B.

BEAUMONT, Sir George How-
land, seventh baronet_ of Stoughton
Grange, Leicestershire, D. C. L. F. R. S.
and S. A. and a trustee of the British
Museum, Feb. 7., at his seat Cole
Orton Hall, of erysipelas in the head,
aged 73.

He was born at Dunmow in Essex
(where his father then resided), in Nov.
1753, the only child of Sir George, the
sixth baronet, by Rachel, daughter of
Matthew Howland, of Stonehall, Dun-
mow, Esq. He succeeded to the title
in 1762, losing his father at the early
age of ten, but his mother survived till
1814. Having received his education
at Eton, he entered of New College,
Oxford, in 1772. In 1778 he married
Margaret, daughter of John Willes of
Astrop, in Northamptonshire, Esq,, the
eldest son of Lord Chief Justice Willes.
They had no children.

In 1782 Sir George Beaumont went
to the continent, and visited the most
distinguished parts of France, Switzer-
land, and Italy. At the general election
in 1790, he was returned M. P. for
Beeralston, but he sat in the House of
Commons only during one Parliament,
to the dissolution in 1796. It was not
in the arena of politics that Sir George
Beaumont distinguished himself; but
as a patron of art and amateur practi.
tioner of painting his celebrity is de-
servedly great, and many admirable
specimens of his skill have been exhi-

bited at the Royal Academy. A
congenial taste introduced him to the

friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who
bequeathed him his Return of the Ark,
by Sebastian Bourdon, as a memorial
of his esteem. This is one of the sixteen
pictures which Sir George, a year or
two before his death, presented to the
National Gallery, where, inscribed as
they are (and we trust always will be,
in legible characters) with the munificent
donor's name, they constitute his most
appropriate and most public monument.

In private life Sir George Beaumont
was a most amiable and excellent man,
his manners and accomplishments ren-
dering him an ornament of the circles
in which he moved. A portrait of him,
engraved by J. S. Agar, from a portrait
by Hoppner, in the possession of Lord
Mulgrave, was published in 1812, in
Cadell's British Gallery of Contem-
porary Portraits.

Sir George Beaumont is succeeded
in his title and estates by his first cousin
once removed, now Sir George-How-
land-Willoughby Beaumont, who has
married a daughter of the Bishop of
London.
Gentleman's Magazine.
BILL, Robert, Esq., Sept. 23d, at
Great Bridge Cottage, Birmingham,
aged 74.

This gentleman was, by his father's
side, descended from the Bills of Farley
Hall, in Staffordshire; a family which
ranks among the oldest in that county,
having resided there nearly two hundred
and fifty years. The Farley estate

came into the Bill family, by the mar-
riage of a Richard Bill with Elizabeth,
daughter and heiress of Robert Shenton,
Esq.

Mr. Bill's father, and uncle Francis,
married coheiresses, Dorothy and Mary,
the daughters of Hall Walton, Esq., a
near relative of the far-famed Izaac
Walton, by whom they inherited a free-
hold estate, now belonging to the family,
situate at Stanhope, in Staffordshire.
He was also lineally descended from
the Everys of Eggington Hall in Der-
byshire, who were raised to a baronetage
in the year 1641.

Mr. Bill, being designed for the army,
received only a common scholastic edu-
casion, but as he had a taste for litera-
ture, the solicitations of his family and
friends were not sufficient to induce
him to enter the military profession; he
therefore remained contented in early
life, with a small, but independent for-
tune, and engaged in no profession or
trade. Possessed of a very inventive
mind, aided by extensive reading, and
an intimate knowledge of natural phi-
losophy, Mr. Bill was enabled to carry
many improvements into the social con-
cerns of life.
The walls of his gardens
at Stone were built, not only upon an
economical plan, but so as to retain the
heat conveyed by the sun's rays, longer
than walls usually do. His hot-house
and grapery were warmed in a peculiar
way by iron cylinders; and his house
was kept at a comfortable temperature,
by a novel and ingenious method of
conveying heated air, at pleasure, to the
staircases and adjacent rooms.

About the year 1795, Mr. Bill wrote
a treatise, showing the danger of a paper
currency; this he printed, and privately
circulated, but did not affix his name
to the work. In the conclusion of this
tract, he recommended the introduction
of several novelties, with a view of giving
a stimulus to our manufactories, and
also to diminish the public expenditure;
and among them, the iron tanks for
keeping and preserving water on ship-
board. These were, some time after,
introduced into the navy with great
benefit to the public service, but without
his receiving any pecuniary advantage,
or even the credit of their introduction.
When the prejudice against carbu-
retted hydrogen gas for lighting our
houses and public streets began to abate,
Mr. Bill, seeing the extensive uses to
which this illumination might be applied,
risked a considerable sum of money in

a company formed at that time for the
supply of this gas, and took up his re-
sidence in London. Here his chemical
and mechanical knowledge was of great
use in planning, erecting, and regulating
the use of the apparatus; but, after the
works were completed, he retired from
the concern in consequence of some dis-
agreement among the proprietors.

He

To a considerable acuteness of mind,
Mr. Bill united indefatigable industry
in completing any plan which he brought
forward; but like most men of genius,
when it was perfected, and likely to pro-
duce a profitable return, it was a general
practice with him to neglect it, and turn
his attention to some new project.
soon discovered merit, and, if in indi-
gence, afforded liberal support to its
possessor. To this feeling we owe
those useful inventions, Massey's logs
for measuring a ship's way at sea, and
the elastic springs for keeping piano-
fortes in tune for an indefinite time;
by both these he was a loser of large
sums of money.

In the year 1820 he took out a patent
for making ships' masts of iron, and the
ingenuity which he showed in the com-
bination of the material, which united
strength with lightness, induced the Go-
vernment to order two masts and two
bowsprits for frigates. These, however,
on trial, were considered not sufficiently
strong; which Mr. Bill apprehended
would be the case, and always attribut-
ed the failure to their being supported
by elastic ropes, instead of iron shrouds,
which he had recommended; but which
he could not prevail on the Government
to adopt. The failure may also, in a
degree, be owing to its being a first at-
tempt, and a novelty to the workmen;
and, therefore, not executed with that
skill which so important an invention
demanded.

But the discovery to which his most
sanguine hopes were directed, and which
occupied some of his latest thoughts,
was that of rendering the inferior species
of timber, such as elm, beech, ash,
poplar, &c. far more durable than any
wood known, and at a small expence.
Specimens of the timber so prepared
have been put by Government for the
last eight years, to the severest tests,
without any change being produced in
them, while all other pieces of wood
(whether of a naturally superior texture,
or artificially prepared), placed under
similar circumstances in competition,
were completely destroyed. The Naval

Boards were so well convinced of the
merits of this invention, that they au-
thorized him to construct a ship in
Deptford Dock-yard with timber so
prepared; but he did not live to carry
their wishes into effect, It is, however,
some consolation to know, that the
secret has not died with him.

The disease which deprived his fa-
mily, friends, and the public of his
valuable life, was angina pectoris. He
languished under this complaint for
several weeks, in the perfect possession
of his faculties, and at length sunk be-
neath the malady, surrounded by his
affectionate daughters.

Mr. Bill was large in stature; his
features were strong and commanding,
animated in conversation, with a pleas-
ing expression of countenance when
smiling. Natural Philosophy and Me-
taphysics were his favourite studies: as
a branch of the former, he was assiduous
in the pursuit of experimental chemistry;
he possessed a valuable library con-
nected with this subject, as well as an
expensive apparatus. His conversation
as well as his writings, was strong, nerv-
ous and concise, always using well-
chosen words to convey his sentiments.
In metaphysical arguments, in which
he frequently indulged, he was a close
reasoner; but, as he discovered at once
the weak point of his opponent, he would
sometimes condescend to gain the vic-
tory by satire or repartee.

No one who fell into his society, and
attended to his conversation on various
topics, could leave it without the im-
pression that he was a man of extra-
ordinary talents.

-

He had a relish for the fine arts in
painting, the scenes from pastoral life
were most to his taste- - in music, his
feelings were more elevated and refined,
and his ear was exceedingly correct.
When fatigued with laborious study,
poetry was his amusement, and he
sometimes favoured his friends with a
sight of his own effusions, which were
far above mediocrity.

published in 12mo. "The Gates of
Paradise," a very small book for chil-
dren, containing fifteen plates of em-
blems, and "published by W. B. 13,
Hercules Buildings, Lambeth;" also
about the same time," Songs of Ex-
perience, with Plates ;" "America,
a Prophecy," folio, and "Europe, a
Prophecy, 1794," folio. These are
now become very scarce.
In 1797
he commenced, in large folio, an edi-
tion of Young's Night Thoughts, of
which every page was a design; but
only one number was published. In
1805 were produced in 8vo. numbers,
containing five engravings by Blake,
some Ballads by Mr. Hayley, but
which also were abruptly discontinued.
Few persons of taste are unacquainted
with the designs by Blake, engraved by
Schiavonetti, as illustrations to a 4to.
edition of Blair's Grave. They are
twelve in number, and an excellent
portrait of Blake, from a picture by T.
Philips, R. A. is prefixed. It was
borne forth into the world on the
warmest praises of all our prominent
artists, Hoppner, Phillips, Stothard,
Flaxman, Opie, Tresham, Westmacott,
Beechey, Lawrence, West, Nollekens,
Shee, Owen, Rossi, Thomson, Cosway,
and Soane; and doubly assured with a
preface by the learned and severe Fuseli,
the latter part of which we transcribe:

"The author of the moral series
before us has endeavoured to wake sen-
sibility by touching our sympathies
with nearer, less ambiguous, and less
ludicrous imagery, than what mytho-
logy, Gothic superstition, or symbols
as far-fetched as inadequate, could
supply. His invention has been chiefly
employed to spread a familiar and
domestic atmosphere round the most
important of all subjects to connect
the visible and the invisible world,
without provoking probability — and to
lead the eye from the milder light of
time to the radiations of eternity
Such is the plan and the moral part of
the author's invention: the technic
part, and the execution of the artist,
though to be examined by other prin-
ciples, and addressed to a narrower
circle, equally claim approbation, some-

-

This excellent but eccentric artist
was a pupil of the engraver Basire;
and among his earliest productions
were eight beautiful plates in the
Novelist's Magazine. In 1793 he

VOL. XII.

dom our fears, when we see him play
on the very verge of legitimate inven-
tion: but wildness so picturesque in
itself, so often redeemed by taste, sim-
plicity, and elegance-what child of
fancy, what artist, would wish to dis-

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