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VER Brought up by his father, he studied also in the school of Vincent; and before he became of age, he was married, was an exhibitor at the Louvre, and had served also for a short time as a soldier; which experience proved a valuable initiation for him into the specialties of that service to which he afterwards chiefly devoted his pencil. His facilities of execution and general powers of observation may be termed prodigious, and for practical capabilities he may rank with Paul Veronese or Rubens; but he had, perhaps, still more accurate powers of observation than either of those great masters. He is said to have possessed the rare faculty of being able to paint objects correctly, from memory. He commonly painted alla prima, or without retouching, and often without any previous preparation on the canvas, or otherwise. With such great powers, Horace Vernet could not fail to have a great career, and he rose rapidly to distinction and honour during the first empire. Political changes sometimes interfered with his position and influence; but on the whole, his career was one of unbroken progress and of unrivalled celebrity, in his own department of painting. He obtained a medal of the first class for historical painting in 1812, and in 1814 Napoleon decorated him with the cross of the legion of honour; he became an officer in 1825, and a commander in 1842. In 1826 he was elected a member of the Institute; and in 1828 he was made director of the French Academy at Rome, where he remained about nine years, and where he painted some of his most popular works—among which is conspicuous the large picture in the palace of the Luxembourg, of "Raphael encountering Michelangelo on the steps of the Vatican," in which the painter has introduced his own daughter as a Roman peasant (she was married in 1844 to Paul Delaroche, and died in the following year); it was exhibited in 1833. The Luxembourg contains also the following of Horace Vernet's greatest works—the "Battle of Tolosa," exhibited in 1817; the "Massacre of the Mamelukes," 1819; the "Barrière de Clichy," or defence of Paris in 1814, painted in 1820; and "Judith and Holophernes," exhibited in 1831. A vast display of the powers of this painter was shown at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855, when he was awarded a grand medal of honour. He exhibited altogether on that occasion twenty-two pictures, including two of those described above, several others of his most celebrated battles, hunting scenes, and portraits, &c.; the battles of Jemappes, Montmirail, Hanau, and Valmy; "Mazeppa," 1825; "Mazeppa and the Wolves," 1826; "The Cholera on board the Melpomene;" "The Storming of Constantina," 13th October, 1837, a later repetition of one of the magnificent works of 1839, relating to this siege; the vast "Taking of La Smala, of Abdel-Kader," 1843; the "Battle of Isly," 1844; and other remarkable works. His canvasses are the largest of modern times and of the old masters, Tintoretto is the only man who went beyond him in this respect. Though Horace Vernet in the higher sphere of art is not to be compared with Paul Delaroche or Ary Scheffer, he was not a mere military chronicler (however perfect), as many of his school have been; nor was he a mere naturalist or genre painter. This is evident from the mere enumeration of the few pictures mentioned above, constituting but a small portion of the works of this extraordinary painter—who died full of years and honours on the 17th of January, 1863. A good portrait of him, by J. R. Herbert, R.A., was exhibited a few years ago in the English Royal Academy. Horace Vernet lived in many countries. His residence in Italy has been noticed; he lived also for some time in Algeria, making his studies for his great monumental pictures at Versailles; and he lived also in Russia and in England. There were few of the great European monarchs of his day who did not take a pride in honouring him, and themselves at the same time. He was loaded with decorations. He resided chiefly at Versailles, but he had apartments also at the Institute in Paris. He left no child, but many friends, to mourn his loss.—R. N. W.  VERNON,, a distinguished English admiral, descended from an ancient Staffordshire family, was born at Westminster on the 12th November, 1684. His father, who was secretary of state to King William and Queen Mary, gave him a good education, but never intended him for the sea. As young Vernon, however, seemed bent on that profession, his father at last consented, and permitted him to study navigation and gunnery. His first service was under Admiral Hopson in the Prince George, when he was present at the destruction of the French and Spanish fleets at Vigo on the 12th of October, 1702. In 1704 he was on board the fleet commanded by Sir George Rooke which convoyed the king of Spain to Lisbon, and in the same year was present at the battle with the French off Malaga. After commanding the Dolphin and the Royal Oak in 1708, Vernon was sent to the West Indies as rear-admiral under Sir Charles Wager, when he took several valuable prizes, and greatly injured the commerce of France. In 1715 he was appointed to the Assistance, in an expedition to the Baltic under Sir John Norris, and in 1726 to the Grafton, in the same seas. He was returned to parliament as member for Penrhyn on the accession of George II., and was sent soon afterwards to Gibraltar as commander of the Grafton, to join Sir Charles Wager. He represented Portsmouth in the next parliament, which lasted from 1734 to 1741; and it is said that the course he took in the house of commons led to his being sent to the West Indies as vice-admiral of the blue, and commander-in-chief of a squadron fitting out for the destruction of the Spanish settlements. Having received his instructions he set sail from Spithead on the 23rd July, 1739, and on the 20th November arrived before Porto Bello, with only six ships under his command. On the following day he began to attack the town, which after a furious engagement was taken on the 22nd, together with two Spanish men of war. The place was afterwards abandoned for want of a sufficient land force to hold it, after all the fortifications had been destroyed. In 1741 Vernon's next enterprise was an unsuccessful attack on Carthagena, in conjunction with General Wentworth. His failure, however, did not interfere with his popularity in England. After his return he was employed, during the rebellion of 1745, in guarding the coasts of Kent and Sussex, a service which he performed with courage and ability; but having got into a dispute with the admiralty about the appointment of a gunner, he was struck off the list of admirals and retired from all public business, except his parliamentary duties as member for Ipswich. He died at Nacton in Suffolk, on the 29th of October, 1757.—W. J. P.  VERNON,, a celebrated picture collector, and founder of the National Gallery of British art, was born in 1774, and died on the 22nd of May, 1849. He was originally in very humble circumstances; but having engaged in merchandise, his diligence, perseverance, and skill ultimately raised him to a position of great affluence and respectability. His title to a place in British biography rests, however, not so much on his talents and accomplishments, as on a well-timed and noble act of generosity. Having a natural good taste for pictures, he began as soon as his means permitted to form a collection, principally of works by British artists; nor was it long before the walls of every room in his house were covered with specimens of native talent. Vernon, whose interest in his pictures was the reverse of selfish, soon conceived the design of presenting them to the nation, in hopes that they might form the nucleus of a gallery of British art. He accordingly made them over by a deed of gift dated December 22, 1847, to the trustees of the National gallery. Hitherto the works of native artists had been in great measure neglected by the official patrons of art—the National gallery, though it was founded in 1824, containing at the time of Vernon's gift only forty-three British pictures. This circumstance, disgraceful as it was to the nation, gave a double value to the splendid generosity of Robert Vernon. A marble bust of this great patron of British art, purchased by subscription, is placed in the hall at Marlborough house, in which mansion his pictures have also found a temporary resting place.—R. M., A.  VERNON,, a learned English jurist, the son of Richard Vernon of Henbury hall, Worcestershire, flourished in the early part of the eighteenth century. He was member of parliament for the borough of Whitchurch, Hampshire, from 1710-22, and was secretary to the unfortunate duke of Monmouth. His "Reports of Cases argued and adjusted in the High Court of Chancery, from 33 Car. II. to 5 George I.," were printed by order of that court in 1726-28, and were republished with emendations in 1806-7. He died August 22, 1726.—F.  VERON,, was born in Paris in 1798, and was educated at the Imperial lyceum. In 1816 he commenced the study of medicine and began to practise in the hospital in 1821, two years after which he was admitted to the degree of M.D. Among his acquaintances was an apothecary named Regnauld, who died, leaving to his wife and children little more than a paste for lozenges which he had invented. Veron, who had access to the columns of several newspapers, charitably puffed the pâte Regnauld, which obtained so much vogue, that by 