in 1893, is dated the previous year, but he practically ceased to paint in oils in 1885. He excelled also in water-colours, and occasionally painted in that medium at a later date. One of his water-colours, 'Clout the auld' (1886), is in the Ashbee collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Although Nicol's humour was broader in his earlier than in his later canvases, he was always successful as a comic story-teller whose first-rate craftsmanship was never sacrificed to the pursuit of popularity. His mature drawing was generally sound and quick, and his colour was pleasing and sometimes rich and even subtle. After 1885 he lived in retirement, dividing his time between Crieff, Torduff House, Colinton, Midlothian, and The Dell, Feltham, where he died on 8 March 1904. He was buried in the burial-ground of his second wife's family at Rottingdean.
The jovial element in Nicol's canvases had no place in his life. His disposition was grave, shy, and reserved. Nicol was twice married: (1) in 1851 to Janet Watson, who died in 1863, leaving a son (Mr. John Watson Nicol, a painter) and a daughter; (2) in 1865 to Margaret Mary Wood, who survived him, and by whom he had two sons (the elder, Mr. Erskine Edwin Nicol, a painter) and a daughter.
Nicol's principal works, many of which were engraved, were: 'Irish Merry Making' (R.S.A. 1856); 'Donnybrook Fair' (1859); 'Renewal of the Lease Refused' (R.A. 1863), 'Waiting for the Train' (R.A. 1864); 'A Deputation' (R.A. 1865); 'Paying the Rent,' 'Missed it,' and 'Both Puzzled' (R.A. 1866, the last engraved by W. H. Simmons); 'A Country Booking-office' (R.A. 1867); 'A China Merchant' and 'The Cross-roads' (R.A. 1868); 'A Disputed Boundary' (R.A. 1869); 'The Fisher's Knot '(R. A. 1871); 'Steady, Johnnie, Steady' (R.A. 1873, engraved by Simmons); 'The New Vintage' (R.A. 1875); 'The Sabbath Day' (R.A. 1875, engraved by Simmons); 'Looking out for a Safe Investment' (engraved by Simmons) and 'A Storm at Sea' (R.A. 1876); 'Unwillingly to School' (R.A. 1877); 'The Missing Boat' (R.A. 1878); 'Interviewing their Member' (R.A. 1879, engraved by C. E. Deblois).
For the first volume of 'Good Words,' 1860-1, Nicol did three drawings. He is represented in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries by an oil painting, 'Beggar my Neighbour,' and in the Aberdeen Gallery by a water-colour. His oil paintings 'Wayside Prayers' (1852) and 'The Emigrants' (1864) in the Tate Gallery are poor examples. Nicol's portrait, by Sir William Fettes Douglas, exhibited at the R.S.A. in 1862, belongs to the Scottish Academy.
[Private information; Graves's Royal Academy Exhibitors; James Caw's Scottish Painting, Past and Present.]
NICOLSON, Mrs. ADELA FLORENCE, 'Laurence Hope' (1865–1904), poetess, born at Stoke House, Stoke Bishop, Gloucestershire, on 9 April 1865, was daughter of Arthur Cory, colonel in the Indian army, by his wife Fanny Elizabeth Griffin. She was educated at a private school in Richmond, and afterwards went to reside with her parents in India. In 1889 she married Colonel Malcolm Hassels Nicolson of the Bengal army [see below] and settled at Madras. The name Violet, by which her husband called her, was not baptismal. Mrs. Nicolson devoted her leisure to poetry. Her first volume, in which she first adopted the pseudonym of 'Laurence Hope,' 'The Garden of Kama and other Love Lyrics from India, arranged in Verse by Laurence Hope,' was published in 1901. Generally reviewed as the work of a man, it attracted considerable attention and was reissued as 'Songs from the Garden of Kama' in 1908. How far the substance of the poems was drawn from Indian originals was a matter of doubt. They are marked by an oriental luxuriance of passion, but the influence of Swinburne and other modern English poets is evident in diction and versification. Two other volumes under the same pseudonym, 'Stars of the Desert' (1903) and 'Indian Love,' published posthumously in 1905, display similar characteristics and confirmed without enhancing their author's reputation. Some of her shorter poems have become popular in musical settings. Mrs. Nicolson died by her own hand, of poisoning by perchloride of mercury, on 4 Oct. 1904, at Dunmore House, Madras. She had suffered acute depression since her husband's death two months before. She was buried, like General Nicolson, in St. Mary's cemetery, Madras. She left one son, Malcolm Josceline Nicolson.
Malcolm Hassels Nicolson (1843-1904), general, son of Major Malcolm Nicolson of the Bengal army, was born on 11 June 1843. He entered the army in 1859 as ensign in the Bombay infantry, and was promoted lieutenant in 1862. Serving in the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-8, he was present at the action at Azogel and at the capture
