In Memoriam—J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A, 291 
the greatest authorities on the subject by his ‘ Contributions towards 
the History of Early English Porcelain from Contemporary Sources,” 
and by the gradual accumulation of a collection of both Oriental 
and English china, which for the value and beauty of many of its 
specimens can scarcely perhaps be matched out of the great national 
collections. His colleeting zeal, however, suffered a blow from which 
perhaps it never quite recovered, in the destruction of a large number 
of his choicest specimens of English china at the burning of the 
Alexandra Palace, to which he had lent them for exhibition. 
He had also a wide knowledge of the topography and family 
history of the County of Wilts, as many papers of his in the - 
Magazine testify. 
He was never an archeologist strictly speaking—prehistoric 
antiquities did not appeal to him; and even the works of classical 
civilization did not hold his interest as they do that of many. His 
strength lay in the fascinating field of Mediaval and Renaissance 
art. Probably few men in England had a wider knowledge 
of that extensive field of art, which stretches from Byzantine 
and Romanesque times to the present, and which includes the 
architecture, the mosaies, the enamels, the art work in glass, metal, 
ivory, and wood, the ceramics, and the textile fabries of Europe for 
more than a thousand years. He had, indeed, seen and studied all 
that is best worth seeing in the way of Medieval and Renaissance art 
in Europe,and his knowledge was proportionally comparative and wide. 
It was not, however, his knowledge, but his personal character, 
which endeared him to those who knew him best. Quiet, un- 
assuming, modest and reticent almost to a fault, singularly unselfish 
and generous, always ready to help others or to give to any good 
cause, he was one of those who win the respect of all who know 
them, and the Jove of those who know them wel]. Born at Wilton 
—settled for a time in business with his brother at Devizes—living 
all his later life at Wilton with his sister (for he never married) — 
lying’ now in the little churchyard of Fugglestone, he is one whose 
memory Wiltshire may well keep green, as not the least notable 
amongst her worthies. 
BH. HG, 
