Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/178

Rh on account of the strong feeling against him among the Dutch, and of the personal quarrel between him and Russell, whose interest was very great; but it appears from his private correspondence that the king down to his death continued on terms of friendly intimacy with him (, Epistolary Curiosities, i. 159-61). Torrington was at this time living in the country, presumably at Weybridge, and playfully wrote of himself as ‘a poor country farmer,’ or ‘a country bumpkin,’ taking occasion, however, to express his hatred and contempt of ‘that miserable commission of the Admiralty,’ composed of ‘insipid ignorants,’ whom ‘he wishes with all his heart eternally confounded’ (ib. i. 157). This letter, not dated, seems to belong to 1696, and to refer specially to Russell, then earl of Orford. Notwithstanding his country life, Torrington was frequently in his place in the House of Lords, where he occasionally spoke on the affairs of the navy. He died in 1716. He was twice married ; the first time in November 1672, when he was described as a bachelor of Weybridge in Surrey, aged 25 (, London Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster); he had no issue, and left his property to his friends the Earl of Lincoln and Admiral John Nevell [q. v.]

Burnet's most unfavourable description of Herbert has been very generally accepted as truth; he is represented as licentious, covetous, dishonest, envious, haughty, and dictatorial; it is even broadly hinted that he was a traitor and a coward. Pepys's description, so far as it goes, is to the same effect (Life, Journal, and Correspondence, i. 401, ii. 20). He may not have been more moral or more scrupulous than other public men of his time, but the allegations of his being a party to serving out poisonous provisions to the seamen would seem to be based on mere irresponsible gossip, and his refusal to assist James in his unconstitutional measures goes far to disprove the vague charges of dishonest greed. Bitter and jealous enemies he had, but he seems to have possessed a rare power of attaching his officers to himself; and those who served under him in the Mediterranean, more especially Shovell, Nevell, and Benbow, continued his followers to the end. The science of naval tactics was still in its infancy, and Beachy Head was the only action on a grand scale in which he commanded in chief, but, notwithstanding its ill success, his plan seems to have been ably devised, and to have been frustrated solely by the impetuosity or national jealousy of the Dutch. There is no question that his views on naval strategy were much in advance of his age, and, independently of his long and distinguished service, warrant our assigning him a high place in the list of English admirals.

[Charnock's Biog. Nav. i. 258; Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, ii. 332, 533; Collins's Peerage, ed. 1715; manuscript lists in the Public Record Office; Burchett's Transactions at Sea; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time; Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, iii. 17, 80-135; Macaulay's Hist. of England; An Impartial Account of some remarkable Passages in the Life of Arthur, Earl of Torrington, together with some Modest Remarks on his Tryal and Acquitment, 1691; Memoirs of George Byng, Lord Torrington (Camd. Soc.); A particular Relation of the late Success of his Majesiies Forces against the Moors, 1680; An Exact Journal of the Siege of Tangier, 1680; Playfair's Scorge of Christendom; The Account given by Sir John Ashby, vice-admiral, and Rear-admiral Rooke to the Lords Commissioners …, with a Journal of the Fleet since their Departure from St. Hellens …, 1691: this contains also The Lords Commissioners' Letter to the Queen's Majesty … and The Examinations of the Captains; The Earl of Torrington's Speech to the House of Commons …, 1710; cf. Parl. Hist. 12 Nov. 1690, v. 651. The minutes of the court-martial cannot now be found. See also Mémoires du Maréchal de Tourville, iii. 82; Mémoires du Comte de Forbin, i. 300; Eugène Sue's Histoire de la Marine Française, iv. 353; Troude's Batailles Navales de la France, i. 197.]  HERBERT, CYRIL WISEMAN (1847–1882), painter, youngest son of John Rogers Herbert, R.A. [q. v.], was born in Gloucester Road, Old Brompton, London, on 30 Sept. 1847. He was the godson of Cardinal Wiseman, and was educated at St. Mary's College, Oscott, and King's College, London. Trained like his brothers in his father's studio, he visited Italy in 1868, where he made many elaborate sketches, chiefly among the mountains in the neighbourhood of Olevano. His first picture,‘Homeward after Labour,’ representing Roman cattle driven home after the day's toil, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1870. The next year he sent ‘An Idyll;’ in 1873, ‘On the Hill-tops:’ and in 1874, ‘Returning to the Fold,’ Welsh sheep driven home in the gloaming, which was purchased by Sir Andrew Walker and presented to the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for the last time in 1875, when he sent ‘Escaped Home,’ a collie dog returning to its mistress at a cottage door. Besides these he painted ‘The Knight's Farewell’ and some other works which were never exhibited. Early in 1882 he was appointed curator of the antique school in the Royal Academy, but he died prematurely at the Chimes, Kilburn, on 2 July 1882. His 