individual, formed the fund for Mr. Bowdich's second expedition to Africa, to which he had sacrificed every other consideration; on which rested all his future hopes; which had, for years, been the object of his most ardent wishes; and in qualifying himself for the proper conduct of which, he had unremittingly laboured for three years and a half, with a zeal and a perseverance which astonished all who witnessed them. In August, 1822, Mr. Bowdich, having completed all the necessary arrangements, sailed from Havre for Lisbon; where, from various manuscripts, he collected a complete account of all the Portuguese discoveries in Southern Africa, since published under the title of "Discoveries of the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique." From Lisbon, Mr. Bowdich proceeded to Madeira, where he was unavoidably detained for several months, during which time he completed a geological description of that island, and of Porto Santo; the trigonometrical measurement of the highest peaks; a flora; and many other interesting notices; all of which are about to be edited by Mrs. Bowdich.

Unable to go direct to Sierra Leone, Mr. Bowdich went to the Cape de Verde Islands, and thence to the river Gambia. While waiting for the packet to convey him to Sierra Leone, he began a trigonometrical survey of the river; during which, imprudent exposure to the sun in the day, and checked perspiration, occasioned by the land breezes in the evening, induced fever. His youth and temperate habits were so much in his favour, that he revived two or three times in a surprising manner; but his extreme impatience under the interruption of his pursuits, constantly threw him back; and, after great suffering, on the 10th of January, 1824, his ardent and enterprising spirit finished its mortal career.

Mr. Bowdich was slightly but well-formed, and possessed great activity of body as well as of mind. His features were handsome and expressive; and fire and animation sparkled in his countenance, whenever he indulged in conversation, to the charms of which he was particularly sensible. He was as much distinguished for the kindly and affectionate feelings of

the heart, as he was for love of honour, for science, and for genius. He has left a widow and three children. Mrs. Bowdich was the companion of his travels, the sharer of his perils, the participator of his hopes, and in her affectionate arms he breathed his last. Herself endowed with every accomplishment that could render her the worthy associate of such a man, she entered with enthusiasm into all his views, and assisted with her talents many of the most scientific of his operations. Her skill and taste as an artist, were most successfully employed in the illustration of Mr. Bowdich's publications on natural history, &c., most of the plates of which were executed by Mrs. Bowdich; and many of them from drawings made by herself. She is now on the point of publishing a work, which, we have no doubt, will prove highly interesting, under the title of "A Description of the Island of Madeira, by the late T. E. Bowdich, Esq., Conductor of the Mission to Ashantee; to which are added, a Narrative of Mr. Bowdich's last Voyage to Africa, terminating in his Death; Remarks on the Cape de Verde Islands; and a Description of the English Settlements on the River Gambia: by Mrs. Bowdich.”

216

No. XV.

WILLIAM SHARP, Esq.

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL AND BAVARIAN

ACADEMIES.

Or the numerous monthly publications which issue from the press in London, there is, we believe, no one in which so much attention is paid to the fine arts as in the European Magazine. Two recent numbers of that work contain a memoir of the late Mr. Sharp, and critical remarks on his productions, which we have reason to believe are from the pen of a gentleman, himself an admirable engraver, and otherwise distinguished by great and various talents and attainments. These able and interesting papers we have taken the liberty to adopt as the basis of our biography of Mr. Sharp, making some slight curtailments and alterations in them, and adding a few facts, derived from other sources.

William Sharp was born on the 29th of January, 1749. His father was a reputable gun-maker, of Haydon Yard in the Minories, who, observing early manifestations of a talent for drawing in his son William, and not being able to estimate (as indeed no father could estimate) the full extent of those talents, thought only of qualifying him for the performance of that species of engraving which is bestowed on fire arms, and is technically termed bright engraving, because it solicits attention to itself, and not to the impressions that may be taken from it by filling its incisions with ink. Young William was accordingly apprenticed to Mr. Longmate, who practised this species of engraving near the Royal Exchange; and, soon after the expiration of his engagement, our artist (having married a Frenchwoman) commenced business for himself in Bartholomew Lane, which, being not far from

the scene of his apprenticeship, marks integrity of conduct, by showing that he was at least irreproachable, and probably respected, where the deeds of his youth were known.

His first essay in engraving in engraving was made on a pewter pot. His friends would have qualified the assertion by substituting a silver tankard, but our artist loved truth, and insisted on the veracity of this humble commencement. About this time he became acquainted with John Kaye Sherwin, from whom he no doubt derived much information. At one period he had almost concluded an engagement with Sherwin, as an assistant, but, a difference occurring, the negociation was broken off. After a few years of experience, as his powers developed, Sharp began to feel himself capable of higher works than dog's-collars, and door and card-plates, and one of his first essays in the superior branch of his art, was, to travel all the the way from Bartholomew Lane to the Tower of London, make a drawing of the old lion Hector, who had been an inmate of that fortress for about thirty years, engrave from it a small quarto plate, aud expose the prints for sale in his window.

This was a firm, and successful, and satisfactory step, made on sure ground; for the prints of the lion sold moderately well (the plate has lately been found among Mr. Sharp's effects at Chiswick); and hence he was probably induced to speculate on more important graphic concerns. Perhaps, too, the delicate health of his wife, who had been too long "in populous city pent," might form part of his inducement, when he made up his mind to remove. However these things may have been, he left the busy civic haunts and the hum of Bartholomew Lane, somewhere about the year 1782, for the more salubrious neighbourhood of Vauxhall, where he began to engrave for the Novelist's Magazine, after the designs of Stothard; contributed a single plate to Southwell's folio Bible, and soon after felt firmly seated enough on this superior branch to which he had climbed, to undertake more important works. In fact, his mind had, by

this time, been expanded by the contemplation of good pictures and prints, and he began to

-"drink the spirit, breathed

From dead men to their kind;"

to look with due veneration at the great works of the old masters; and, finally, to emulate and imitate them. But the removal to the country did not much amend the infirm health of Mrs. Sharp, and he soon became a widower, but without children.

At this period of his life Mr. Sharp was a well-formed, well-looking man, inclining to corpulence, labouring zealously in his vocation, exercising and refreshing himself with daily ablutions in the Thames during the cool of the morning, and, being strong and an expert swimmer, he swam with ease over that river and back. Here, at Lambeth, he was the neighbour and occasional associate of John Browne, the distinguished etcher of landscape, and of the ingenious and philosophical Wilson Lowry (of whom a memoir will be found in the present (volume), and here, at his mature age, and in the prime of his faculties, he performed some of those grand and laborious works which will long remain an honour to himself, his art, and his country. His admirable portrait of John Hunter, after Reynolds; his not less admirable Doctors, or Fathers (as it is sometimes termed), of the primitive church discussing the doctrine of the immaculate conception, after Guido, the former one of the finest portrait, the latter one of the finest historical, engravings in the world, were both executed in the small house which he occupied near Vauxhall. Here was completed West's Landing of King Charles the Second, which Woollet, at his demise, had left unfinished; and here were performed several other works not mentioned by those who have hitherto treated of his biography; among them two solemn dances by torch-light in the Friendly Islands, and some portraits of islanders of the Pacific Ocean, engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage; and