188 



COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT. 



ment nnd a pension. In 1860 he was appoint- 

 ed colonel of the Coldstream Guards and in 

 1862 a field-marshal, and he had at various 

 times been enrolled among the chief military 

 orders of Great Britain, France, Sardinia, and 

 Turkey. Thenceforth his declining health, un- 

 dermined by long and arduous services in the 

 field, permitted him to undertake no active 

 duties. At a review of volunteers at Brighton 

 in 1862, he took the command at the request of 

 the higher powers ; but, at the close, he said it 

 was his last day in the field, and he shaved off 

 his moustache as a sign that he had retired from 

 active service. Within a twelvemonth occurred 

 his final illness. 



In person, Lord Clyde was well knit, symmet- 

 rical and graceful, and though late in life his 

 shoulders became somewhat bowed, he lost lit- 

 tle of the activity of his prime. " To the last," 

 says a writer in the London "Times," "his 

 teeth remained full and firm in the great 

 square jaws, and his eye pierced the distance 

 with all the force of his youthful vision. His 

 crisp gray locks still stood close and thick, 

 curling over the head and above the wrinkled 

 brow, and there were few external signs of the 

 decay of nature, which was, no doubt, going 

 on within, accelerated by so many wounds, 

 such fevers, such relentless, exacting service." 

 Measured by the exploits of other commanders, 

 Lord Clyde cannot be classed among the great 

 generals of the present century, although, in 

 consequence of the dearth of military talent in 

 Great Britain, he stood, at the time of his death, 

 head and shoulders above his contemporaries. 

 As a brave, prudent, and honest soldier he will 

 always hold an honorable place in the annals 

 of -British warfare ; and he will be especially 

 remembered by the rank and file of the army, 

 as one who understood their character and vir- 

 tues better, perhaps, than any other ; who con- 

 stantly looked after their comforts, and who, 

 bearing in mind from what humble beginnings 

 he had himself risen to the highest honors of 

 his profession, wished to make merit, and not 

 influence, the key to advancement. 



COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT, emeritus 

 professor of architecture, in the Royal Acad- 

 emy, born in London in 1788, died at his res- 

 idence in Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, aged 

 75 years. His father, an eminent architect, 

 eent him, at an early age, to Westminster 

 School, and from thence took him into his own 

 office, where he studied for some years, per- 

 fecting his taste for the pencil and making such 

 proficiency that, in 1809, he became confiden- 

 tial assistant to Sir R. Smirke, who was then 

 engaged in rebuilding the Covent-garden The- 

 atre. His love of adventure, combined with a 

 desire for a wider field from whence to draw 

 knowledge, led him, in 1810. to secure a safe 

 conduct to the East. Accordingly he sailed 

 in a sloop of war, intrusted by the Under Secre- 

 tary for Foreign Affairs with despatches for 

 the embassy at Constantinople. Here he pass- 

 ed some months in the society of Byron, Hob- 



house, Stratford Canning, and others of taste 

 and genius ; but Greece was the country of his 

 longing, and he was impatient to realize the 

 dreams which had so long dazzled his imagina- 

 tion. At Athens, where he arrived in autumn 

 of the same year, he associated himself with 

 Haller of Hallerstein, the eminent Bavarian ; 

 with Linck and Stackelberg; and Foster, an 

 architect of Liverpool ; and, purchasing the 

 right of establishing themselves on the island of 

 ^Egina, they gave themselves up to the laborious 

 but pleasant work of excavating the valuable 

 specimens of sculpture near the temple of Ju- 

 piter Panhellenius. Here they were exposed 

 to many dangers, not of climate only, but the 

 island itself was a stronghold of pirates, while 

 the mainland swarmed with banditti, who, at 

 a later period, held Stackelberg a prisoner for 

 ransom, and made cartridges of his valuable 

 drawings. As a reward of their perils, they 

 made, among other important discoveries, that 

 of the celebrated ^Eginetan marbles, now at 

 Munich. An article on these sculptures, from 

 the pen of Mr. Cockerell, appeared in the 

 " Quarterly Journal of Science," 1819; but the 

 beautiful and elaborate work in which they, 

 together with the treasures from Bassse, are 

 described and criticized, was not brought out 

 by him until 1860. In 1811 they set sail for 

 the port of Pyrga, and from thence took a 

 fatiguing land journey, and, arriving at an Ar- 

 cadian village, in the immediate neighborhood 

 of which stood the remains of a temple of 

 Apollo Epicarius, with indications of buried 

 treasure, they again commenced their re- 

 search, which resulted in the discovery of the 

 Phigaleian marbles, now to be seen in the Brit- 

 ish Museum. Their labors at Bassre being in- 

 terrupted by the opposition of the police 

 authorities, he left that country and returned 

 to Athens. Subsequently he went to Sicily, 

 and spent the greater part of 1812 in Syracuse 

 and Agrigentum,' a visit which resulted in his 

 work, published at a later date, on the temple 

 of Jupiter Olympus, or the " Temple of the 

 Giants," as it is there styled. After a severe 

 attack of fever, he resumed his travels, visiting 

 Thebes and Delphi, and other haunts of classic 

 fame. In 1814 he visited the Seven Churches 

 of Asia Minor, and investigated Pompeii and 

 other points of interest, and subsequently 

 spent some time in Rome, where he was wel- 

 comed with open arms by the artistic circles 

 there, and brought into intimate companion- 

 ship with Caristie, Handelbourg, Mazois, In- 

 gres, and other distinguished men. In 1816 

 he was at Florence, where, by his arrange- 

 ment of the group of Niobe, he solved a long 

 vexed question, and left to the city of the Me- 

 dici a lasting memento of his perception and 

 skill. Returning in the ensuing spring to 

 England, he found that his fame had preceded 

 him. Business flowed at once to his office, and 

 before the year 1825 he had executed many 

 valuable and important pieces of workmanship. 

 Among them, the Hanover Chapel in Regent 



