Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/317

Vigne runic monuments there. In 1887 he went to the east and south coasts and visited Downton mound. In 1888 he went for a short visit to the Orkneys and Shetlands. On his return in the autumn his hitherto unbroken health was attacked by cancer, and he died on 31 Jan. 1889; he was buried on 3 Feb. at St. Sepulchre's cemetery, Oxford. He was honorary M.A. of Oxford, 1871, centenary Doctor of Upsala, 1877, and received the order of the Dannebrog, 1885. His portrait by H. M. Paget was painted in 1888, and was subsequently collotyped.

[Personal knowledge; Memoir in ‘Men of the Time,’ communicated by himself, and Memoir by Jón Thórkelson.] 

VIGNE, GODFREY THOMAS (1801–1863), traveller, eldest son of Thomas Vigne of Walthamstow, Essex, was born in 1801. He entered Harrow school in 1817, and was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 23 Dec. 1818. He was called to the bar in 1824. In 1831 he travelled in the United States of America, visiting New York, Washington, and Cincinnati, and thence proceeded down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. He published an account of his journey in 1832, entitled ‘Six Months in America,’ London, 8vo. In the same year he left Southampton for India, on 16 Oct., and, after passing through Persia, spent the next seven years in excursions to the regions to the north-west of India. In these journeys he visited Kashmir, Ladak, and other parts of Central Asia, besides travelling through Afghanistan, where he had several interviews with the amir, Dost Mohammed. He gave the results of his travels in ‘A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan,’ London, 1840, 8vo, and in ‘Travels in Kashmir,’ London, 1842, 8vo. His books give a valuable view of Northern and Western India immediately before the establishment of the British supremacy.

In 1852 and the following years Vigne visited the West Indies, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and passed northwards through New Orleans to New York. In Nicaragua he encountered the filibusters and made the acquaintance of General Walker, of whom he gives a vivid sketch. He died at the Oaks, Woodford, Essex, on 12 July 1863, while preparing an account of his most recent travels for the press. They appeared in the same year under the title ‘Travels in Mexico and South America,’ London, 8vo. Vigne was neither ‘a professional author nor a commissioned tourist.’ He travelled for amusement, saw much, and was assisted in his observations by the possession of some knowledge of science.

[Vigne's Works; Gent. Mag. 1863, ii. 250; Harrow School Reg. 1801–93, p. 50; Records of Lincoln's Inn, ii. 79.] 

VIGNOLES, CHARLES BLACKER (1793–1875), engineer, was born at Woodbrook, county Wexford, on 31 May 1793. His father, Charles Henry Vignoles, a descendant of a Huguenot family, was an ensign in the 43rd or Monmouthshire regiment of foot. After his promotion to a captaincy he was sent to the West Indies, where he was wounded at the storming of Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and died in 1794, having married in 1792 Camilla, youngest daughter of Charles Hutton [q. v.], who survived her husband only one week.

Charles in his infancy was taken a prisoner of war by the French, and by way of effecting his release Sir Charles Grey (afterwards first Baron Grey de Howick) [q. v.], the commander of the English forces, bestowed on him a commission. He was gazetted an ensign in the 43rd regiment on 10 Nov. 1794, when eighteen months old, and was immediately put on half-pay. On coming to England he was placed under the care of his grandfather, Charles Hutton, who about 1807 articled him for seven years to a proctor in Doctors' Commons, but after three years he left the proctor and commenced study at Sandhurst. On receiving notice to join his regiment he went to the Peninsula and was present in the rear-guard at the battle of Vittoria on 21 June 1813. On the following 29 Nov. he was transferred as an ensign to the York-chasseurs, and on 13 Jan. 1814, by the influence of the Duke of Kent, he received a commission in the 1st or royal Scots regiment of foot. He was present at the repulse of the British forces at Bergen-op-Zoom on 14 March in that year. In the summer he was ordered to Canada, and was in the Leopard when she was wrecked on the island of Anticosti at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. On returning to England he obtained his lieutenancy on 12 Oct. 1815, and was sent to Fort William, but in April 1816 went to Valenciennes as an extra aide-de-camp to General Sir Thomas Brisbane. He was put on half-pay on 25 May 1816, but did not actually sever his connection with the army until 1833.

From 1816 onwards he was engaged on a survey of South Carolina and the adjoining states, and published ‘Observations on the Floridas,’ New York, 1823, with a map which long remained the best map of that