translating Dickson's Agriculture of the Ancients, and some of the works of Arthur Young, Marshall, and other standard English writers on agriculture. In 1806 he went to Rome, where he for a short time presided over the French Academy. He remained in Italy till 1817, employed in completing the works above cited. He died at Briançon, August 1, 1819.—J. T—e.
PARISH, Eli, known as Parish Alvars, the most eminent harpist and composer for his instrument, was born at Teignmouth, 29th February, 1806, and died at Vienna, 26th January, 1849. He was one of the ten children of an organist of West Teignmouth, who began to teach him the harp in 1809, allowed him occasionally to supply his place at the organ in 1811, and in 1813 brought him before the public at a concert in Totness. After this, the very precocious child went to London, when irregular opportunity permitted, to take lessons of Bochsa; and he began to gain his own living, by teaching the harp and pianoforte and by playing at dances in his native town, in 1816. Having developed his rare talent by indefatigable study, he took leave of Devonshire in 1829, resolved to gain distinction throughout Europe. After a brief stay in London, he passed a considerable time in Italy, where he married a lady named Alvars, whose name he adopted, and thus rendered it famous. He visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Constantinople, leaving a lasting memory of his remarkable powers wherever he appeared. In 1836 he went to Vienna, and was there appointed harpist to the emperor; but the duties of this office did not prevent him from travelling, and he extended his renown by playing in all the German capitals. He came to London in 1842, and again in 1844, and appeared each time at a concert of the Philharmonic Society, where his performance excited the admiration of all musicians. The playing of Parish Alvars was notable for the never-equalled volume of tone he drew from his instrument, for the infinite gradations by which he varied this, for his unprecedented rapidity of execution, and for his extreme delicacy and breadth of expression. He ascribed his command of the resources of composition to the instructions he received from Molique. He wrote symphonies and overtures of great merit, but was more particularly successful in his pieces for the harp. Of these his concertos rank at the head of all that has been written for his ungrateful instrument, and his lighter productions have the twofold merit of originality and grace.—G. A. M.
PARK, Sir James Allan, Knight, one of the judges of the court of common pleas, was the son of a medical gentleman of Newington in Surrey, and educated at the free grammar-school of Northampton. Called to the bar at Lincoln's inn in 1784, he distinguished himself in his profession, was appointed a king's counsel in 1799, and in 1817 one of the judges of the common pleas. He was punctilious, charitable, devout. It fell to Baron Park to try Thurtell, Fauntleroy, Corder, and Greenacre. He died in December, 1839. In 1787 he published "A system of the Law of Marine Insurance," long a text-book, and which with Abbott on Shipping forms the volume; "The Shipping Laws of the British Empire," edited by Mr. George Atkinson in 1854. Besides his "Earnest exhortation to frequent the reception of the Holy Sacrament," 1801, he published in his earlier years a "Memoir of the late William Stevens," who like himself had taken a deep interest in the Scottish episcopal church.—F. E.
PARK, Mungo, the celebrated African traveller, was born at Fowlshiels, near Selkirk. His father, a respectable Scotch farmer, promoted the education of his children to the best of his ability, and Mungo, after receiving private instruction at home, was sent to Selkirk grammar-school. He was destined by his father for the church) but having chosen the profession of medicine he was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to Mr. Anderson, a surgeon at Selkirk, and in 1789 proceeded to Edinburgh to attend the course of medical lectures at the university there. In the vacations he was accustomed to make botanical excursions to the highlands in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Dickson, a skilful botanist and a successful nurseryman of London, who had owed much to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks. Mungo was introduced to Sir Joseph, and through his interest obtained the appointment of assistant-surgeon to the Worcester East Indiaman. He sailed in February, 1792, and made a voyage to Sumatra, bringing home with him observations and specimens which were communicated to the Linnæan Society. At the time of his return to England the African Association, of which Sir Joseph Banks was an active member, were inquiring for an explorer to supply the place of Major Houghton, one of the early victims to the spirit of African discovery. Park offered himself for the dangerous post, and was accepted. After spending some time in preparations he sailed from Portsmouth in May, 1795, for the Gambia, where he arrived in the following month. From Jillifree, where he landed, he proceeded to Pisania, a British factory, and stayed there till December, learning the Mandingo language. He then went forward in an easterly direction with the view of reaching the Niger or Joliba river. Months of wandering, captivity, and misery, however, had to be endured, before he found himself in the large city of Sego and beheld the great river he sought. He sailed some seventy miles down the river to Silla, where, being reduced to great distress, he was compelled reluctantly to abandon all idea of further progress, and on the 3d of August, 1796, set out on his return to the Gambia. He changed his route on the way back, and after great toil and privation reached Kamalia, where, overborne with fatigue and hardship, he fell dangerously ill. He owed his recovery to the hospitable kindness of Karfa Taura, a slave merchant, who lodged Park in his house and attended upon him with the greatest solicitude. So great an interest did the white traveller excite in the mind of his black friend, that during Park's second and last enterprise Karfa Taura made a six days' journey to Bambakoo to meet him. Having waited seven months at Kamalia for a caravan, Park reached Pisania on the 10th of June, 1797, and was received by his countrymen as one risen from the grave. Still more startling was his reappearance in London the December following, after a stormy and dangerous sea passage. Many months of leisure were now spent in preparing for the press an account of his travels, which was published in the spring of 1799, and met with the most signal and well-merited success. Among the important geographical facts thus brought to light by Park none excited greater attention than the fact stated by Herodotus, but discredited by many later geographers, that the Niger flowed from the west to the east. Park returned to Scotland in 1799, and married the daughter of his old master, Anderson. Two years of repose elapsed before he returned to his profession. In 1801 he commenced practising at Peebles. The tedium of such a life after the excitement of an exploring expedition, was not grateful to his feelings; and in December, 1803, he gladly accepted a proposal made from the colonial office that he should explore Africa once more at the charge of the government. A considerable delay intervened, which he employed in learning Arabic from a native of Mogadore whom Park found in London and carried off to Peebles. The plan of his proposed route which he laid before the government was shown to Major Rennell, who warmly endeavoured to dissuade Park from adopting a course so full of difficulty and danger. The traveller's enthusiasm was proof against such reasonings, but it was not till January, 1805, that he and his small band set sail for Africa. Taking up thirty-five volunteers with Lieutenant Martin from the garrison at Goree, the party reached Kayee on the Gambia in April. On the 26th of that month he wrote to Mr. Dickson, full of hope and courage natural to an enthusiast who saw himself at the head of what seemed an imposing force. Alas! they were almost the last words ever received from him. He quitted Pisania on the 4th of May, and reached Bambakoo on the Niger the 19th August, several of his party having died on the way. In September he reached Sansanding, near Sego, the city he had formerly visited. Here he built with his own hands out of two old canoes a flat-bottomed boat, on which he purposed tracking the Niger to its mouth. The last communication from him which reached is a letter to his wife, dated November 19. No authentic statement of his subsequent career has ever been procured. The account of his death subsequently obtained from a native guide named Amadi Fatouma, was to the following effect:—That the chief of Yaouri informed the king that the white men had not given the customary present. An army was sent to intercept the boat at the narrows of the river, which attacked the white men, who after considerable resistance jumped into the water and were drowned. Mrs. Park survived her husband until 1840. A memoir of Mungo Park by Mr. Wishaw is prefixed to the edition of his travels, 1815.—R. H.
PARK, Thomas, a literary antiquary and editor, born in 1759, was brought up as an engraver, but having a small patrimony devoted himself to literature and bibliography. Having published a volume of poetry in 1797, he edited in 1803 Sir John Harrington's Nugæ Antiquæ, and in 1806 produced the enlarged edition of Horace Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, by which
