FALCONER, WILLIAM. 



FALKLAND, VISCOUNT. 



ad Method of that famous Callot, uid M. Boss*, in their several ways 

 tf Vv b ' 



Wai pole hJ given eoiuidenbla list of Faithorne's print*, of which 

 the following are aome of the brat : Hb own ' Head' looking over hii 

 boulder, with long hair; 'Sir William Paston, Bart,' 1650, which 



afVr Vandyck: 'Sandenoa/ 1658, prefixed to hi* Graphic*.' after 

 Zonst ; ' Anne Bridges,' Countess of Exetar, aftr Vandyck ; ' Thomaa 

 Hobtxi, Ktat seventy-six ;' ' Henrietta Maria,' with a Teil, executed in 

 Part* ; a large full-length emblematical print of ' Cromwell,' in armour ; 

 Queen Catherine,' in the dreaa in which she arrived in England; 



Barbara, Countess of Caitlemaine : ' ' Prince Rupert,' after Pobaon ; 

 ' Or. llnrrrv,' butt on a pedestal ; 'Sir Thomaa Fairfax,' after Walker; 

 ' John Milton. Ktat sixty-two," drawn by Faithorne himself, ftc. ; and 

 four illustrations to Taylor's ' Life of Christ,' the ' Lost Supper,' 

 ' Christ Praying in the Garden,' the ' Scourging.' and the ' Marriage of 

 Cans.' His works were chiefly portraits. His son William, called 

 William Faithorne the Younger, engraved portraiU in mezzotint, but 

 he was of dissipated habits, and he died towards the close of the 1 7th 

 century, aged about thirty. There are heads by him of 'Mary, 

 Princres of Orange,' ' Queen Anne,' ' Prince George of Denmark,' 

 'Charles XII. of Sweden,' 'Dryden,' 4c, 



FALCONER, WILLIAM, was born about 1730, being one of a Urge 

 family, all of whom, except himself, were deaf and dumb. When 

 very young, he served his apprenticeship on board a merchantman, and 

 was afterward* second-mate of a vessel in the Levant trade, which 

 wa shipwrecked on the coast of Attica, himself with two others 

 being the only survivors. This event laid the foundation of Falconer's 

 fame, by forming the groundwork of 'The Shipwreck,' which poem he 

 put lishi-d in 1762. The notice which tho poem received enabled him 

 to enter the navy, during the ensuing year, as midshipman in the 

 ' Royal George.' After some other appointments, he became purser to 

 the 'Aurora' frigate, and was lost in her somewhere in the Mozam- 

 bique Channel, during the outward voyage to India, in the winter 

 of 1769. 



Falconer was the author of a ' Nautical Dictionary' of considerable 

 merit, as well as of some minor poems ; but his chief claim to repu- 

 tation consists in "The Shipwreck,' the merit of which is owing to 

 the vividoeM and power of description which pervade the work, and 

 to the facility the author has shown in introducing nautical language. 

 Hb style is formed on that of Pope ; and the mixture of phrases, such 

 as ' weather back-stays,' ' parrels, lifts, and clew-lines,' with the affecta- 

 tions of ' nymph,' ' swain,' ' Papbian grace*,' &c., form rather a ludi- 

 crous contrast. To call ' The Shipwreck' a first-rate poem, or to com- 

 pare it with the /Eneid of Virgil, would not now enter into many men's 

 thoughts, although this was done at the time when it first appeared; 

 bnt after making every abatement, it must be allowed that Falconer 

 has done what no one else has attempted, and wo must give him a high 

 place among the writers of didactic poems. 



FALCONER, WILLIAM, M.D. This eminent physician, who 

 resided many years in Path, was the anthor of many professional and 

 literary productions, which obtained for him from Dr. Parr the charac- 

 ter of "a man whose knowledge b various and profound, and whose 

 discriminations upon all topics of literature are ready, vigorous, and 

 comprehensive." He was the son of William Falconer, Recorder of 

 Chester, was born in 1744, and died in 1824. His numerous books 

 and tracts combine the accurate knowledge of the physician with the 

 enlarged views of the philosopher. Hb ' Remarks on the Influence of 

 Climate, Situation, Nature of Country, Population, I'ood, &c. on the 

 Disposition and Temper, Manners, Laws and Customs, Government, 

 and Religion of Mankind,' 1782, is a work that may be read with 

 advantage ; and so hb ' Dissertation on the Influence of the Passions 

 on the Disorders of the Body,' to which the first Fothergillion gold 

 medal was awarded. 



Dr. Falconer's only child, the REV. THOMAS FALCONER, was born in 

 1772, and died in 1839. He was educated at Corpus Christ! College, 

 Oxford, of which be was a Fellow, and was Bampton Lecturer in 1810. 

 In 1797 he published a translation of the ' Periplus' of Hanno; and 

 be took a huge share in editing the Oxford edition of Strabo. Although 

 ocoasioiully performing the duties of a clergyman, he declined receiv- 

 ing any church preferment, and in 1823 took the degree of M.D. at 

 Oxford. Under hb learned father he had made medicine his assiduous 

 study ; and during the years of hb long residence at Bath he was 

 unremitting in giving gratuitous medical advice to all afflicted persons 

 who sought hb aid. Posaensed of a handsome competency, hb private 

 charitiea wre as liberal as they were unostentatious. Hb second son, 



THOMAS FATXXWER, was called to the Bar in 1830. He is the author 

 of many able articles and pamphlets on the public topics of his day, 

 oepecially on The Oregon Question, on Canadian Affairs, and on 

 Texas, through which country and Mexico ho travelled in 1841-42. 

 In 1860 he was chosen M one of the arbitrators to determine the 

 boundaries between the provinces of Canada and New Brunswick. In 

 1851 b* ws appointed a Judge of the County CourU of Glamorgan- 

 nhire, Brecknockshire, and Radnorshire. Descended from a family 

 distinguished by their cultivation of letters, Mr. Thomas Falconer has 

 honourably maintained the reputation of the name he bear*. 



FALCONET, ETIENNE-MORIA, was born in 1716, of poor parents. 

 at Viray in Switzerland. His parents early removed to Paris, and 

 there he studied sculpture under Lemoine, whom he soon surpassed. 

 He executed several groups and stature, which are at Paris, in the 

 church of St Roch, in the Muse's des Monumens Francois, and in 

 several private collections. In 1766 he accepted the in vita ' 

 Catharine II. to repair to Petersburg, in order to execute the colossal 

 statue of 1'eUr the Great He remained in that capital twelve years, 

 during which he completed his work, which b now in the square 

 called the Square of the Senate, and b by for hb most celebrated 

 production. As he and the Russian founder appointed to oast the 

 statue could not agree, Falconet cast it himself. He placed it upon 

 an enormous block of granite, weighing about 1700 tons, which was 

 found in some marshy ground at a considerable distance from Peters- 

 burg, and was brought to the capital by machinery. Catharine, who 

 had shown him the greatest attention during the first years of hb 

 residence in the Russian capital, grew cool towards him at last, owing 

 to the misrepresentations of some of her courtiers. Falconet returned 

 to. Paris in 1778. In May 1783, as he was going to set oft" for Italy, a 

 country which he had never visited, he had a paralytic stroke. He 

 survived however till January 1791. Falconet wrote strictures and 

 commentaries on the books of Pliny which treat of the sculpture and 

 painting of the ancients : he also wrote ' Observations sur la Statue df 

 Marc Aurfcle.' In general Falconet had no great veneration for ancient 

 art. Hb writings were collected and published under the title, 

 'CEuvres Completes de Falconet,' 6 vob. 8vo, Lausanne, 1782, and 

 reprinted in 3 voN. 8vo, Paris, 1808, to which b prefixed an account 

 of his life. 



KAUvLAXI), HENRY GARY, VISCOUNT, descended from the 

 Carys of Cockiugton, was the son of Sir Edward Cary of Berkhameted 

 and Aldenham in Hertfordshire, at which latter place he was born late 

 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. When about sixteen years of age, 

 he was sent to Extter College, Oxford ; but be left that university 

 without taking a degree. In 1608 he was made one of the Knight* 

 of the Bath, at tho creation of Henry, prince of Wales; and in 

 1(117 he was sworn in comptroller of his majesty's household, nnd 

 uiade one of his privy council. On the 10th of November 1620 

 he was created Viscount of Falkland, in the county of Fife, in Scot- 

 land. King James I., knowing hU abilities and experience, constituted 

 him Lord Deputy of Ireland, into which office he was sworn Septem- 

 ber 18th, 1622, and continued in it till ir,-j;>. During his administra- 

 tion he is said to have kept a strict band over the Koman Catholics 

 in that kingdom, which gave them occasion to send complaints to the 

 court of England against him, till, by their clamour and prc\ 

 power, he was removed in disgrace. Leland, in his ' History of Ire- 

 land,' has given the character of hb government. " Lord Falkland," 

 he says, "seems to have been more dbtingubhed by hb rectitude 

 than abilities. In a government which required vigour and austerity, 

 he was indolent and gentle : courting rather than terrifying the factious. 

 He was harassed by the intrigues and clamours of the king's minister.-, 

 whom he could not always gratify to the' ull extent of their desires ; 

 hb actions were severely maligned at the court of England ; his admi- 

 nistration in consequence was cautious and embarrassed. Suck a 

 governor was little qualified to awe the numerous and powerful body 

 of recusants, relying on their merits, and stimulated by their eccle- 

 siastics to the most imprudent excesses." Lord Falkland returned and 

 lived in honour and esteem till 1633, in which year, in the month of 

 September, he died, in consequence of having broken one of his legs 

 by an accident in Theobalds Park. A ' History of the mot unfor- 

 tunate Prince Edward II.,' written by him, was published under the 

 editorship of Sir James Harrington, in foh'o and octavo, in 1680. Lord 

 Orford ('Royal and Noble Authors,' vol. v., p. 65) says he was remark- 

 able for an invention to prevent hb name being counterfeited, by art- 

 fully concealing in it the successive years of*his age, and by that 

 means, detecting a man who had not observed so nice a particularity. 



FALKLAND, LUCIUS CARY, VISCOUNT, was the eldest son 

 of the preceding, and born in 1610. From 1622 till 1G29, during 

 which time his father was Lord-Deputy of Ireland, he was educated 

 at Trinity College, Dublin : but afterwards at St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge. Before he was of age he inherited an ample fortune from his 

 grandfather, and soon afterwards went over to the Netherlands, with 

 the intention of taking a command, but finding the campaign inactive, 

 he returned to England. He had greatly displeased hb father by 

 marrying a lady of small fortune ; and though the marriage was a very 

 happy one, troubled by bis father's anger, he resolved to retire to the 

 country and devote himself to literary studies. Having conceived a 

 desire to be able to read accurately the Greek authors, he secluded 

 himself at hb seat near Burford in Oxfordshire, and prosecuted hb 

 design with such vigorous industry that he became a master of the 

 language in an incredibly short time. Hb house was only about ten 

 miles from Oxford, and Chillingworth and other learned men of the 

 university were at thb time in the habit not only of visiting him, 

 but of residing with him. In 1639 he joined tho expedition against 

 the Scotch. His peerage, being Scotch, did not entitle him to sit in 

 the House of Lords, and in 1640 he was elected member for Newport, 

 Isle of Wight, in the parliament which assembled on the 13th of April. 

 He was again elected for the same borough in the parliament which 

 met on the 3rd of November in the same year. In the Commons, Lord 



