165 



ROSS, SIR JAMES CLARK. 



ROSSE, EARL OF. 



166 



ance, and early in 1855 he wrote a pamphlet, in which he complained 

 of his own treatment, and blamed Sir John Richardson and others. 

 The pamphlet is entitled 'A Narrative of the Circumstances and 

 Causes which led to the Failure of the Searching Expeditions sent 

 by government and others for the Rescue of Sir John Franklin,' 8vo. 

 Sir John Ross's first wife having died in 1822, he married a second, 

 October 21, 1834. By his first wife he had issue one son, who is a 

 magistrate at Cawnpoor in Hindustan. Sir John Ross is the author 

 of ' Letters to Sea-Officers,' ' Memoirs aud Correspondence of Admiral 

 Lord de Saumarez,' a ' Treatise on Navigation by Steam,' and other 

 smaller works. He attained the rank of Rear-Admiral July 8, 1851, 

 and died in London August 30, 1856. 



* ROSS, SIR JAMES CLARK, Knight, Captain in the Royal Navy, 

 was born April 1 5, 1800, in London. He is a son of George Ross, Esq., 

 of London and Balsarrocb, and is nephew of the late Rear-Admiral Sir 

 John Ross, treated of in the preceding article. He entered the royal 

 navy April 5, 1812, as a first-class volunteer, on board the Briseis, 

 commanded by his uncle Captain John Ross. He continued to serve 

 under his uncle as midshipman and master's mate, in other ships, in 

 the Baltic, the White Sea, and on the coast of Scotland. He accom- 

 panied Captain John Ross in the Isabella, as an admiralty midshipman, 

 on his first voyage in search of a north-west passage. [Ross, REAR- 

 ADMIRAL SIR JOHN.] On his return he joined the Severn, 40 guns, 

 lying in the Downs. From January 1819 to October 1825 he was 

 engaged under Captain Pai-ry in his three voyages in search of a north- 

 west passage, and while absent on the second was promoted, Dec. 26, 

 1822, to the rank of lieutenant. In the third voyage he was on board 

 the Fury when that ship was wrecked in Prince Regent Inlet. In 1827 

 he again accompanied Captain Parry in his attempt to reach the North 

 Pole. [PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD.] On his return to England he 

 received a commission as commander, Nov. 8, 1827. From 1829 till 

 1833 he served under his uncle Captain John Ross, in his second 

 voyage in search of a north-west passage ; and his valuable services 

 during that period, including the discovery of the northern magnetic 

 pole, were rewarded by his elevation to the rank of post-captain, 

 Oct. 28, 1834. In 1835 he proceeded to Baffin's Bay for the purpose 

 of searching for some missing whalers, and conveying relief to them. 

 He was subsequently, till 1838, employed by the Admiralty in making 

 a magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland. 



Captain James. Clark Ross, on the 8th of April 1839, was appointed 

 to the command of the Erebus, bomb, 370 tons, and of an expedition 

 to the Antarctic Seas. He was accompanied by Commander Francis 

 Rawdon Moira Crozier, in command of the Terror, 340 tons. The 

 chief purpose of the expedition was magnetic investigation, as to the 

 lines of variation, the dip, and the intensity, and also as to the position 

 of the southern magnetic pole or poles. The two ships sailed from 

 the mouth of the Thames Sept. 30, 1839, and auchored off Folkestone, 

 on their return, Sept. 4, 1843. During this voyage of four years, 

 besides the investigations in magnetism and meteorology, many valu- 

 able additions were made to the previous knowledge of the Antarctic 

 Regions and Seas in geography, geology, zoology, and botany. Three 

 persevering attempts were made to reach the South Pole, and the ships 

 succeeded in reaching the latitude of 78 10', or about 157 miles from 

 the Pole. A vast continent was discovered, bordered with a barrier of 

 ice 150 feet high, to which they gave the name of Victoria Land. An 

 active volcano was seen, which they named Mount Erebus, in 77 32' 

 S. lat., 167 E. long., 12,000 feet in height, and in the midst of perpetual 

 snow. Only four men were lost during the voyage three by accident 

 and one by illness. 



Captain James Clark Ross after his return married Oct. 8, 1843. In 

 1844 he received the honour of knighthood, and also the honorary 

 degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. In 1847 was pub- 

 lished ' A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and 

 Antarctic Regions, during the years 1839-43, by Captain Sir James 

 Clark Rose, Knt., R.N., D.C.L. Oxon., F.R.S., &c., with Plates and 

 Woodcuts,' 2 vola. 8vo. On the 31st of January 1848, Sir James C. 

 Ross was appointed to the Enterprise, and made a voyage to Baffin's 

 Bay in search of Sir John Franklin, which was, like the other searching 

 voyages, unsuccessful. 



Sir James C. Ross, who is skilled in astronomy, magnetism, meteoro- 

 logy, zoology, botany, and other sciences, has received many testimo- 

 nials of his merits. In 1823 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnsean 

 Society, and Dec. 11, 1828, a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is also 

 a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society, and is a corresponding member of several foreign societies. 

 In 1833 he received the thanks of the common council of the city of 

 London ; in 1841 he was presented with the founder's gold medal by 

 the London Geographical Society, and in 1842 with the gold medal of 

 the Geographical Society of Paris. 



* ROSS, SIR WILLIAM CHARLES, R.A., was born in London 

 June 3, 1794. From his birth he was in a measure dedicated to art. 

 His father was a miniature-painter and teacher of drawing ; his mother, 

 the sister of Anker Smith the engraver, was also an artist of some 

 ability. Under their instruction and influence he had made sufficient 

 progress to enter the Royal Academy as a student when only ten years 

 old. In his thirteenth year (1807) he gained a silver palette at the 

 Society of Arts for a copy in chalk of Smith's engraving of the ' Death 

 of Wat Tyler ; ' and in each of the four following years he received 



other prizes from the same society : in 1808 the silver medal and 201. 

 for an original drawing of the 'Judgment of Solomon; ' in 1809 the 

 large silver palette for a miniature of ' Venus and Cupid ; ' in 1810 the 

 silver medal and 20Z. for an original drawing of ' Samuel presented to 

 Eli;' and in 1811 the silver medal for an original drawing of the 

 ' Triumph of Germanicus.' Again in 1817 he obtained the Society's 

 gold medal for an original painting, ' The Judgment of Brutus ; ' he 

 also gained the silver medal of the Royal Academy for an academical 

 drawing. (' Art-Journal,' Feb., 1849.) 



Mr. Ross commenced his professional career as a painter of portraits 

 and historical and poetical subjects of the order indicated in the titles 

 just given. But he soon felt that only the promise of extraordinary 

 success would justify him in devoting his life to the higher department 

 of art, while there appeared to be a favourable opportunity for the 

 application of superior knowledge and technical skill to what was 

 generally regarded as a very inferior though popular branch that of 

 miniature. He accordingly became a miniature-painter, and he Boon 

 found his reward in a steady influx of patronage, which went on 

 increasing until he became the admitted head of that line of art. 

 During his long career as the favourite painter of the court and aris- 

 tocracy, it has fallen to his lot to paint most of the members of the 

 royal family from the Queen downwards, and the elite of the aristo- 

 cratic and fashionable world, as well as many members of foreign royal 

 and noble families ; it would therefore be idle to attempt to enumerate 

 his works. As to their style it may suffice to say, that bringing to 

 miniature-painting the knowledge acquired in the study of the higher 

 walks of art, he wad able to do something to elevate its general charac- 

 ter ; and though in Sir William Newton, Thorburn, and a few others, 

 he has found worthy rivals, it may fairly be said that to his example 

 even his most successful competitors owe not a little of then? own 

 excellence. The miniatures of Sir William Ross invariably exhibit 

 admirable drawing and careful execution ; a good, though it may be 

 somewhat refined likeness ; charming general colour, while the carna- 

 tions are almost unequalled among miniature-painters ; and the utmost 

 taste in the arrangement of the whole. 



Sir William Ross was appointed miniature-painter to the Queen in 

 1837; in 1838 he was elected A.R.A. ; in February 1842 he became 

 R.A. ; and in the following June he received the honour of knighthood. 

 It should be mentioned that though Sir William early abandoned 

 historic for miniature painting, he did not lose either his interest or 

 his skill in the former. When the first great Cartoon competition in 

 connection with the decoration of the new houses of parliament was 

 announced, Sir William sent to Westminster Hall a cartoon 10 feet 

 8 inches square, representing ' The Angel Raphael discoursing with 

 Adam,' which attracted considerable notice, and obtained one of the 

 additional premiums of lOOi, 



*ROSSE, WILLIAM PARSONS, THIRD EARL OF, was born in 1800. 

 He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated first class 

 in mathematics in 1822. As Lord Oxmantown, he represented King's 

 County in parliament from 1821 to 1834. His father, the second 

 earl, died in 1841, when Lord Oxmantown succeeded to the peerage. 

 In 1845 he was elected one of the representative peers for Ireland. 

 Lord Rosse's chief distinction however has arisen from his service to 

 astronomical science, by the series of researches and experiments 

 which resulted in the construction of the magnificent telescope set up 

 on the lawn in front of his residence, Birr Castle, near Parsonstown, 

 in King's County. The lenses 6f this enormous instrument were 

 formed and the whole of the instrument constructed under his lord- 

 ship's personal superintendence. The very beautiful contrivances for 

 insuring the perfect stability and at the same time the easy movement 

 of the vast instrument were also invented by his lordship. Years of 

 anxious experiments, and a large amount of money, were expended by 

 Lord Rosse in preparing the specula, on the perfection of which 

 depended the accuracy of the observations which might be made by 

 the telescope, and in constructing and fitting up the instrument. This 

 unrivalled telescope has been found, as was expected, to possess a far 

 greater amount of space-penetrating power than any previous instru- 

 ment, and several ^nebulas, which had hitherto proved impermeable, 

 have been readily resolved by it, and great advance has consequently 

 been made in our knowledge of these objects. A much more minute 

 and specific knowledge has also been obtained of the visible surface of 

 the moon. The prospect of new observations of many other celestial 

 phenomena and remarkable appearances of the heavenly bodies is also 

 of course opened up by the adoption of instruments of such vast 

 power as the results of Lord Rosse's experiments have shown to be 

 practicable. 



Lord Rosse married in 1836 the eldest daughter of John Wilmer 

 Field, Esq., of Heaton Hall, Yorkshire. In 1843 he was president of 

 the British Association; and in 1849 he was elected president of the 

 Royal Society. He is also a member of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences at St. Petersburg, and of other learned societies. At the 

 close of the French Exhibition of 1855, the decoration of a Knight of 

 the Legion of Honour was conferred on Lord Rosse in consideration of 

 his services to astronomical science. 



Lord Rosse has published the following : ' The Monster Telescope 

 erected by the Earl of Rosse, Parsonstown, with an account of the 

 Manufacture of the Specula, and full descriptions of the Machinery/ 

 printed at Parsonstown in 1844 ; ' Letters on the State of Ireland, 



