Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/395

 preparation of the catalogue of the library which the trustees had resolved to print. The only result of the scheme was, however, the publication in 1841 of a single folio volume covering the letter A. To this volume Bullen contributed the article on Aristotle, which filled fifty-six columns and embraced entries in every European language. Forty years later the enterprise of printing the museum catalogue was resumed, and was then carried through successfully.

In 1849 Bullen was made a permanent assistant in the library, and in 1850 senior assistant. In 1866 he was promoted, in succession to Thomas Watts [q. v.], to the two offices of assistant keeper of the department and superintendent of the reading-room. Bullen's genial temper gained him a wide popularity while superintendent of the reading-room. In 1875 he succeeded Mr. W. B. Rye in the higher office of keeper of the printed books, and thus became chief of the department which he had entered in a subordinate position thirty-seven years earlier. Bullen filled the office of keeper with efficiency till his retirement in 1890. During his fifteen years' reign the great task of printing the museum catalogue was begun in 1881, and in 1884 there was published under his supervision the useful 'Catalogue of the English Books in the Library printed before 1640' (3 vols. 8vo). An index of the printers and publishers whose productions were noticed in the text is a valuable feature of the work. Bullen retired from the keepership of printed books in 1890, and was succeeded by Dr. Richard Garnett.

Although no scholar of a formal type, Bullen was much interested in literary research, and throughout his life he devoted much time to literary work. He was long a contributor to the 'Athenæum;' he wrote articles in 1841 for the 'Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' and he compiled in 1872 a 'Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.' His bibliographical skill was probably displayed to best advantage in his 'Catalogue of the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society,' which appeared in 1857. In 1877 he helped to organise the Caxton celebration at South Kensington, and edited the catalogue of books there exhibited.

In 1883 he arranged in the Grenville Library at the British Museum an exhibition of printed books, manuscripts, portraits, and medals illustrating the life of Martin Luther, and prepared a catalogue with biographical sketch. In 1881 he prefixed a somewhat unsatisfactory introduction to a reproduction by the Holbein Society of the editio princeps of the 'Ars Moriendi' (circa 1450) in the British Museum; and in 1892 he edited a facsimile reprint (in an issue limited to 350) of the copy, recently acquired by the museum, of the 'Sex quam Elegantissimæ Epistolæ' of Peter Carmelianus, which Caxton printed in 1483.

Bullen was a vice-president of the Library Association, and took a prominent part in many of its annual congresses. He was elected on 11 Jan. 1877 a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; the university of Glasgow conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1889; and he was created C.B. in 1890. He died at his residence in Kensington on 10 Oct. 1894, and was buried in Highgate cemetery on the 15th. He was twice married. Mr A. H. Bullen, his second son by his first wife, has edited many valuable reprints of Elizabethan literature.

 BURGESS, JOHN BAGNOLD (1829–1897), painter of Spanish subjects, born at Chelsea on 21 Oct. 1829, was the son of Henry W. Burgess, landscape painter to William IV, and author of a set of large lithographic 'Views of the general Character and Appearance of Trees, Foreign and Indigenous,' published in 1827. He came of a family which had followed art for several generations. His grandfather was William Burgess (1749?–1812) [q. v.], his great-grandfather Thomas Burgess (fl. 1786) [q. v.], and he was nephew of John Cart Burgess [q. v.] and Thomas Burgess (1784?–1807) [q. v.] He was sent to Brompton Grammar School, then under Dr. Mortimer, and, his father dying when the son was ten years old, the direction of his artistic education was undertaken by Sir William Charles Ross [q. v.], the miniature painter. Burgess as a child in arms forms part of a family group by Ross, now in the possession of Mrs. Burgess. In 1848 he went to Leigh's well-known art school in Newman Street, Soho, where Edwin Longsden Long [q. v.] and Philip Hermogenes Calderon [q. v. Suppl.] were his fellow students. In 1850 he exhibited a picture called 'Inattention' at the Royal Academy, and in 1851 he entered the Academy schools, where he carried off the first-class medal for drawing from the life. He exhibited 'A Fancy Sketch' at the Academy in 1852, from which year he was an annual contributor to its exhibitions till his death.

Burgess began by painting portraits and English genre, but did not make any great 