employed as chief gardener. In 1808 he sent to the Royal Academy a view of the garden front at Esher Place, in 1814 a drawing for a villa at Hildersham in Cambridgeshire, and a few other drawings in later years. Between 1825 and 1828 he was engaged in building the new bridge over the Thames at Kingston. In 1827 and the two following years he built the church of St. Peter at Hammersmith, and in 1832 the chapel of St. Andrew on Ham Common, Surrey. In 1836 he was an unsuccessful competitor for the new houses of parliament, and in 1837 for the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. In 1836–7 he made considerable alterations to St. Mary's Church at Putney, and in 1839–40 to All Saints' Church at Fulham. Lapidge was a fellow of the Institute of British Architects, and surveyor of bridges and public works for the county of Surrey. In the latter capacity he executed many works of minor importance. He died early in March 1860. Rear-admiral William Lapidge, who served with great distinction in the Channel squadron, and died 17 July 1860, aged 67, was his brother.
[Dict. of Architecture; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1860, pt. ii. p. 324.]
LAPORTE, JOHN (1761–1839), water-colour painter, was born in 1761, and became a drawing-master at the military academy at Addiscombe. He was also a successful private teacher, and Dr. Thomas Monro [q. v.], the patron of Turner, was one of his pupils. From 1785 he contributed landscapes to the Royal Academy and British Institution exhibitions, and was an original member of the short-lived society 'The Associated Artists in Water-colours,' from which he retired in 1811. He published: 'Characters of Trees,' 1798–1801, 'Progressive Lessons sketched from Nature,' 1804, and 'The Progress of a Water-colour Drawing;' and, in conjunction with William F. Wells [q. v.], executed a set of seventy-two etchings, entitled 'A Collection of Prints illustrative of English Scenery, from the Drawings and Sketches of T. Gainsborough,' 1819. His 'Perdita discovered by the Old Shepherd' was engraved by Bartolozzi, and his 'View of Millbank on the River Thames near London' by F. Jukes. Laporte died in London 8 July 1839. Three of his drawings are in the South Kensington Museum. His daughter, Miss M. A. Laporte, exhibited portraits and fancy subjects at the Academy and the British Institution from 1813 to 1822; in 1835 she was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water-colours, but withdrew in 1846.
Laporte, George Henry (d. 1873), animal painter, son of the above, exhibited sporting subjects at the Academy, British Institution, and Suffolk Street Gallery from 1818, and was a foundation member of the Institute of Painters in Water-colours, to which he sent clever representations of animals, hunting scenes, and military groups. Some of his works were engraved in the 'New Sporting Magazine.' Laporte held the appointment of animal painter to the king of Hanover. He died suddenly at 13 Norfolk Square, London, 23 Oct. 1873.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Roget's History of the Old Water-colour Society, 1891; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Royal Academy and British Institution Catalogues; Year's Art, 1886; Times, 25 Oct. 1873.]
LAPRAIK, JOHN (1727–1807), Scottish poet, was born at Laigh Dalquhram (Dalfram), near Muirkirk, Ayrshire, in 1727. After education in the parochial school he succeeded his father on the estate, which was of considerable extent, and had been in the family for generations. He also rented the lands and mill of Muirsmill, in the neighbourhood. In 1754 he married Margaret Rankine, sister of Burns's friend, 'rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine.' She died after the birth of her fifth child, and in 1766 Lapraik married Janet Anderson, a farmer's daughter, who bore nine children, and survived her husband fifteen years. Ruined by the collapse of the Ayr Bank in 1772, Lapraik had first to let and then to sell his estate, and after an interval to relinquish his mill and farms, on which for several years he struggled to exist. Confined for a time as a debtor, he figured as a prison bard. After 1796 he opened a public-house at Muirkirk, conducting also the village post-office on the same premises. Here he died, 7 May 1807.
Early in 1785 Burns heard the song 'When I upon thy bosom lean' at a 'rocking,' or social gathering, in his house at Mossgiel Farm, Muirkirk. Learning that Lapraik was the author, he made his acquaintance, and within the year addressed to him his three famous 'Epistles.' Burns, who sent an improved version to Johnson's 'Museum,' never knew that the song was a clever adaptation from a lyric published in the 'Weekly Magazine,' 14 Oct. 1773 (Chambers, Burns, i. 254, library ed.). Burns's generous patronage encouraged Lapraik to publish his verses, which appeared at Kilmarnock in 1788 as 'Poems on Several Occasions.' The volume contains nothing equal to the 'Rocking Song.' James Maxwell of Paisley notices Lapraik unfavourably in his 'Animadversions on some Poets and Poetasters of the Present Age,' Paisley, 1788.
