Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/276

 nos,' and 'Still Waters run deep.' Among his original characters at the Criterion were Talbot in Mr. Gilbert's 'Foggerty's Fairy,' 15 Dec. 1881; Brummies in H. J. Byron's 'Fourteen Days,' 4 March 1882; Ferdinand Pettigrew in Albery's 'Featherbrain,' 23 June 1884; Barnabas Goodeve in the 'Candidate,' 29 Nov.; General Bletchingley in Mr. Burnand's 'Headless Man,' 27 July 1890. At Daly's theatre he was, 2 Feb. 1895, Smoggins in 'An Artist's Model;' Duckworth Crabbe in the 'Chili Widow,' Mr. Arthur Bourchier's adaptation of 'M. le Directeur,' 7 Sept.; and Commodore Van Gütt in the 'New Baby,' 28 April 1896. His last appearance in London was at the Criterion as Thomas Tyndal in 'Four Little Girls,' by Mr. Walter Stokes Craven, produced 17 July 1897. Besides being what is known as a 'mugger,' or maker of comic faces, Blakeley was a genuine comedian, and was accepted as Hardcastle in 'She Stoops to Conquer.' In showing self-importance, in airs of assumed dignity, and in the revelation of scandalised propriety, he stood alone. He died at Criterion House, Clovelly Terrace, Walham, London, on 8 Dec. 1897, and was buried in Fulham cemetery.  BLAKISTON, THOMAS WRIGHT (1832–1891), explorer and ornithologist, was born at Lymington in Hampshire on 27 Dec. 1832.

His father, (1785–1867), major, was the second son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, second baronet, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Rochfort. He served in the Madras engineers and in the 27th regiment (Enniskillens), was present at the battle of Assaye, and engaged at the capture of Bourbon, Mauritius, and Java, and during the Peninsular war from Vittoria to Toulouse. He published 'Twelve Years of Military Adventures' anonymously in 1829, and 'Twenty Years in Retirement' with his name in 1836. He died on 4 June 1867 at Moberley Hall, Cheshire. On 26 Sept. 1814 he married Jane, daughter of Thomas Wright, rector of Market Harborough.

His second son, Thomas, was educated at St. Paul's (proprietary) school at Southsea, and at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, from which he obtained a commission in the royal artillery on 16 Dec. 1851. He served with his regiment in England, Ireland, and Nova Scotia, and in the Crimea before Sebastopol, where his brother Lawrence was killed in the battle of the Redan on 8 Sept. 1855. In 1857 Blakiston was appointed, on the recommendation of Sir Edward Sabine [q. v.], a member of the scientific expedition for the exploration of British North America between Canada and the v Rocky Mountains, under the command of John Palliser [q. v.] He was chiefly employed in taking observations on the magnetic conditions, temperature, &c.; but in 1858 he crossed the Kutanie and Boundary passes independently, and published at Woolwich in 1859 a 'Report of the Exploration of Two Passes through the Rocky Mountains.' During the Chinese war of 1859 Blakiston was left in command of a detachment of artillery at Canton, and there he organised his famous exploration of the middle and upper course of the Yang-tsze-Kiang, the idea being to ascend the river as far as the Min, and then cross the province of Szechuen, and reach north-western India via Tiber and Lhassa. The party consisted of Blakiston, Lieutenant-colonel H. A. Sarel, and Dr. Alfred Barton, who still survives, and with the Rev. S. Schereschewsky as interpreter, four Sikhs, and three Chinese, set out from Shanghai on 12 Feb. 1861, convoyed by Vice-admiral Sir James Hope's squadron, which left them at Yo-chau on 16 March. They reached Pingshan on 25 May, having travelled eighteen hundred miles from Shanghai, nine hundred miles further than any other Europeans, except the Jesuits in native costume. The country there being much disturbed by rebels, they were obliged to retrace their route on 30 May, reaching Shanghai on 9 July. Blakiston produced a surprisingly accurate chart of the river from Hankow to Pingshan, published in 1861, for which he received in 1862 the royal (patron's) medal of the Royal Geographical Society. Partial narratives were published in the Society's Journal, vol. xxxii., by Sarel and Barton, while Blakiston prepared in October 1862 a longer account of their 'Five Months on the Yang-tsze,' with illustrations by Barton and scientific appendices. This is still treated as a text-book for the country (cf., Through the Yang-tse Gorges, 1888).

Before returning to England Blakiston visited Yezo, the northern island of Japan. Having resigned his commission in 1862, he entered into an arrangement with a substantial firm, and returned to Yezo in 1863, via Russia, Siberia, and the Amur river. He settled at the treaty port of Hakodate, and founded sawmills for the export of timber to China. This business had to be abandoned owing to the obstructions of the Japanese government; but he remained in Hakodate as a merchant, executed surveys 