Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/80

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Goldicutt
74
Goldie

in 1818 Goldicutt obtained a considerable private practice, and also occupied himself with public competitions. In 1820 he obtained third premium in the competition for the Post Office, and in 1829 a premium for the design for the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum. Between 1810 and 1842 he exhibited thirty-five architectural drawings in the Royal Academy exhibitions, among them being the following executed abroad:—in 1818, ‘View of the Ruins of the Temple of Peace, Rome’ (1817), afterwards engraved; in 1820, ‘Ruins of the Great Hypæthral Temple, Salinuntum, Sicily,’ etched by Pinelli for Goldicutt's ‘Antiquities of Sicily’; in 1834, ‘Ruins of the Ancient Theatre, Taormina’ (1818), etched by Pinelli; and in 1837, ‘View of the Temple of Concord, Ancient Agrigentum,’ etched by himself. Of designs for works on which he was professionally engaged, he exhibited:—in 1828, ‘Marine Villa,’ for S. Halliday, esq., at West Cowes; in 1830, ‘The Dell Villa, Windsor,’ for the Hon. H. R. Westenra, M.P.; in 1842, ‘St. James's Church, Paddington,’ which was unfinished at Goldicutt's death, and was completed under the direction of G. Gutch. In the rooms of the Royal Institute of British Architects are:—‘Plan of the Observatory at Capo del Monte,’ drawn by him to illustrate a sessional paper in 1840, and a lithograph by him of the Regent's Bridge, Edinburgh. In the print room of the British Museum is a ‘Veduta del Tempio d'Ercole a Cora,’ drawn and etched by him in 1818. Three of his drawings and two plans, by Goldicutt and Hakewill, were engraved in T. L. Donaldson's work on Pompeii in 1827. Goldicutt was one of the first honorary secretaries of the Royal Institute (1834–6); he originated and helped to carry out the presentation of a testimonial to Sir John Soane in 1835. He was a member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome, and of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Naples. He was surveyor for the district of St. Clement Danes with St. Mary-le-Strand, and one of the justices and commissioners of sewers for Westminster and Middlesex. He made various alterations at White's Club House, St. James's Street. He died at his house, 39 Clarges Street (where his mother had died before him in 1813), on 3 Oct. 1842, aged 49, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He left a widow and five sons.

He published:

  1. ‘Antiquities of Sicily,’ with plates etched by Pinelli of Rome, 1819.
  2. ‘Specimens of Ancient Decorations from Pompeii,’ 1825.
  3. ‘Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh,’ the greater number of the illustrations lithographed by himself, 1826.
  4. ‘Ancient Wells and Reservoirs, with Observations upon their Decorative Character,’ in ‘Institute Sessional Paper,’ 1836.
  5. ‘The Competition for the Erection of the Nelson Monument critically examined,’ 1841.

He read several communications at meetings of the institute, and in its library are preserved manuscripts of: (1) ‘Address read at the General Meeting, 3 Feb.,’ 1835; (2) ‘Testimonial to Sir John Soane,’ 1835; (3) Extract from a paper ‘On the Art of Fresco-Painting,’ 11 June 1838.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Civil Engineer, 1842, pp. 372–3; Dict. of Architecture; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Gent. Mag. 1813 p. 286, 1835 p. 76; T. L. Donaldson's Pompeii, 1827, i. 2, 48, plate 84, ii. 12, 30; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues; Cat. of the Drawings, &c., in the Royal Institute of British Architects; Univ. Cat. of Books on Art; Cat. of Library of Royal Institute of Brit. Architects; information from Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, & Co.]

B. P.

GOLDIE or GOUDIE, JOHN (1717–1809), essayist, was born in 1717 at Craigmill, in the parish of Galston, Ayr, on the premises where his forefathers had been millers for nearly four hundred years. He had little or no schooling, but after his mother had taught him to read he soon learnt writing, and early displayed much taste for mechanics. Before he was fifteen he constructed a miniature mill, which would grind a boll of peas in the day. Then he began business as a cabinet maker at Kilmarnock, and made a beautifully engraved clock case of mahogany, which was purchased by the Duke of Hamilton, and was placed in Hamilton Palace. He soon made enough money to buy a large wine and spirit shop in the same town, where he carried on a thriving trade. He eagerly studied Euclid and astronomy at the same time, and learnt to calculate mentally in a surprisingly short time the most difficult arithmetical problems.

Goldie had been brought up in the strictest Calvinistic principles, but his views grew moderate and he became almost a deist. He took part in the theological dispute between the adherents of ‘the new and auld licht.’ Burns wrote an ‘epistle’ to him which begins—

O Goudie, terror of the Whigs,
Dread of black coats and reverend wigs,

and tells that enthusiasm and orthodoxy are now at their last gasp, adding—

'Tis you and Taylor are the chief,
Wha are to blame for this mischief.

While condemned by the orthodox, Goldie made many friends in consequence of his sterling honesty and good sense. He was on in-