By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 123 



once more at our woodcut of the miserable hovel in which John 

 Britton was born and reared, and recollects the obstacles in the 

 face of which he toiled from youth to age, relying on his own 

 energy and induatrj"^ in struggles with the world ; he will take up 

 the volumes of the " Autobiography" with an increased respect : 

 and will lay them down concurring in the remark made by Southey 

 on the very case ; " Details of this kind carry with them an interest 

 to which no fiction can attain, and the memoirs of a man who, 

 from such cii-cumstances and under such difficulties, made his way 

 to a station of respectability, is one of the most useful and encou- 

 raging lessons that can be placed in the hands of the young." 



The origin of the two volumes of which the " Autobiography " 

 consists was this. On the 74th anniversary of his birthday a 

 number of his friends invited him to a dinner at the Castle Hotel, 

 Richmond, when eighty-two gentlemen were present. It was 

 determined to mark their esteem for him by a permanent testi- 

 monial, and a " Britton Club " was formed to carry out the project. 

 The testimonial, at his own suggestion was eventually made to take 

 the form of an "Autobiography," which he was to prepare and print 

 with the fund, amounting to £1000. These marks of respect and 

 cordial reception testify tlie general esteem in which he was held, 

 and his power of making and retaining friends; contrasting 



Heath, the engraver, the capabilities of copper plate engraving ; and speedily 

 brought to bear upon the long neglected antiquities of the country, that artistic 

 ability through the exercise of which they could alone be po]ndarised. Samuel 

 Prout, Frederick Mackenzie, Edward lUore, George Catteriuule, W. II. Hartlett, 

 R. W. Billings, Henry Shaw, and many more, were at various periods induced 

 to bestow their earnest eftbits upon the proper delineation of those views which 

 were so successfully transferred to copper by the lirothors, Joliu and Henry Le 

 Keu.\, and other engravers, for the most part pupils of IJasire. rublic attention 

 was captivated by the excellencies of the engravings of the Architectural Anti- 

 quitii-s of the land, and the excitement which at first took the form of vague 

 admiration, has in our time reached its hai)py consummation in profound inves- 

 tigation into the true principles upon which they depended for grandeur and 

 effect, and in a wise and wholesome spirit of conservancy. For much of this, 

 the country is deeply inde1)ted to that i'riend we have so lately lost. His labours 

 were incessant, his memory extraordinary, his system admirable, his clearness 

 of understanding, and liveliness of fancy in no common wise vigorous, his 

 aflections warm, his habits exemplary. Had he been less honest he might have 

 been far richer ; had he been more sellish he would never have benelited his 

 country as he umiuestionably did." 



