Page:The Maclise Portrait-Gallery.djvu/179

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THE ANTIQUARIES.
109

minster. He was author of many communications to the Gentleman's Magazine, and, in conjunction with the late Sir Henry Ellis and Dr. Bandinel, edited the new edition of Dugdale's Monasticon. He was also Secretary to the National Record Commission, from 1801 till its dissolution in 1831, and was joint editor of fourteen works published by the Commission, a list of which will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, April, 1834, page 374.

The next death demanding record is that of Robert Lemon, which took place in his fifty-seventh year, July 29th, 1835. This gentleman was Deputy Keeper of his Majesty's State Papers, formerly in Scotland Yard, and more recently in St. George's Street, and a long gallery over the Treasury-passage. This Augean stable was thoroughly cleansed by the indefatigable labours of this officer in 1823; one result being the discovery of the MS. of the lost work of Milton, De Doctrinâ Christianâ, which was presented to George IV., and entrusted to Dr. Charles Sumner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, for publication. A house was built for the reception of the State Papers in St. James's Park, with private accommodation for the keeper, and here it was that Mr. Lemon died. The name of this gentleman is mentioned, with a well-deserved compliment, by Sir Walter Scott, in a postscript, appended in 1829, to the "cabinet" edition of Rob Roy, in alluding to some documents relating to that extraordinary person.

The third to depart was John Frost—perhaps the youngest of the party—who died at Berlin, March 17th, 1840, at the early age of 37. He was born in 1803, and is now best known as the founder of the Medico-Botanical Society of London. He was early admitted to a fellowship in the Society of Antiquaries, and became a candidate for a like honour in the Royal Society. Here he was blackballed, and thereupon perpetrated the inconceivable folly of challenging the secretary to fight a duel! But he was a man full of foibles, inordinately vain and conceited, and pertinacious, even to impudence, in the attainment of an object. He was Secretary to the Royal Humane Society; but resigned this respectable and lucrative post without due consideration, and was unable, when he regretted the step too late, to regain his position. Becoming involved in certain responsibilities, which he had unwisely taken upon himself, he was forced to leave London. He first went to Paris, where he resided under the name of James Fitzjames; and next proceeded to Berlin, where he was said to be practising the medical profession with some success, when death overtook him. He married Mdlle. Harriette Yosy, daughter of the well-known authoress of Switzerland and its Costumes. The best account of him is given by the Rev. John Barham, the author of The Ingoldsby Legends, in a letter published in his Life and Letters, edited by his son. This letter is reproduced in J. F. Clarke's Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1874, 8vo, p. 267), where also will be found ample details of the founder of the Medico-Botanical Society.

A few months later was summoned Davies Gilbert, a gentleman of high scientific and literary attainments, who died December 24th, 1840, in the seventy-third year of his age. He belonged to a family of high respectability long settled in Cornwall; his paternal name was Giddy, but this he exchanged, by Royal permission, for that which he subsequently bore, on his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Thomas Gilbert, Esq., of Eastbourne, Sussex. It is worthy of note that Mr. Giddy was one of the first to recognize the latent talents of Humphry Davy, and did much