Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/172

  of the city on 22 Jan. and the capture of the fort of Cheniote on 2 Feb., and, joining Lord Gough's army with his brigade on 20 Feb., was present with it at the crowning victory of Goojerat (C.B., medal and clasps), He was afterwards made aide-de-camp to the queen.

Markham, who was a wiry, active man, was all his life an ardent sportsman. When at Peshawur in April 1852 he made a long shooting excursion in the Himalayas in company with Sir Edward Campbell, bart., an officer of the 60th rifles on the governor-general's staff. They visited Cashmere and Tibet, penetrating as far as Ladak, and bringing back trophies of the skulls and bones of the great Oms Ammort the burrell, gerow, ibex, and musk-deer. Markham published a narrative of the journey, entitled' Shooting in the Himalayas— a Journal of Sporting Adventures in Ladak, Tibet, and Cashmere &hellip; with Illustrations by Sir Edward Campbell, Bart.,' London, 1854. Markham returned home on leave, and in March 1854 was sent back to India as adjutant-general of the queen's troops. In November he was promoted major-general and appointed to the Peshawur division, but when within two days' journey of his command was recalled for a command in the Crimea. On 30 July 1855 he was appointed to the 2nd division of the army before Sebastopol, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. He commanded the division at the attack on the Redan, 8 Sept. 1855. He was just able to witness the fall of Sebastopol, when his health, which had suffered greatly by his hurried journey from India, broke down. He returned home, and died in London, at Limmer's Hotel, 21 Dec. 1855. He was buried in the family vault, Morland, near Penrith, beside a small oak-tree he had planted before leaving for the Crimea. A monument to him was put up in Morland parish church by the officers of the 32nd foot, now 1st Cornwall light infantry.



MARKHAM, GERVASE or JERVIS (1568?–1637), author, brother of [q. v.], and third son of Robert Markham of Cottam, Nottinghamshire, was born about 1568. In his early years he followed the career of arms in the Low Countries, and had a captaincy under the Earl of Essex in Ireland. Sir [q. v.] and [q. v.] were first cousins of the father. A letter of Harington in the 'Nugæ Antiquæ'(i. 260) mentions that when in Ireland he received many kindnesses from his cousin Markham's three sons. The eldest brother, Robert, was, according to Thoroton, 'a fatal unthrift and destrover of this eminent family,' and is possibly identical with the Captain Robert Markham who published in verse 'The Description of &hellip; Sir John Bvrgh &hellip; with his last Seruice at the Isle of Reer (London, 1628, 4to; reissued as ' Memoirs of &hellip; Sir John Burroughs or Burgh, Knt.,' in 1758).

Apparently Gervase turned to literature in search of the means of subsistence. He was well equipped for his calling. He was at once a scholar, acquainted with Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and probably Dutch; a mediocre poet and dramatist, not afraid of dealing at times with sacred topics; a practical student of agriculture; and a champion of improved methods of horse-breeding and of horse-racing. He was himself the owner of valuable horses, and is said to have imported the first Arab. In a list of Sir Henry Sidney's horses in 1589 'Pied Markham' is entered as having been sold to the French ambassador, and Gervase sold an Arabian horse to James I for 500l. His services to agriculture were long remembered. In 1649 Walter Blith, in his 'English Improver, or a new Survey of Husbandry,' wrote that divers of his pieces, containing much both for profit and recreation, 'have been advantageous to the kingdom' and 'worthy much honour,' He treats, Blith writes, 'of all things at large that either concerns the husbandman with the good housewife' (, Centura Lit. ii. 169-170). His industry was prodigious, and as a compiler for the booksellers on an exceptionally large scale he has been called ' the earliest English hackney writer,' His books shamelessly repeat themselves. He was in the habit of writing several works on the same subject, giving each a different title. He also reissued unsold copies of old books under new titles, and thus gives endless trouble to the conscientious bibliographer. On 24 July 1617 the booksellers, for their own protection, obtained the signature of Gervase Markham, 'of London, Gent.,' to a paper in which he promised to write no more books on the treatment of the diseases of horses and cattle. Ben Jonson scorned him, declaring that 'he was not of the number of the Faithfull, and but a base fellow' (Conversations with Drummond, p. 11). He appears to have collected a library, and one ot the first examples of an English plate, in a copy of Thomas à Kempis of 1584, is his.

As early as 1593 he revised for the press 'Thyrsis and Daphne,' a poem not known to be extant (cf. Stationers' keg. 23 April 1593). 