set, and Sir George Berkeley. When the next Kaffir war broke out in 1851, he was at once ordered to the front, and placed in command of a column, consisting of his own regiment and some light infantry, by Sir Harry Smith. With this force he accomplished many important feats of arms; on 16 April 1851 he defeated the Kaffirs at Quibigui River, and on 10 Sept. at Committee's Hill; on 14 March 1852 he commanded the right column in the attack on Macomo's stronghold; and on 7 April he captured over eight hundred cattle in an independent expedition into the Amatola country. When Sir George Cathcart succeeded Sir Harry Smith, he maintained Eyre in command of his independent column, and under the new commander-in-chief Eyre co-operated throughout the final operations of the Kaffir war with the greatest credit (see Correspondence of Sir George Cathcart, pp. 16, 36, 67, 94, 127, 153). When this was over, Eyre was selected for the command of the second brigade of the army, which Sir George Cathcart led in person to punish Moshesh, the Basuto chief. At the battle of Berea he commanded on the right, and did much to win the victory. Nevertheless, in certain private letters, afterwards published (ib. pp. 344, 345), Cathcart blamed Eyre for thinking more of seizing cattle than of his military duties, an accusation which the latter refuted in an interesting letter to the ‘Morning Herald’ of 23 Oct. 1856. In his public despatches Cathcart had nothing but praise for his subordinate, and Eyre was for his services made C.B., and an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, and promoted colonel on 28 May 1853. He shortly afterwards returned to England, and when an army was ordered to the East under Lord Raglan in 1854, Eyre was nominated to command the second brigade of the 3rd division under his old chief Cathcart. At the head of this brigade he was present at the battle of the Alma, and he was honourably mentioned for his services in command of the trenches during the battle of Inkerman. After that battle he succeeded to the command of the 3rd division, although he was not promoted major-general until 12 Dec. 1854, in succession to Cathcart. He remained in the Crimea throughout the terrible winter of 1854–5, and it was partly in recognition of this conduct that Lord Raglan gave him the command of the force which was directed to threaten the dockyard creek on 18 June 1855. The history of this movement and its results are fully related in Kinglake's ‘Invasion of the Crimea’ (vol. viii.). Eyre was himself wounded in the face during the operations. He remained in the Crimea until the conclusion of the war, and was for his services made a K.C.B. on 10 July 1855, and a knight of the Legion of Honour and of the Medjidie in the following year. In July 1856 he was appointed to the command of the forces in Canada, but the privations of the Crimean winter had destroyed his health, and he had to resign in June 1859. He retired to Bilton Hall, near Rugby, where he died on 8 Sept. 1859. A window was erected to his memory in Bilton Church.
[Naval and Military Records of Rugbeians; Burke's Landed Gentry; Records of the 73rd and 43rd Regiments; Correspondence of Sir George Cathcart; Mrs. Ward's Five Years in Kaffirland for the first Kaffir War; Cope's Hist. of the Rifle Brigade for the second Kaffir War and the battle of Berea; Nolan's Expedition to the East; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, especially vol. viii.]
EYSTON, BERNARD, D.D. (1628–1709), Franciscan friar, called in religion Bernard à Sancto Francisco, was a younger son of William Eyston, esq., of East Hendred, Berkshire, by Mary, daughter of James Thatcher, esq., of Priesthawes, in the parish of Westham, Sussex. He became lector of divinity at St. Bonaventure's Convent, Douay, where he died on 28 May 1709. He wrote ‘The Christian Duty compared, being Discourses upon the Creed, Ten Commandments, and the Sacraments,’ Aire, 1684, 4to.
Another Franciscan named Eyston, whose christian name has not been ascertained, was the author of ‘A Clear Looking-glass for all Wandering Sinners,’ Rouen, 1654, 24mo, dedicated to Lady Willoughby.
[Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, pp. 545, 551; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 206, 207.]
EYSTON, CHARLES (1667–1721), antiquary, eldest son of George Eyston, esq., of East Hendred, Berkshire, by Ann, daughter of Robert Dormer of Peterley, Buckinghamshire, was born in 1667. He became distinguished as an antiquary, and was a great friend of Thomas Hearne, who in his ‘Diary’ says: ‘He was a Roman catholick, and so charitable to the poor, that he is lamented by all that knew anything of him. … He was a man of a sweet temper and was an excellent scholar, but so modest that he did not care to have it at any time mentioned’ (Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ed. 1869, ii. 144). He died on 5 Nov. 1721, and was buried in Hendred Church.
He married in 1692 Winefrid Dorothy, daughter of Basil Fitzherbert, esq., of Swinnerton, Staffordshire, and of Norbury, Derbyshire, and had a numerous family. One of his sons became a jesuit, and several of his
