his journal was never recovered. In 1827 his second son, Thomas, landed on the Guinea coast, intending to make his way to Bussa, where he thought his father might be detained a prisoner, but after penetrating some little distance inland he died of fever. Park’s widow died in 1840.
J. Thomson’s Mungo Park and the Niger (London, 1890) contains the best critical estimate of the explorer and his work. See also the Life (by Wishaw) prefixed to Journal of a Mission into the Interior of Africa in 1805 (London, 1815); H. B., Life of Mungo Park (Edinburgh, 1835); and an interesting passage in Lockhart’s Life of Sir Walter Scott, vol. ii.
PARK (Fr. parc; Ital. parco; Sp. parque; O.Eng. pearroc;
connected with Ger. pferch, fold, and pfarrei, district, translating
med. Lat. parochia, parish), a word ordinarily used in two senses:
(a) an enclosed tract of ground, consisting of grass-land, planted
with trees and shrubs, and surrounding a large country house;
(b) a similar space in or near a town, laid out ornamentally, and
used by the public as an “open space” for health or recreation.
The term “park” first occurs in English as a term of the forest law of England for a tract of ground enclosed and privileged for beasts of the chase, the distinguishing characteristics of which were “vert,” i.e. the green leaves of trees, “venison,” i.e. deer, and “enclosure.” A “park” was a franchise obtained by prescription or by grant from the crown (see Forest Law; also Deer Park).
The word has had a technical military significance since the early part of the 17th century. Originally meaning the space occupied by the artillery, baggage and supply vehicles of an army when at rest, it came to be used of the mass of vehicles itself. From this mass first of all the artillery, becoming more mobile, separated itself; then as the mobility of armies in general became greater they outpaced their heavy vehicles, with the result that faster moving transport units had to be created to keep up communication. A “park” is thus at the present day a large unit consisting of several hundred vehicles carrying stores; it moves several days’ marches in rear of the army, and forms a reservoir from “whence the mobile ammunition and supply columns” draw the supplies and stores required for the army’s needs. “Parking” vehicles is massing them for a halt. The word “park” is still used to mean that portion of an artillery or administrative troops’ camp or bivouac in which the vehicles are placed.
PARKER, SIR GILBERT (1862–), British novelist and
politician, was born at Camden East, Addington, Ontario, on
the 23rd of November 1862, the son of Captain J. Parker, R.A.
He was educated at Ottawa and at Trinity University, Toronto.
In 1886 he went to Australia, and became for a while
associate-editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He also travelled
extensively in the Pacific, and subsequently in northern Canada;
and in the early ’nineties he began to make a growing reputation
in London as a writer of romantic fiction. The best of his
novels are those in which he first took for his subject the history
and life of the French Canadians; and his permanent literary
reputation rests on the fine quality, descriptive and dramatic, of
his Canadian stories. Pierre and his People (1892) was followed
by Mrs Falchion (1893), The Trail of the Sword (1894), When
Valmond came to Pontiac (1895), An Adventurer of the North
(1895), and The Seats of the Mighty (1896, dramatized in 1897).
The Lane that had no Turning (1900) contains some of his best
work. In The Battle of the Strong (1898) he broke new ground,
laying his scene in the Channel Islands. His chief later books
were The Right of Way (1901), Donovan Pasha (1902), The Ladder
of Swords (1904), The Weavers (1907) and Northern Lights (1909).
In 1895 he married Miss Van Tine of New York, a wealthy heiress.
His Canadian connexion and his experience in Australia and
elsewhere had made him a strong Imperialist in politics, and from
that time he began to devote himself in large measure to a
political career. He still kept up his literary work, but some
of the books last mentioned cannot compare with those by which
he made his name. He was elected to parliament in 1900
(re-elected 1906 and 1910) as Conservative member for Gravesend
and soon made his mark in the House of Commons. He was
knighted in 1902, and in succeeding years continually
strengthened his position in the party, particularly by his energetic
work on behalf of Tariff Reform and Imperial Preference. If
he had given up to public life what at one time seemed to be due
to literature, he gave it for enthusiasm in the Imperialist
movement; and with the progress of that cause he came to rank by 1910 as one of the foremost men in the Unionist party outside those who had held office.
PARKER, SIR HYDE, Bart. (1714–1782), British
vice-admiral, was born at Tredington, Worcestershire, on the 25th
of February, 1714, his father, a clergyman, being a son of Sir
Henry Parker, Bart. His paternal grandfather had married
a daughter of Bishop Alexander Hyde, of Salisbury. He began
his career at sea in the merchant service. Entering the royal
navy at the age of twenty-four, he was made lieutenant in 1744,
and in 1748 he was made post-captain. During the latter
part of the Seven Years’ War he served in the East Indies,
taking part in the capture of Pondicherry (1761) and of Manila
(1762). In the latter year Parker with two ships captured one
of the valuable Spanish plate ships in her voyage between
Acapulco and Manila. In 1778 he became rear-admiral, and
went to North American waters as second-in-command. For
some time before Rodney’s arrival he was in command on the
Leeward Islands station, and conducted a skilful campaign
against the French at Martinique. In 1781, having returned
home and become vice-admiral, he fell in with a Dutch fleet of
about his own force, though far better equipped, near the Dogger
Bank (Aug. 5). After a fiercely contested battle, in which
neither combatant gained any advantage, both sides drew
off. Parker considered that he had not been properly equipped
for his task, and insisted on resigning his command. In 1782
he accepted the East Indies command, though he had just
succeeded to the family baronetcy. On the outward voyage
his flagship, the “Cato” (60), was lost with all on board.
His second son, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker (1739–1807), entered the navy at an early age, and became lieutenant in 1758, having passed most of his early service in his father’s ships. Five years later he became a post-captain, and from 1766 onwards for many years he served in the West Indies and in North American waters, particularly distinguishing himself in breaking the defences of the North river (New York) in 1776. His services on this occasion earned him a knighthood in 1779. In 1778 he was engaged in the Savannah expedition, and in the following year his ship was wrecked on the hostile Cuban coast. His men, however, entrenched themselves, and were in the end brought off safely. Parker was with his father at the Dogger Bank, and with Howe in the two actions in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1793, having just become rear-admiral, he served under Lord Hood at Toulon and in Corsica, and two years later, now a vice-admiral, he took part, under Hotham, in the indecisive fleet actions of the 13th of March and the 13th of July 1795. From 1796 to 1800 he was in command at Jamaica and ably conducted the operations in the West Indies. In 1801 he was appointed to command the fleet destined to break up the northern armed neutrality, with Nelson as his second-in-command. Copenhagen, the first objective of the expedition, fell on the 2nd of April to the fierce attack of Nelson’s squadron, Parker with the heavier ships taking little part. Subsequently Parker hesitated to advance up the Baltic after his victory, a decision which was severely criticised. Soon afterwards he was recalled and Nelson succeeded him. He died in 1807.
The family name was continued in the navy in his eldest son, who became vice-admiral and was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty in 1853 (dying in 1854); and also in that son’s son, who as a captain in the Black Sea was killed in 1854 when storming a Russian fort.
PARKER, JOHN HENRY (1806–1884), English writer on
architecture, the son of a London merchant, was born on the 1st of March 1806. He was educated at Manor House School, Chiswick, and in 1821 entered business as a bookseller. Succeeding his uncle, Joseph Parker, as a bookseller at Oxford in 1832,
