he introduced a drawing class at the Harp Alley school, and taught it once a week. Forced to rusticate at Ventnor by a broken leg, he spent a long vacation in sketching. From this period art was the perpetual joy of his busy life. He taught it to working men; cultivated it in the ‘conversation society’ founded at his residence, Squire's Mount, Hampstead; and pursued it in successive long vacations on the Thames, at Mill House, Cleve, near Goring, Oxfordshire. His original sketches fill many folios. He greatly assisted Henry Crabb Robinson in forming the Flaxman Gallery at University College, London. In 1862 he was a member of the committee of the fine art section of the International Exhibition. In 1868 he took a leading part in framing the scheme for the Slade School of Art (opened 1871) in connection with University College. Few things gratified him more than the token of regard presented to him in 1863 by his artist friends of the Old Water-colour Society, in the shape of a portfolio of their original drawings.
Field's character impressed even casual acquaintances, and accounted for the warmth and range of his friendships. All his ideals were high; and his pace and force were tremendous. His convictions were strong; equally strong was his love of independence in others. ‘Do you believe that heresy is the salt of the earth?’ was a characteristic question of his. A certain bluffness of manner expressed the rapidity of his mind, without veiling his robust goodness of heart.
His end was tragical. By the capsizing of a boat on 30 July 1871 he was drowned in the Thames, in company with Henry Ellwood, his old clerk, both good swimmers. Their strength had been exhausted in supporting another clerk, who could not swim, and was saved. On 4 Aug. he was buried at the Highgate cemetery, in a vault next to that of his friend Robinson. He was twice married: first, in 1830, to Mary, daughter of Sutton Sharpe, who died at Leamington in 1831, soon after the birth of her son Rogers, named after his great-uncle, the poet; secondly, in 1833, to Letitia, daughter of Robert Kinder, by whom he had seven children; his sons Basil and Allen followed the legal profession; Walter devoted himself to art.
Field's portrait, by Sir John Watson Gordon, was painted in 1858, subscribed for by a hundred of his former clerks and pupils; it has been engraved. An admirable likeness is presented in a river-piece by his son Walter, which has been reproduced by photography. Another is among the fresco-portraits in the dining hall of University Hall, Gordon Square. The best portrait of his mind is drawn by his own hand, in the letter to the ‘hundred clerks’ in 1858.
Sadler gives a list of nineteen of his publications, of which the following may be mentioned: 1. ‘Memoir of Edgar Taylor’ (reprinted for private circulation from ‘Legal Observer,’ 28 Sept. 1839). 2. ‘Observations of a Solicitor on Defects in the … System … of the Equity Courts’ (28 Feb.) 1840, 8vo. 3. ‘Observations of a Solicitor on … Liability Partnerships,’ &c., 1854, 8vo. 4. ‘Correspondence on the present relations between Great Britain and the United States,’ &c., Boston, Mass., 1862, 8vo (between Field and C. G. Loring).
[Sadler's Memorial Sketch, 1872; Murch's Memoir of R. Hibbert, 1874, p. 65 sq.; Clayden's Samuel Sharpe, 1883, p. 40; private information.]
FIELD, FREDERICK (1801–1885), divine, born in London 20 July 1801, was the son of Henry Field [q. v.], an apothecary, and brother of Barron Field [q. v.], chief justice of Gibraltar. He was proud of being a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell; his grandfather, John Field (who was also an apothecary), having married Anne Cromwell, a great-granddaughter of Henry Cromwell, the lord deputy of Ireland. His father was medical officer to Christ's Hospital, to which he was sent when he was only six years old as a private pupil of the head-master. Here he remained till 1819, and then went on to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1823 he was tenth wrangler, chancellor's classical medallist, and Tyrwhitt's Hebrew scholar, and in 1824 he was elected fellow of his college, in company with T. B. Macaulay, Henry Malden, and G. B. Airy. Owing probably to some degree of deafness (which began early in life, and which in his later years became so aggravated as to make him avoid all society), he took no part in the public tuition of his college, though he was examiner for the classical tripos in 1833 and 1837. He read with private pupils (among whom was F. D. Maurice), and having been ordained by Kaye, bishop of Lincoln, in 1828, he thenceforth devoted himself almost entirely to biblical and patristical studies. His name is inseparably connected with Chrysostom and Origen. He first undertook Chrysostom's homilies on St. Matthew, which were printed and published at Cambridge in 1839 in three volumes, with an improved Greek text, various readings, and explanatory notes. He shortly after ceased to reside in Cambridge, and for the next twenty-four years combined parochial work with his literary labours. For
