Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/229

 five statues surrounding a central figure, for the Wellington monument. In 1854 he received sittings in Paris from Napoleon III for a bust commissioned by William, duke of Hamilton, one of his most successful works. It was damaged on its way for exhibition in the Salon; but, skilfully repaired, is now in the South Kensington Museum, while another version is in Hamilton Palace. For some time his health had been failing; ardent in all he did, he was constantly overtaxing an originally powerful constitution. The immediate cause of his death, at Warrington, Lancashire, 16 Aug. 1855, was his characteristic good-hearted recklessness, manifested in assisting an old man whom he saw staggering under a hamper of ice. The sudden and violent strain induced hæmorrhage, which proved fatal. Distinguished by a cultivated mind, full of all generous impulses, Park warmly attached himself to his friends; but his want of worldly wisdom frequently interfered with his obtaining those great public commissions which would have given adequate scope to his genius. He is best known by his portrait-busts, which are full of grace, masculine vigour, character, and individuality. By examples of these his art is represented in the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Scottish National and National Portrait Galleries, Edinburgh, and the Corporation Galleries, Glasgow. He lectured on art subjects in Edinburgh and elsewhere; and was author of a letter to Archibald Alison, LL.D., ‘On the Use of Drapery in Portrait Sculpture,’ printed for private circulation in 1846.

[Information from the sculptor's son, Patric Park, jun.; Charles Mackay in Gentleman's Magazine, November 1884; Anderson's Scottish Nation.] 

PARK, THOMAS (1759–1834), antiquary and bibliographer, was the son of parents who lived at East Acton, Middlesex, and were both buried in Acton churchyard; Park erected a tombstone there with a poetical epitaph to his father's memory. When ten years old he was sent to a grammar school at Heighington in Durham, probably through some family connection with that county, and remained there for more than five years. He was brought up as an engraver, and produced several mezzotint portraits, including Dr. John Thomas, bishop of Rochester, and Miss Penelope Boothby, after Sir Joshua Reynolds; Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse, after Hoppner; and a Magdalen after Gandolfi. In 1797 he abandoned this art, and devoted himself entirely to literature and the study of antiquities (, Dict. of Engravers, 1889 edit.) He had been a collector, especially of old English poetry and of the portraits of poets, for about ten years before that date, and his possessions, though few in number, soon became famous. He lived in turn in Piccadilly; High Street, Marylebone, where Richard Heber used to drink tea two or three times a week, and stimulate his own desire for acquiring ancient literature; Durweston Street, Portman Square; and Hampstead; and in the last place helped to administer the local charities. His books, which were ‘of the highest value and curiosity,’ were sold by him to Thomas Hill (1760–1840) [q. v.], with the stipulation that he should be permitted to consult them whenever he liked, and for a long time he regularly used them. Ultimately they passed, with many others, into the hands of Longmans, and, after being catalogued by A. F. Griffiths in the volume entitled ‘Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica,’ were dispersed by sale. Park annotated profusely the volumes which belonged to him, and at the British Museum there are copies of many works, antiquarian and poetical, containing his manuscript notes. He edited many works of an important character, and assisted the leading antiquaries in their researches. On 11 March 1802 he was admitted as F.S.A.; but his means were limited, and, through the necessity of husbanding his resources, his resignation was announced at the annual meeting on 24 April 1815. The education of his only son, John James Park [q. v.], involved him in considerable expense, and his early death in June 1833 was a heavy blow to the father's expectations.

Park was of a very generous and kindly disposition. Robert Bloomfield [q. v.], the ploughboy poet, was introduced to him, and he superintended the publication, and corrected the various editions, of Bloomfield's ‘Poems.’ He is also said to have helped the ‘posthumous fame and fortunes’ of Kirke White. Park died at Church Row, Hampstead, where he had resided for thirty years, on 26 Nov. 1834, aged 75, leaving four daughters, the survivors of a large family. His wife, Maria Hester Park, who long suffered from ill-health, died at Hampstead on 7 June 1813, aged 52 (Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. i. p. 596). She must be distinguished from Maria Hester Parke, afterwards Mrs. Beardmore, a vocalist and musical composer, who is noticed below under her father,.

Park wrote: 1. ‘Sonnets and other small Poems,’ 1797. In 1792 he had made the acquaintance of Cowper, who recognised his