commissioners for 1,000l., and was engraved at the expense of the commission. This success advanced Cross in one bound to the foremost rank of the profession, but the labour and anxiety brought on a serious illness, from which he was a long time recovering. He henceforth devoted himself to historical painting, which was unfortunately a branch of art that met with little support, and required a stronger constitution to carry it on than Cross possessed. In 1850 he sent his first contribution to the Royal Academy—‘The Burial of the Young Princes in the Tower,’ followed by ‘Edward the Confessor leaving his Crown to Harold’ (1851), ‘The Assassination of Thomas à Becket’ (1853), ‘Lucy Preston imploring the Pardon of her Father of Queen Mary II’ (1856), and ‘William the Conqueror seizing the Crown of England’ (1859). His works, though of the highest class of art, remained unsold, and this told upon his health, which began to fail rapidly. With his health his powers also failed him, and the pictures contributed by him to the Royal Academy in 1860 were actually rejected. He tried teaching drawing and portrait-painting, and struggled on under the afflictions of disappointment, failure, and increasing illness. He died 27 Feb. 1861 in Gloucester Place, Regent's Park, aged 41, leaving his wife and family totally unprovided for. Several leading artists to whom Cross was personally endeared, and who had a high opinion of his abilities, started a subscription in order to purchase some of his unsold works and raise a fund for his wife and family. An exhibition of his principal works was held at the rooms of the Society of Arts in the Adelphi, and the subscription resulted in the purchase of ‘The Assassination of Thomas à Becket,’ which was placed in Canterbury Cathedral, and ‘The Burial of the Young Princes in the Tower,’ which was placed by his Devonshire friends in the Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter. The latter picture had been engraved by the Art Union in 1850.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Clement and Hutton's Artists of the Nineteenth Century; Art Journal, 1861; Illustrated London News, 10 March 1861; Builder, 16 March 1861; Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science, xiii. 229; Royal Academy Catalogues, &c.]
CROSS, MARY ANN or MARIAN (1819–1880), novelist under the name of George Eliot, was born 22 Nov. 1819, at Arbury farm, in the parish of Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire. Her father, Robert Evans (b. 1773), son of a builder and carpenter in Derbyshire, became agent of Francis Newdigate for estates at Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire, and Arbury, Warwickshire. In 1801 he married Harriott Poynton, who died in 1809, leaving two children, Robert (b. 1802), and Frances Lucy (b. 1805). In 1813 he married his second wife, Christiana Pearson, by whom he had three children, Christiana (b. 1814), Isaac (b. 1816), and Mary Ann. At the end of 1819 the eldest son, Robert, became agent under his father for the Kirk Hallam estate, and went to live there with his sister Frances, afterwards Mrs. Houghton. In March 1820 the father removed to Griff, an old red-brick house on the Arbury estate. Robert Evans, a man of great physical strength, and distinguished for integrity and skill in his business, is partly portrayed in the Adam Bede and Caleb Garth of his daughter's novels, where other early impressions are turned to account. His second wife gave some hints for Mrs. Poyser in ‘Adam Bede.’ Her family are prototypes of the Dodsons. The relation between Mary Ann and Christiana Evans resembled that between Dorothea and Celia Brooke; and some of the scenes between Maggie and Tom Tulliver are founded upon incidents in the childhood of Mary Ann and Isaac Evans. The early part of the ‘Mill on the Floss’ is in substance autobiographical, though the author was anxious to avoid too close adherence to facts. She aimed at a transfiguration, not a reproduction; but it may be suspected that she was not herself conscious of the degree of likeness. Mary Ann was not precocious as an infant, preferring play to reading; but her development was certainly not slow. When five years old she was sent with her sister to a boarding-school kept by Miss Lathom at Attleborough, Warwickshire, whence in her eighth or ninth year they were transferred to a large school kept by Miss Wallington at Nuneaton. Miss Lewis, the principal governess, became her intimate friend, and corresponded with her for years. She now developed a passion for reading; and about 1827 was fascinated by ‘Waverley.’ Other favourite books were Elia's ‘Essays,’ Defoe's ‘History of the Devil,’ ‘Pilgrim's Progress,’ and ‘Rasselas.’ Miss Lewis helped to influence the child's growing religious faith in the direction of evangelicalism. In 1832 she was sent to Miss Franklin's school at Coventry, where her musical gifts were strongly shown, though a display of them was restricted by ‘agonies of shyness.’
She left school finally at Christmas 1835. Her mother died in the summer of 1836. Her sister, Christiana, married Edward Clarke, a surgeon at Meriden, Warwickshire, in the
