Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/177

 other works were: 2. ‘A Visit to St. Petersburg in the Winter of 1829–30,’ London, 1838; Philadelphia, 1838. 3. ‘France since 1830,’ 1841; condemned by the ‘Athenæum’ as the clippings and cuttings of the daily papers. 4. ‘Private Correspondence with the Duke of Wellington and other Distinguished Contemporaries,’ 1861, edited by his daughter, Harriet Raikes; most of the letters to the duke related to French politics from 1840 to 1844.

Raikes was a tall large man, very much marked with the smallpox. His figure and attire, ‘surtout closed to the extent of three buttons, plaid trousers, and black cravat,’ were caricatured by Dighton as ‘one of the Rakes of London.’ The same portrait is prefixed to his journal, inserted in Gronow's ‘Reminiscences’ (ed. 1889), ii. 240, and in the ‘History of White's Club,’ ii. 203.

[Preface to his own journal; Works of Raikes; Stapylton's Eton Lists, p. 3; Gronow's Reminiscences, i. 164, 227, 279; White's Club, ii. passim; Gent. Mag. 1810 pt. i. p. 397, 1848 pt. ii. p. 332.] 

RAILTON, WILLIAM (d. 1877), architect, was a pupil of William Inwood [q. v.] In 1825 he visited Greece, and on his way examined the recently discovered temple at Cadachio in Corfu, his description of which was published in Stuart and Revett's ‘Antiquities of Athens,’ 1830. He obtained a large practice, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1829 and 1851. From 1838 to 1848 he held the appointment of architect to the ecclesiastical commissioners. Railton built Randalls, near Leatherhead, in 1830; Gracedieu, Leicestershire, 1834; St. Bartholomew's Church, Mile End, 1844; St. Leonard's Church, Bromley-by-Bow, 1843, and Beau Manor, Leicestershire, 1845. He was also employed upon restorations at Ripon Cathedral, adapted and enlarged Riseholme Hall as a palace for the bishop of Lincoln, 1846, and built the residence of the bishop of Ripon, 1849. But his best known work is the Nelson memorial in Trafalgar Square, London, his design for which was accepted after two competitions in 1839, and carried out in spite of strong opposition; the column itself was completed in 1843, and the bas-reliefs which adorn the four sides of the plinth in 1849. Railton died while on a visit to Brighton on 13 Oct. 1877.

[Dict. of Architecture; Civil Engineer, 1839; Art Union, 1839; Times, 16 Oct. 1877.] 

RAIMBACH, ABRAHAM (1776–1843), line engraver, was born in Cecil Court, St. Martin's Lane, London, 16 Feb. 1776. His father, Peter Raimbach, was a native of Switzerland, who came when a child to England, and married Martha Butler, a daughter of a Warwickshire farmer. The son was educated at Archbishop Tenison's school, and in 1789 was articled to John Hall, the engraver; in the following year he executed his first independent work, the key to Bartolozzi's plate of the ‘Death of Chatham’ after Copley. On the expiration of his articles, Raimbach entered the schools of the Royal Academy, and in 1799 gained a silver medal for a drawing from the life. He continued his studies at the academy for nine years, maintaining himself during that time by engraving small plates for Cooke's editions of the poets and novelists, from drawings by Corbould, Thurston, and others; he also for a time practised miniature-painting, and exhibited portraits at the academy from 1797 to 1805. In 1801 Raimbach executed three plates, from designs by Smirke, for the Rev. E. Forster's edition of the ‘Arabian Nights.’ With the money thus earned he in the following year visited Paris, and stayed two months, studying the collection of masterpieces of art gathered there by Napoleon. After his return he engraved the illustrations designed by Smirke, for an edition of Johnson's ‘Rasselas,’ 1805, and did much similar work for Sharpe, Longman, and other publishers; for Forster's ‘British Gallery’ he executed several plates, including Reynolds's ‘Ugolino and his Sons.’ In 1805 he married, and went to reside in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, where he remained until 1831; he then removed to Greenwich.

In 1812 Sir David Wilkie, who had quarrelled with his first engraver, John Burnet [q. v.], proposed to Raimbach that they should together undertake the production and publication of a series of large plates to be engraved by the latter from pictures by Wilkie, and the scheme was arranged on terms very favourable to Raimbach. The first result of this ‘joint-stock adventure’ was ‘The Village Politicians,’ published in 1814, a proof of which was exhibited at the Paris Salon and awarded a gold medal; this was followed by ‘The Rent Day,’ 1817; ‘The Cut Finger,’ 1819; ‘Blind Man's Buff,’ 1822; ‘The Errand Boy,’ 1825, and ‘Distraining for Rent,’ 1828. These Wilkie prints, upon which Raimbach's reputation mainly rests, are excellent translations of the original pictures, the mode of execution, if somewhat coarse and deficient in freedom, being well suited to the subjects; they are entirely by his own hand, no assistants having been employed on them. The