Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/47

 insight rather than a monument of scholarship, and it has been largely superseded by Mr. E. V. Lucas's fuller biography and edition of Lamb's works and letters (1903-5). To this Dictionary Ainger contributed the articles on Charles and Mary Lamb, on Tennyson, and on George du Maurier, and wittily summed up its principle of conciseness in the motto, 'No flowers, by request,' with which he made merry in a speech at a dinner of the contributors (8 July 1897).

As a lecturer on literary subjects Ainger was popular with cultivated audiences throughout the country, and from 1889 onwards he frequently lectured at the Royal Institution, his subjects including 'True and False Humour in Literature,' 'Euphuism, Past and Present,' and the 'Three Stages of Shakespeare's Art.' In 1885 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., and he was made honorary fellow of his college, Trinity Hall. During his last twenty years Ainger's influence as a preacher grew steadily. In 1887 he became canon of Bristol, where he formed many new and agreeable ties. He was appointed select preacher of Oxford in 1893. In the same year bad health compelled him to resign his readership at the Temple. Thereupon he accepted the living of St. Edward's at Cambridge. Again illness speedily forced him to retire, and he spent two months in travel in Egypt and Greece. In June 1894 Ainger, on Lord Rosebery's recommendation, was appointed Master of the Temple in succession to Dr. Vaughan. Thenceforth his duties of preacher became the main concern of his life. In 1895 he was made honorary chaplain, in 1896 chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, and in 1901 chaplain-in-ordinary to King Edward VII. His sermons in the Temple were marked by beauty of language, and by a quiet, practical piety, which was impationt of excess. Neither high church nor low church, Ainger professed an unaggressive, moderate evangelicalism. In 1903 Ainger's health broke after an attack of influenza, and at the end of the year he resigned his canonry at Bristol. He died of pneumonia on 8 Feb. 1904 at Darley Abbey, near Derby, the home of his younger niece, Ada Roscow, who, in 1896, had married an old friend, Walter Evans. He was buried in the churchyard of Darley Abbey. Apart from the works already mentioned and articles in periodicals, Ainger was author of a volume of sermons (1870), a selection of Tennyson for the young (1891), a biograpliical preface to an edition of Hood's poems (1893, 1897), an introduction to an edition of Gait's 'Annals of the Parish' (1895), and a monograph on Crabbe (1903, in 'English Men of Letters' series). After his death 'The Gospel of Human Life ' (a volume of sermons, 1904) and 'Lectures and Essays' (2 vols. 1905) were edited by H. C. Beeching, dean of Norwich.

Of two portraits in oils by Hugh Gold win Riviere, one, which was painted in 1897 and has been reproduced in photogravure, belongs to Ainger's nephew, the Rev. Bentley Roscow, at Flint House, Sandwich; the other, which is smaller and was painted in 1904 after Ainger's death, is at Trinity Hall. Of two portraits by George du Maurier, one in water-colour (about 1882) belongs to the artist's widow, and the other, in black and white, dated 1882, to Ainger's niece, Miss Roscow. Mrs. Alexander Macmillan owns a portrait in pastels by the Norwegian artist, C. M. Ross; and a sixth portrait by Sir Arthur Clay, done in oils in 1893, belongs to the Rev. Bentley Roscow. A cartoon by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' 1892.

 AIRD, JOHN, first baronet (1833–1911), contractor, born in London on 3 Dec. 1833, was the only child of John Aird (1800–1876), by his wife Agnes (d. 29 July 1869), daughter of Charles Bennett of Lambeth, Surrey. His father, son of Robert Aird of Fortrose, Ross-shire, originally a mason at Bromley by Bow, was (for twenty years) superintendent of the Phoenix Gas Company's station at Greenwich, and started in 1848 a contracting business for himself, laying down mains for many gas and water companies in London. After private education at Greenwich and Southgate, Aird joined on his eighteenth birthday his father's business, which was soon known as John Aird & Sons. He was entrusted with the removal of the 1851 exhibition buildings (erected by his father) and their reconstruction as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The firm now engaged in large enterprises both in this country and abroad. They constructed reservoirs at Hampton and Staines, and the Bockton plant of the Gas Light and Coke Company. Abroad their works in-