dedicated to Sir Henry de la Beche, whom Sir Roderick succeeded, in 1855, as Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland.

In 1856 Sir Roderick published a valuable geological map of Europe. He was also about this period active in applying the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian classifications to Germany, Scotland, and other countries, and from 1858 downwards in making out the ascending order of the older rocks beneath the Lower Silurian and Cambrian of the north-west Highlands of Scotland-labours which produced his crowning reward; for in 1859 he received from the Royal Society of Scotland the first Brisbane gold medal, as a recompense for his classification of the Highland rocks, and for the establishment of the remarkable fact that the fundamental gneiss of the north-west coast is the oldest rock of the British Isles. An entirely new geological map of Scotland followed, in the preparation of which he was ably assisted by Mr. Geikie, of the Geological Survey.

Nor is Sir Roderick's name less known among geographers, although his fame chiefly depends on his geological labours. In presiding over the Royal Geographical Society during eight years, and in often officiating for other Presidents of that body, his devotion to its interests and advancement have been always warmly recognized; for he has been the zealous promoter of every bold adventure, and the true friend of every young aspirant for fresh labours in the field. His energy in advocating the search after Franklin, his warm support of Livingstone, and his successful appeal to raise a monument to the French Lieutenant Bellot, who lost his life in the search after Franklin, are among the proofs of his entire self-devotion to such good causes. His recent address on the discovery of the source of the Nile by Speke and Grant, his analysis of all the recent explorations in Australia, and his comparison of the state of Europe in former periods, show that his energies and intellect are unimpaired.

We must not omit to state that Sir Roderick Murchison has been for many years an active Trustee of the British Museum, and that in recognition of his merits the Queen has conferred on him a Commandership of the Bath.

ON

29

DAVID ROBERTS, R.A.

THE career of this distinguished artist is an example of the success which often attends the exclusive pursuit of a single branch of art. David Roberts is known to the world as a painter par excellence of architectural subjects. Not confining himself to the technicalities or even to the ornamental details of the art, he selects some great or celebrated building as the central point of his picture, at the same time generally relieving it by the introduction of a striking landscape or a lively group of figures. So unvarying is this bias of taste, that amongst the many hundred compositions of this artist which most persons familiar with English exhibitions can call to mind, they will not recollect more than one or two which do not possess this characteristic. It is a proof of the painter's vigour of thought, that under these circumstances, instances of self-repetition occur so seldom as they do in his productions.

David Roberts was born at Edinburgh, on the 24th of October, 1796, and is said there to have set foot on the ladder of his profession at the very lowest step, by serving as an apprentice to a house-painter. Even in this capacity, his talents were conspicuous, and he was allowed an admittance to the "Trustees' Academy," where with Allan, Wilkie, and others, he acquired the rudiments of drawing and colour. In a short time, however, he betook himself to London, and, in 1822, was engaged with his friend Stanfield in painting scenes for Drury Lane Theatre. It would be difficult, perhaps, to detect any traces of this early discipline in the later works of the two Academicians, but it is probable that their attention was thus directed to a practical study of proportion and the multiplication of details, with a view to producing effects of height, size, and distance, and of how to distribute arbitrary masses of colour. In architecture the element of grandeur is

indispensable; and whether or not from any similarity in one of the aims of this greatest of the arts to those of the humble occupation he had been following, it is certain that to architectural delineation David Roberts devoted his whole powers, and to this result his by no means inferior skill in landscape and figure sketching was always made subordinate.

In the year 1824 the Society of British Artists was formed by a number of painters, some of them young and ambitious, others probably disappointed or annoyed at the exclusiveness of the Royal Academy. Amongst the first subscribers of twenty guineas each, are to be found John Wilson, W. Linton, Maliphant, P. Nasmyth, C. Heath, Clarkson Stanfield, and David Roberts. The names of Heaphy, John Martin, Burnet, and Noble, are also amongst the first members. For some period David Roberts was Vice-President of this Society.

In the exhibition of 1824 we find three works by him, a View of Dryburgh Abbey, Roxburghshire,' the 'East Front of Melrose Abbey,' and the 'South Transept of Melrose.' In the following year, views from Dieppe and Rouen are exhibited.

In 1826, there are evidences of an intermediate visit to Paris, and besides the View of the Interior of the 'Pantheon or Church of St. Geneviève,' at the British Artists, there also appears in this year the first exhibited work at the Royal Academy, a 'View of Rouen Cathedral.'

For eight years subsequently there was only one picture (in 1830) at the Academy; but the name of David Roberts appears regularly at the British Artists, and the locality of the scenes depicted gives some clue to the districts traversed in the pursuit of his favourite study. In 1828 we find views at Abbeville and Mechlin. In 1829 appeared a picture on an exceptional subject, 'The Departure of the Israelites out of the Land of Egypt.' This well-known and powerful effort of composition was painted for Lord Northwick, one of the artist's earliest patrons, and was purchased by the late Sir R. Peel. In this year also is a trace of the study of Hindoo architecture in a painting of the Ellora Cave, from a sketch by Captain Grindlay. In 1830 views appear of Caen, Rouen, Terre-le-mont, St. Andrew's, and again a Hindoo study; and in 1831 as many as eight pictures, one a group of four small paintings from studies in England and Scotland, at Rotterdam, and Oberwesel on the Rhine. A View of the Palace of