Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/210



of society are, perhaps, rarer than poets of any other sort. The subject of our cartoon, however, has earned a place in the estimation of lovers of poetry by the side of Praed, and a little in advance of Prior, not only in time, but in skill and taste. Mr. Locker was born in 1821. He is of an old Kentish family: his father, Edward Hawke Locker, was a Civil Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, a warm patron of literature and art, and the founder of the naval gallery of Greenwich Hospital; he also published the lives of some of the most distinguished naval worthies, as well as a tour that he made in Spain with Earl Russell—his own sketches illustrating the volume. The grandfather of the poet was Captain W. Locker, R.N., under whom both Lord Nelson and Lord Collingwood served. The former was especially his old and attached friend. In one of the numerous letters from Lord Nelson to his grandfather, in the possession of Mr. Locker, Lord Nelson says: 'You were the first person to teach me how to board a Frenchman, by your conduct when in the Experiment. You said, "Lay a Frenchman close, and you will beat him."' Captain Locker died Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital.

Mr. Frederick Locker married a sister of the late Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, by whom he has one daughter.

Mr. Locker has at different times contributed original verse to the 'Times,' 'Pall-Mall Gazette,' 'Blackwood,' 'Cornhill,' 'Once a Week,' 'Punch,' the 'Owl,' 'Macmillan,' 'Good Words,' 'St. Pauls,' and other magazines. Writing to a friend, his experience makes him say: 'Do not despair. At first I had great difficulty in persuading editors to have anything to say to my verses. They were unanimous in declining them; but