portrait of George, lord Pigot. Besides these he engraved in mezzotint a few portraits, among which are those of Mrs. Baldwin, after Tilly Kettle, and Lieutenant-colonel Townshend, a small oval after Hudson. He died in London not later than 1800.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; John Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-83, pp. 529-31; Exhibition Catalogues of the Incorporated Society of Artists, 1765-74; Rev. Mark Noble's Continuation of Vertue's Catalogue of Engravers, MS. dated 1806.]
GREEN, BENJAMIN RICHARD (1808–1876), water-colour painter, born in London in 1808, was son of James Green [q. v.], the portrait-painter. He studied art in the schools of the Royal Academy, and painted both figures and landscapes, mostly in water-colour. He was elected in 1834 a member of the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours. Green was very much employed as a teacher of drawing and a lecturer. He exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy and the Suffolk Street exhibitions, beginning in 1832, and also at the various exhibitions of paintings in water-colours. In 1829 Green published a numismatic atlas of ancient history, executed in lithography; a French edition of this work was published in the same year. Green also published some works on perspective, a lecture on ancient coins, and a series of heads from the antique. He was for many years secretary of the Artists' Annuity Fund, and died in London 5 Oct. 1876, aged 68. In the South Kensington Museum there is a water-colour drawing by him of the 'Interior of Stratford-on-Avon Church.'
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
GREEN, CHARLES (1785–1870), aeronaut, son of Thomas Green, fruiterer, of Willow Walk, Goswell Street, London, who died in May 1850, aged 88, was born at 92 Goswell Road, London, on 31 Jan. 1785, and on leaving school was taken into his father's business. His first ascent was from the Green Park, London, on 19 July 1821, by order of the government, at the coronation of George IV, in a balloon filled with carburetted hydrogen gas, he being the first person who ascended with a balloon so inflated. After that time he made 526 ascents. On 16 Aug. 1828 he ascended from the Eagle tavern, City Road, on the back of his pony, and after being up for half an hour descended at Beckenham in Kent. In 1836 he constructed the Great Nassau balloon for Gye and Hughes, proprietors of Vauxhall Gardens, from whom he subsequently purchased it for 500l., and on 9 Sept. in that year made the first ascent with it from Vauxhall Gardens, in company with eight persons, and, after remaining in the air about one hour and a half, descended at Cliffe, near Gravesend. On 21 Sept. he made a second ascent, accompanied by eleven persons, and descended at Beckenham in Kent. He also made four other ascents with it from Vauxhall, including the celebrated continental ascent, undertaken at the expense of Robert Hollond, M.P. for Hastings, who, with Monck Mason, accompanied him. They left Vauxhall Gardens at 1.30 p.m. on 7 Nov. 1836, and, crossing the channel from Dover the same evening, descended the next day, at 7 a.m., at Weilburg in Nassau, Germany, having travelled altogether about five hundred miles in eighteen hours. On 19 Dec. 1836 he again went up from Paris with six persons, and on 9 Jan. 1837 with eight persons. The Great Nassau ascended from Vauxhall Gardens on 24 July, Green having with him Edward Spencer and Robert Cocking. At a height of five thousand feet Cocking liberated himself from the balloon, and descending in a parachute of his own construction into a field on Burnt Ash Farm, Lee, was killed on reaching the ground (Times, 25, 26, 27, and 29 July 1837). The balloon came down the same evening near Town Mailing, Kent, and it was not until the next day that Green heard of the death of his companion.
In 1838 Green made two experimental ascents from Vauxhall Gardens at the expense of George Rush of Elsenham Hall, Essex. The first took place on 4 Sept., Rush and Edward Spencer accompanying the aeronaut. They attained the elevation of 19,335 feet, and descended at Thaxted in Essex. The second experiment was made on 10 Sept., and was for the purpose of ascertaining the greatest altitude that could be attained with the Great Nassau balloon inflated with carburetted hydrogen gas and carrying two persons only. Green ascended with Rush for his companion, and they reached the elevation of 27,146 feet, or about five miles and a quarter, as indicated by the barometer, which fell from 30·50 to 11, the thermometer falling from 61° to 5°, or 27° below freezing point. On several occasions this balloon was carried by the upper currents between eighty and one hundred miles in the hour. On 31 March 1841 Green ascended from Hastings, accompanied by Charles Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, and in five hours descended at Neufchatel, about ten miles south-west of Boulogne.
