Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/439

Baily master of the Ironmongers' Company in 1874-5. He died at Reigate 2 Oct. 1878.

[Information from Mr. W. Baily; City Press, 9 Oct. 1878; Builder, 12 Oct. 1878.]  BAILY, EDWARD HODGES (1788–1867), sculptor, was born at Bristol, where his father was known as a skilful carver of figure-heads for ships. He was sent to a grammar school, but showed the common artistic repugnance to the regular studies. Young Baily would carve strange portraits of his schoolfellows, and showed no capacity for ordinary school work. At fourteen he entered a merchant's office, and remained there for two years. During this time he obtained some instruction from a modeller in wax, and greatly improved his opportunity. Soon he forsook commerce, and began taking portraits in wax. By virtue of some studies which he made from the antique, he obtained a fortunate introduction to Flaxman, in whose studio, in 1807, he became a pupil, and there he remained for seven years. In 1809 he entered the Academy schools, gaining silver and gold medals in quick succession. He was made an associate in 1817. In 1818 he executed for the British Literary Institution the beautiful statue which established his reputation, 'Eve at the Fountain.' In 1821 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy. From this time until 1858 he was a busy man, and a constant exhibitor; the execution of portrait statues and busts occupying the greatest share of his attention. In the region of ideal art his taste led him rather towards domestic than classical subjects. Nagler gives high praise to a representation, in high relief, of 'Motherly Love.' Kindred subjects, the 'Mother and Child,' 'Group of Children,' and the like, were favourites of his, and were often repeated. Of his portrait statues, perhaps the best known are his Charles James Fox and Lord Mansfield in St. Stephen's Hall, Westminster. He had among his sitters many distinguished men, including Stothard, Fuseli, Flaxman, Byron, Haydon, and the Duke of Wellington. Of his connection with the duke an amusing account is preserved by Haydon. It shows the sculptor to have been at once a cool-headed and high-spirited man. Amongst purely fanciful subjects, besides those already referred to, 'The Graces,' 'Eve listening to the Voice,' and 'A girl preparing for the Bath' may be mentioned. In 1863 Baily, who for some years then past had done little, was made an 'honorary retired academician,' and exhibited no more. He died at Holloway on 22 May 1867. He stands high in his profession as an artist, but was not careful enough of the money his talent procured, and the last years of his long life were much embarrassed. A writer in the 'Art Journal' (July 1867) says: 'The years of his prolonged life were actively passed in upholding the dignity and purity of his art, and in its annals his name must always be referred to as one of the most successful and accomplished British sculptors of the nineteenth century.'

 BAILY, FRANCIS (1774–1844), an eminent astronomer, was the third son of Mr. Richard Baily, banker, of Newbury, Berkshire, where he was born 28 April 1774. Placed in a London mercantile house at the age of fourteen, the acquaintance of Priestley developed his native taste for experimental inquiries. But though known amongst his young companions as the ‘Philosopher of Newbury,’ love of adventure was as yet stronger in him than love of science, and his seven years' apprenticeship had no sooner expired than he sailed for America 21 Oct. 1795. The narrative of his experiences as a traveller is contained in an extremely curious ‘Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America in 1796 and 1797,’ edited by Professor De Morgan in 1856, twelve years after the death of the author. They include two narrow escapes from shipwreck, a voyage in an open boat down the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and a return journey to New York across nearly 2,000 miles of ‘wilderness’ uninhabited except by Indians. A matrimonial project, vaguely indicated in connection with some steps towards naturalisation and permanent residence in the United States, proving abortive, he landed at Bristol 1 March 1798, and went home to Newbury. The roving tendency, none the less, was still strong upon him. In May 1799 he volunteered to travel in the service of the African Association, having formed a plan of exploration on the Niger, which, he informed Sir John Stepney, he would have gone through any trials’ to carry out. Funds, however, were deficient; and after some futile thoughts of a commission in the engineers or militia, he accommodated himself to the prosaic destiny of a stockbroker, entering into partnership, about the end of 1799, with Mr. Whitmore, of the London Stock Exchange.

With characteristic thoroughness, Baily now engaged in commercial pursuits. He became a consummate man of business, 