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NASH NECROPOLIS. 



ings was a failure. It lays the chief blame of this 

 on the dilatory proceedings of the men-of-war's 

 boats; but, as a secondary cause, it mentions "the 

 unpatriotic opposition of a part of the commercial 

 community to lord Napier's measures." " If (rea- 

 sons the same writer) the forts at the Eogue and 

 Tiger Island had been blown up, the guns thrown 

 into the river, and the frigates had been lightened 

 and warped up the river, lord Napier would have 

 had an interview with the viceroy, and all would 

 have gone on smoothly." This may be doubted. 

 For lord Napier's embarkation at Canton, the 

 Chinese had prepared tire rafts (eight were 

 counted,) which were brought in front of the fac- 

 tories. The river was also defended at Howqua's 

 Fort by three tiers of spars across the river, a 

 passage being left of about thirty feet, wliich was 

 closed at night by a chain. The lower mouth of 

 the right branch into which the river divides above 

 the raft, was strongly blockaded by piles and 

 sunken junks. The foreign trade was re-opened 

 (except the English) on the 23d of September, 

 and the English trade on the 27th. 



Lord Napier did not reach Macao till the morn- 

 ing of the 28th, having been thus between four 

 and five days on the water, two or three more 

 than necessary. The Canton Register states he 

 was detained until his conductors should hear that 

 the frigates bad passed out of the river, and that 

 he landed at Macao much weakened by "the bar- 

 barous delay and annoyance he met with." It 

 appears that he was surrounded by mandarin boats 

 full of men, the noise of whose gongs prevented 

 rest ; that they were compelled to anchor on the 

 25th for forty hours, gongs being beaten in the 

 mandarin boats and crackers let off night and day, 

 notwithstanding repeated entreaties from his lord- 

 ship's surgeon ; whilst he was tantalised by pro- 

 mises that he should go on, which were not real- 

 ized. At half-past ten on the night of the llth of 

 October, 1834, lord Napier expired, being within 

 two days of completing his forty-eighth year. 

 His lordship was buried, at his own request, 

 by the side of his late Chinese secretary, Dr Mor- 

 rison. His remains, however, have since been 

 brought to Europe, and interred in the family 

 vault in Scotland. Lord Napier married, March 

 28th, 1816, Elizabeth, only daughter of the late 

 hon. Andrew James Cochrane Johnstone, uncle to 

 the present earl of Dundonald, by whom he had 

 issue six daughters and two sons. 



NASH, JOHN, a modern architect of distinc- 

 tion ; died May 13, 1835, at his seat, East Cowes 

 Castle, in the Isle of Wight ; in his eighty-third 

 year. He was of Welch extraction, and amassed a 

 large fortune as a speculative builder. He was 

 the architect of several important buildings, of 

 which we may name the Huymarket Theatre, the 

 Church of All-Souls in Regent Street, the Church 

 of St Mary, Haggerston, in the parish of Shore- 

 ditch, and the new Royal Palace at Pimlico. His 

 Gothic mansion in the Isle of Wight was an early 

 production of its owner. Of his own elegant 

 house in Regent Street, a description and plates 

 will be found in Britton and Pugin's " Public 

 Buildings of London." In his designs for the 

 houses in the Regent's Park and Regent Street, 

 he adopted the idea of uniting several dwell- 

 ings into a single facade, so as to preserve that 

 degree of continuity essential to architectural im- 

 portance; and, however open to criticism many of \ 

 these designs may be, when considered separately, ' 



or in detail, he produced a varied succession of 

 architectural scenery, the aggregate effect of which 

 is picturesque and imposing, certainly superior to 

 that of any other portion of the metropolis. 

 York Terrace, Cumberland Terrace, Hanover 

 Terrace, &c., in the Regent's Park, may be con- 

 sidered a continuation of this design, and, like the 

 street, a great improvement upon the preceding 

 styles of domestic architecture. The architectural 

 taste of Mr Nash has often been questioned as to 

 the elevations of the buildings in Regent Street. 

 The great design for the formation of this magni- 

 ficent street originated with him; but the de- 

 signs for the particular buildings were those of 

 the various architects under whose special direc- 

 tions they were built, and with which his only 

 concern was to ascertain that they were pro- 

 perly constructed. 



N ASMYTH, ALEXANDER, an eminent landscape 

 painter, was born in 1757, at Edinburgh, where he 

 received his elementary education. In his youth 

 he went to London, and became the apprenticed 

 pupil of Allan Ramsay (son of the poet), at that 

 period one of the most esteemed portrait painters 

 of the metropolis. He afterwards visited Italy, 

 where he pursued his studies for several years, in 

 the society of the best Roman artists of the time, 

 and in the fellowship of some contemporary stu- 

 dents from England, whose names have since be- 

 come classic in English art. Having returned to 

 his native city, he commenced practising, with great 

 success, as a portrait painter, and had the honour 

 of pourtraying many of the most distinguished 

 men and women of his time. To his friendship 

 with Burns the world is indebted for the only au- 

 thentic portrait which exists of the great Scottish 

 poet. His passion for landscape, however, had 

 been gradually gaining ground ; and the pleasure 

 he had in executing some of his earlier landscapes, 

 and the applause with which they were received, 

 led him for the most part to abandon portrait, and 

 give himself up to his favourite pursuit. The dis- 

 tinctive characteristics of his chaste and elegant 

 compositions are well known ; his industry and 

 popularity have been so unceasing, that there is 

 hardly a mansion-house in England or Scotland, 

 besides more humble domiciles innumerable, on 

 whose walls a production of Nasmyth is not to be 

 found. He took ati active interest in all the 

 institutions established in Edinburgh for the 

 promotion of art. He was one of the few distin- 

 guished members of the original society of Scottish 

 artists ; he was one of the first elected associates 

 of the royal institution, to whose exhibitions he 

 became a principal contributor; and, although his 

 great age at the period of the union of the artists 

 of that body with the royal Scottish academy, pre- 

 vented his joining their institution, he allowed 

 himself to be named as an honorary member, and 

 ever continued to feel deeply interested in its pro- 

 sperity. His death took place on the 10th April, 

 1840, aged eighty-three. Soon after his return 

 from Italy, he married the sister of Sir James 

 Foulis of Woodhall, Colinton, by whom he had a 

 large family, who have all distinguished themselves, 

 more or less, in the arts. 



NECROPOLIS, (a.) from n*s, dead, and 

 *ax/;, city, city of the dead, was the name of a 

 suburb of Alexandria, in Egypt, where temples, 

 gardens, and mausoleums were erected, but was also 

 applied to ancient cemeteries in general, and has 

 been in modern days assumed as the designation of 



