Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/173

 :: and accompanied with a Geographical Dissertation and Maps. To which are added three Discourses,’ &c. [edited by Thomas Falconer, M.D.], 4to, Oxford, 1805. Falconer also wrote an ‘Appendix’ for Dr. Matthew Dobson's ‘Medical Commentary on Fixed Air,’ 8vo, 1787. His ‘Thoughts on the Style and Taste of Gardening among the Ancients,’ in the ‘Transactions’ of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (i. 297), was enlarged and published separately. ‘A Table of the Greek Names of Plants’ drawn up by him is to be found in v. 552–79 of Dr. Alexander Hunter's ‘Georgical Essays,’ 8vo, 1803–1804.
 * 1) ‘Observations on the Words which the Centurion uttered at the Crucifixion of our Lord. By a Layman,’ 8vo, Oxford, 1808.
 * 2) ‘Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage from Cæsarea to Puteoli; on the Wind Euroclydon; and on the Apostle's Shipwreck on the Island of Melita. By a Layman,’ 8vo, Oxford, 1817. The second edition, with additional notes by his grandson,  (1805–1882) [q. v.], 8vo, London, 1870, contains a very complete list of Falconer's separate writings, as well as those contributed to serial publications, an enlargement of a list which had appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for November 1845 (new ser. xxiv. 470–2).



FALCONER, WILLIAM (1801–1885), translator of ‘Strabo,’ eldest son of the Rev., M.D. (1772–1839) [q. v.], by Frances, only child of Lieutenant-colonel Robert Raitt, was born at Corston, Somersetshire, on 27 Dec. 1801, and baptised there on 21 July 1802. On 10 Dec. 1819 he matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, and having taken a third class in classics and a first class in mathematics graduated B.A. in 1823, and proceeded M.A. in 1827. He was elected a Petrean fellow of Exeter College on 30 June in that year, and was mathematical examiner in the university in 1832–3, and again in 1836–8. In 1839 he opened the Petrean fellowships at Exeter College to natives of Cheshire by conveying a small incorporeal hereditament to Lord Petre for that purpose. His college presented him, 26 Jan. 1839, to the rectory of Bushey, Hertfordshire, where the tithes had been commuted at 765l. exclusive of glebe and tithe of glebe. He died at Bushey rectory 9 Feb. 1885. He married in 1840 Isabella, daughter of J. Robinson, and widow of W. S. Douglas; she died at St. Alessi, near Pistoja, 7 Feb. 1869. Falconer is known as one of the translators of ‘The Geography of Strabo,’ literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C. Hamilton, and the remainder by W. Falconer, with a complete index, appeared in ‘Bohn's Classical Library,’ 1854–6–7, three volumes. The text of ‘Strabo’ had been edited in 1807 by his father, and, M.D. [q. v.], had also prepared a translation the manuscript of which was used by his son.



FALCONET, PETER [PIERRE ETIENNE] (1741–1791), portrait-painter, born in Paris in 1741, was son of Etienne Maurice Falconet, the eminent sculptor of the famous statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg. His first studies were probably in the French Academy, but his father, who was on terms of personal friendship with Sir Joshua Reynolds, sent his son to England to work under that painter's direction. He came to London about 1766, in which year he obtained a premium of twenty guineas for a painting in chiaroscuro; in 1768 he gained another of twenty-six guineas for an historical composition. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and contributed to their exhibitions from 1767 to 1773, and occasionally to the Royal Academy, mostly portraits. Falconet is best known in England by a set of portraits of eminent artists, drawn in profile in blacklead, with a slight tint of colour on the cheeks; these were engraved in the dotted manner by D. P. Pariset, and also by B. Reading. They comprise portraits of Sir William Chambers, Francis Cotes, Joshua Kirby, Francis Hayman, Jeremiah Meyer, Ozias Humphry, George Stubbs, Benjamin West, James Paine, the architect, W. W. Ryland, Paul Sandby, Sir Joshua Reynolds (the likeness is attested by Northcote), and others. Many of his other portraits were engraved, among them being Horace Walpole, the Rev. James Granger (frontispiece to his ‘Biographical History’), Viscount Nuneham, the Earl and Countess of Marchmont and their son, Lord Polwarth, Hugh, duke of Northumberland, Christian VII of Denmark, all engraved by D. P. Pariset; Elizabeth, countess of Harcourt, Elizabeth, countess of Ancrum, Mrs. Green and her son, and others engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green; others were engraved by Hibbert, J. Watson, Dixon, Gabriel Smith, and J. F. Bause. There is a small engraving, from a design by Falconet, representing the interior of his father's studio. He also en-