Page:The Maclise Portrait-Gallery.djvu/180

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
110
THE MACLISE PORTRAIT-GALLERY.

to promote their development, introducing him to his friend, the celebrated Dr. Beddoes, who became afterwards notorious for his democratic proclivities. Later, when Davy had become a great chemist and had earned a title, he became President of the Royal Society. His old friend and patron, Mr. Gilbert, was then treasurer, and when the philosopher was forced by ill-health to leave England for a time, filled the vacated chair. He was subsequently elected to the honours of the Presidency, but, three years later, upon its being understood that H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex was ambitious of occupying the position of scientific primate in England, he resigned the post (1831), continuing, however, to act as Vice. He had graduated M.A. at Oxford, and received from that University, in 1832, the degree of D.C.L., the highest compliment which that body has it in its power to bestow. He was author, inter alia, of A Collection of Ancient Christmas Carols, with the Tunes to which they were formerly sung in the West of England (1832, 8vo), and some valuable works on the Cornish topography and language, of which latter philology has to lament that the memorials preserved are so sparse and imperfect.

He was followed, after a short interval, by A. J. Kempe, who died August 21st, 1846, in his sixty-second year. Early in life this gentleman was author of a poem The Battle of Trafalgar (4to, 1806). He was editor of the Losely Manuscripts (8vo, 1836), and he contributed the letterpress to his brother-in-law's (Mr. C. A. Stothard) beautiful work, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. He was an unfailing contributor to the Archæologia and the Gentleman's Magazine, in which he published a series of papers, entitled "Londiniana," and an article (in 1830), "Tavistock and its Abbey," partly written by the Rev. E. A. Bray, vicar of Tavistock, and incorporated by Mrs. Bray, in her work on The Borders of the Tamar and Tavy, in letters addressed to Southey, the Poet Laureate. Mr. Kempe was also interested in Archery, and contributed some interesting papers to the Gentleman's Magazine on the subject; a few copies of these were reprinted, for private circulation only, in 1832, with the contributions of Sir Samuel Rush, and a bibliography of archery, by Mr. John Gough Nichols.

(The lady mentioned above was formerly Miss Anne Eliza Kempe, and was the only sister of the antiquary. Her former husband was Charles Alfred Stothard, F.S.A., the second son of the historical painter, and himself a draughtsman of consummate ability. He died from an accident, being killed on the spot by a fall from a ladder, when making a drawing from some ancient stained glass in the church of Beer-Ferrers, Devon. His widow afterwards married the Rev. E. A. Bray, vicar of Tavistock, and is well known as Mrs. Bray, by her novels, Trelawny, Tales of the Heart, etc.; and by her Life of Thomas Stothard, R.A. Murray, 4to, 1851),—a work of deep interest, exquisite beauty, and most refined taste, although open to the charge of exaggeration of eulogy. She has also written a life of her former husband, Charles A. Stothard, F.S.A. The life of this lady was protracted till Jan. 1883, when she died in the ninety-third year of her age, leaving to the British Museum the beautiful collection of drawings made by Charles Stothard, for his Monumental Effigies.

The next on the fatal list is Nicholas Carlisle, F.R.S. He was half-brother of the celebrated surgeon, Sir Anthony Carlisle, and is known by his Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools of England and Wales (1818, 2 vols. 8vo); his Collections for the History of the Ancient Families of Carlisle (1822), and Bland (1826); in 4to his Hints on