NASEBY 



NASH 



399 



on record. There is only one species known, M. 

 monoceros, which inhabits the northern seas, and 

 lias been on one or two occasions stranded on 

 British shores ; it was tirst recorded in Britain 

 by Vulpius from the Isle of May in 1648 ; another 

 was observed in 1800 in the Wash in Lincolnshire. 

 It is common off the shores of Greenland, and is 

 hunted for its oil as well as ivory ; as the creature 



Narwhal (Monodan monoccrot). 



is gregarious, sometimes travelling in herds 'of 

 many thousands,' it is captured in considerable 

 abundance. In early times the tusk of the nar- 

 whal was valued in medicine, and to this day is so 

 used by the Chinese. The ivory is very fine, and 

 in the castle of Rosenl>org at Copenhagen is a throne 

 of the kings of Denmark made of this sul>stance. 

 The female narwhal is more spotted than the 

 male, und the young darker. The fact that the 

 female has not the tusk seems to negative the view- 

 that it is of use in spearing fish ; it is no doubt 

 used by the males for fighting for examples are 

 seldom unbroken. Fabncius thought that their 

 use was to break and keep open holes in the ice 

 luring the winter, ami observers have seen such 

 breathing-holes crowded with heads of narwhal and 

 other whales. 



Xaseby, a Northamptonshire parish, 7 miles 

 S\V. of Market- Harboroiigh. Here, on 14th June 

 1645, 7500 royalists under Charles I. and Prince 

 Rupert were totally defeated by 14,000 parlia- 

 mentarians under Fairfax and Cromwell, the kin" 

 losing cannon, baggage, and 5000 prisoners. A 

 ' blockhead oMi.sk, which does not mark the 

 battlefield, was erected in 1823 on the Naseby 

 ridiri- (648 feet). See Gardiner's History of the 

 Great Civil War (vol ii. 1889). 



\asli, JOHN', architect, Ixrni in London in 1752, 

 after the usual course of training for his profession 

 entered into some building speculations which 

 enahlrd him to buy a small property in Car- 

 marthen. Here in fresh speculations he lost much 

 money; therefore, in 1792, he returned to London 

 and architecture, in which he speedily rose to emin- 

 ence. On the strength of a patent ( 1797) for im- 

 provements in the construction of the arches and 

 piers of bridges, he claimed a great part of the credit 

 of introducing the use of metal girders. A large 

 part of his time was occupied in designing and 

 constructing mansion-house* for the nobility and 

 gentry in England and Ireland, but he is chiefly 

 celebrated in connection with the great street 

 improvements in London. From February 1815, 

 when he was appointed 'architect, valuer, and 

 agent to the Board of Woods and Forests,' down 

 till near the end of his professional career, he 

 was busily engaged in the planning of routes, 

 grouping of buildings, and fixing of sites. 

 Regent Street and the Regent's Park terraces are 



specimens of his designs. The Pavilion at Brighton, 

 about which he published a book, was another of 

 his works. He retired from his profession in 1834, 

 and died May 13, 1835. Nash, notwithstanding 

 his many defects, possessed great power of effective 

 grouping, as is well shown in his works. In the 

 architecture of mansion-houses, the designing of 

 ' interiors ' was his/orte. 



\asli. RICHARD, better known as 'Beau Nash,' 

 was born the son of an impoverished Welsh gentle- 

 man at Swansea, October 18, 1674. He was edu- 

 cated at Carmarthen and Jesus College, Oxford, 

 held for some time a commission in the army, and 

 next entered at the Middle Temple, but found 

 greater attractions in the dissipations of society 

 than the pursuits of law. He conducted the 

 pageant at the entertainment of William III. by 

 the Inns of Court, and is said to have declined the 

 honour of knighthood without a pension. He 

 made a shifty living by gambling, but in 1704 he 

 found his tme function as master of the ceremonies 

 at Bath, where he conducted the public balls witli 

 a splendour and decency never liefore witnessed. 

 In this way he came to acquire an imperial influence 

 in the fashionable society of the place. It appears 

 that he was also distinguished by his sentimental 

 benevolence. He played hard and successfully ; 

 yet if he heard an individual sighing behind his 

 chair : ' Good Heavens ! how happy would that 

 money make me,' Nash would thrust his own 

 winnings into his hands, with theatrical generosity, 

 and exclaim: 'Go, and be happy.' His own 

 equipage at this period of his career was sump- 

 tuous. He used, we are told, to travel to Tun- 

 bridge in a post-chariot and six greys, with outriders, 

 footmen, French-horns, and every other appendage 

 of expensive parade. He is praised for the great 

 care which he took of the morals of the young 

 ladies who attended the Bath balls, always putting 

 them on their- guard against needy adventurers 

 like himself. In his old age Beau Isash sank into 

 poverty, and often felt the want of that charity 

 which he himself had never withheld. He died at 

 Bath, February 3, 1761, and received a public 

 funeral. A Life by Goldsmith was published 

 anonymously in 1762. 



\asli. THOMAS, a busy writer in the last decade 

 of Elizabeth's reign, was "bom at Lowestoft in 1567, 

 studied almost seven years at St John's College, 

 Cambridge, travelled abroad, visiting Italy and 

 Germany, and thereafter plunged recklessly into 

 the life of letters in London, and forced a shifty 

 Hying from fate until the close. He kept ever a 

 high neart amid manifold troubles, and, satirist as 

 he was, his inexhaustible gaiety and goodness made 

 him the darling of his friends the ' sweet boy ' and 

 ' sweet Tom ' of Greene and Francis Meres. He 

 was dead by 1601, as prematurely as Marlowe, 

 Peele, and 'Greene. Nash had a genuine relish 

 for good literature ; he praises warmly Ral>elais, 

 Aretino, Spenser, Sidney, and Marlowe. He had 

 also a great faculty for vituperation, and the times 

 were favourable for its exercise. His first writing 

 was his vigorous preface to Greene's Menaphon 

 (1589), and this was quickly followed by the 

 Anatomic of Absiirditie (1589), a satirical dis- 

 cussion on social manners ; a series of impetuous 

 tractates flung into the Marprelate controversy ; 

 Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Divell 

 (1592), full of keen observation and satire, and 

 rich in autobiographical interest ; Strange Newes 

 (1593); and Have with yon to Saffron W olden 

 ( 1596 ), containing a vehement onslaught on Gabriel 

 Harvey ; The Terrors of the Night, or a Discourse 

 of Apparitions (1594); Christ's Tears orer Jeru- 

 salem (1593), a long, edifying discourse; The Un- 

 fortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton 



