediency of a compromise—a circumstance that may have had something to do with the origin of the scandal, for such it was, about Thorndike having leanings towards the Romish church. This great controversialist died in 1672, and was buried in Westminster abbey.
THORNHILL, Sir James, was descended from an old Dorsetshire family, and was born at Weymouth in 1676. His father having sold the family estate, the youth had only himself to depend upon. His uncle, Dr. Sydenham, the eminent physician, enabled him to study painting in London. The practice of painting the ceilings and staircases of palaces and mansions, which had become so fashionable in the hands of Verrio, was at this time pursued with nearly equal success by Laguerre, and to him Thornhill soon became a formidable competitor. One of his first great works in this line was the cupola of St. Paul's, on which he painted eight large pictures, in monochrome, of the leading events in the life of St. Paul. For these he was paid at the rate of forty shillings the square yard, and the success of the work led to his being appointed historical painter to Queen Anne. He also painted apartments in Hampton court and Kensington palaces, Blenheim, Moor park, the South-sea house, the cupola of St. Mary Abchurch, &c., but his greatest work was the Painted hall of Greenwich hospital. He painted, besides, an altar-piece for All Soul's college chapel, Oxford, and one which he presented to his native town; several historical pictures; and a great many portraits. As an artist, however distinguished in his day, Sir James Thornhill's position is only important as marking a period in the history of English painting. But though a poor painter, he did his best to promote the art. About 1711 he made a professional tour in Holland and Flanders, in the course of which he formed the nucleus of a collection of pictures and drawings by the old masters, which he afterwards greatly extended, and liberally threw open for the study of artists and students. Still further to promote the improvement of young painters, he prepared and laid before the government a project for the foundation of a Royal Academy of drawing and painting; and not succeeding in obtaining the necessary support, he opened, in 1724, a free academy for drawing, and the study of the living model. Thornhill made a handsome fortune by his profession, and succeeded in purchasing back his paternal property. He was knighted by George I., and was elected M.P. for his native place in the first parliament of George II. He died at his seat, Thornhill, near Weymouth, May 4, 1734. His son James was serjeant-painter to the navy, but nothing is known of him as an artist. His daughter married William Hogarth.—J. T—e.
THORNTON, Bonnell, a miscellaneous writer and wit, was the son of an apothecary in Maiden Lane, London, and was born there in 1724. He was educated at Westminster school, along with Churchill, Colman, and Lloyd, and at Christ church, Oxford, where he studied medicine, and took the degree of M.B. in 1743. He preferred literature to medicine, however, and along with Kit Smart and Johnson, established the Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany, which was collected in 2 vols , 8vo, 1748. He next commenced a periodical work, entitled Have at ye all, or the Drury Lane Journal, which, however, was soon discontinued. In 1754, in conjunction with Colman, he began the Connoisseur, which was continued for two years. In 1766, following the example of Colman, who had translated Terence with admirable skill, Thornton commenced a translation of Plautus, but only lived to publish seven of the plays. Warburton admired this translation for its pure and elegant style, and Southey pronounced it one of the best versions in our language from any ancient author. Thornton wrote also a number of satirical poems, was a contributor to the Public Advertiser, and to the St. James' Chronicle, and was a member of the Nonsense Club along with Cowper, Colman, and Lloyd. He died in 1768, and was buried in Westminster abbey.—J. T.
* THORNYCROFT, Mary, a celebrated sculptor, was born at Thornham, Norfolk, in May, 1814. She learned to model of her father, the late Mr. John Francis, a sculptor of reputation, and early contributed to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy statues of Penelope, Ulysses, a Flower Girl, &c. In 1840 she married Mr. Thomas Thornycroft, and in 1842 went with him to Italy. They stayed two years at Rome, where she was aided in her studies by the valuable advice of Mr. Gibson. At Rome she made several models, and among them one of a "Sleeping Child," which Mr. Gibson so much admired that, on being requested by her majesty to recommend a sculptor to execute statues of the royal children, he named Mrs. Thornycroft. She accordingly received a commission for marble statues of the princess royal, the prince of Wales, Princess Alice, and Prince Alfred, as the "Four Seasons;" and afterwards others of the younger princes and princesses, as "Peace, Plenty," &c. She has also executed busts of the queen, the prince-consort, the prince of Wales, as well as of other members of the royal family, and private personages. The most admired of her other works is a "Girl Skipping."—J. T—e.
* THORNYCROFT, Thomas, born about 1813, was a pupil of Mr. J. Francis, but he completed his studies in Rome. His early works were chiefly classical and academic in character. One of his first efforts in a more naturalistic manner, was "Alfred the Great and his Mother," 1850. A later statue which attracted some attention, was his "Knitting Girl," 1855; and in the same year he completed a bronze statue of the earl of Hereford for the house of lords. Of late he has been chiefly occupied on portrait and monumental statues and busts. For the queen he executed a marble bust of the prince-consort; and he is now engaged on various memorials of the prince, among others a colossal bronzy equestrian statue for Halifax.—J. T—e.
THORPE, Benjamin, long ranked among the most eminent of our Anglo-Saxon scholars and illustrators of Anglo-Saxon literature and history. For the Society of Antiquaries he edited, with translations, Caedmon, 1832, and the Exeter Book, 1842; for the Aelfric Society the Homilies of Aelfric, with an English translation, 1844; for the Record Commission he produced his most valuable work, "The Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," from Ethelbert to Canute, with the laws called Edward the Confessor's, 1840; for the English Historical Society he edited the Chronicon ex Chronicis of Brevonius; the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels, 1846-51; and the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, with a literal translation, 1856. To the series of volumes, Materials for English History, published under the superintendence of the master of the rolls, he contributed by far the best edition of the text or texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with a literal English translation. Mr. Thorpe was also the author of "Analecta Anglo-Saxonica," with a glossary, 1834; of "Yule Tide Stories," legends and tales, Teutonic and Scandinavian, 1853; and he translated Lappenberg's History of the Anglo-Saxon kings, 1845; and of the Norman kings. He died on the 19th of July, 1870.—F. E.
THORPE, John, an English architect of the reign of Elizabeth. Very little is known of Thorpe beyond his works, and these are chiefly identified from the collection of his plans and drawings of the buildings designed by him, which is now in the Soane museum. The volume was formerly in the possession of the earl of Warwick, when it was described by Walpole in the appendix to vol. i. of his Anecdotes. Some time afterwards it was lent to Lord George Germaine, and on his death could not be found. Eventually it was purchased at a sale by Sir John Soane. From these drawings Thorpe appears to have been the architect of a large proportion of the most remarkable of those costly mansions, which give so distinctive a character to the architecture of the reign of Elizabeth, and the earlier years of her successor. Kerby, Northampton, was built by Thorpe in 1570; Holland house, Kensington, in 1607. In the interval he built the splendid mansions of Buckhurst, for the earl of Dorset; Wollaton, Notts; Burghley, near Stamford, for the Lord-treasurer Cecil; Holdenby, for Sir Christopher Hatton; Longford castle, Ireland, and several others of hardly inferior magnificence, besides a great many smaller houses. Thorpe flourished at the time when the elaborate Italian renaissance was being introduced into England by the celebrated John of Padua, in the stately palace of Longleat. The English architect adopted the classic orders and cinque cento ornamentation from the Italian; but he designed his buildings in a thoroughly Gothic spirit. Hence there are about them a striking degree of picturesqueness of outline; richness of general effect, combined with incorrectness of details; and quaint fancy often running into extravagance. The Elizabethan palatial style died out with its inventor. The style he had introduced was distorted into grotesqueness in the early years of James I., and was superseded by the more correct Italian introduced by Inigo Jones. Thorpe seems to have travelled on the
