the impression produced on her by the grand scenery and beauty of the flora of the district in ‘A Voice from the Country,’ a series of papers in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald,’ which secured her many literary friendships, and in several popular tales: ‘Gertrude the Emigrant,’ &c., with numerous engravings, Sydney, 1857, 8vo; ‘Cowanda, the Veteran's Grant,’ Sydney, 1859, 8vo, a story of a runaway Manchester clerk; and ‘Tom Hillicker,’ all illustrated by herself. She afterwards published ‘Narratives and Sketches’ in the ‘Sydney Mail’ and ‘Town and Country Journal.’
During her residence at the Kurrajong she collected and prepared valuable botanical specimens for Baron Ferdinand von Müller, the government botanist, who was then producing, in conjunction with George Bentham, ‘Flora Australiensis,’ 7 vols. London, 1863, 8vo, and ‘Fragmenta Phytographiæ Australiæ,’ 4 vols. Melbourne, 1858–64, 8vo. One genus, Atkinsonia, was named after her, as was the species Epacris Calvertiana at a later period. Müller speaks very kindly of her botanical contributions from the Blue Mountains. On leaving the Kurrajong with her mother, she resided in her native district with her brother, James Atkinson, J.P., and there married, 1870, James Snowden Calvert [q. v.] She died suddenly on 28 April 1872. A tablet in Sutton Fields Church, and another (by subscription) in St. Peter's Church, Richmond, tell the story of her pious labours and scientific researches. Her funeral sermon, by the Rev. Dr. Woold, has been printed. Her husband, an Englishman of ‘the Borders,’ settled early in Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, and emigrated in 1840. Meeting on the voyage to Australia with Dr. Leichardt, he formed a lasting friendship with him, and four years afterwards joined him, with his own outfit and horses, on the first and successful expedition to Queensland. His name is well known in connection with various European exhibitions.
[Barton's Lit. of New South Wales, pp. 111–12; Heaton's Australian Dictionary, p. 32; Baron von Müller's Botanical Works; Atkinson's Agriculture, &c., 1826.]
CALVERT, CHARLES (1785–1852), landscape-painter, born at Glossop Hall, Derbyshire, on 23 Sept. 1785, was the eldest son of Charles Calvert, agent of the Duke of Norfolk's estate. He was apprenticed to the cotton trade, and began business as a cotton merchant in Manchester, but against the wishes of his friends he abandoned commerce for art and became a landscape-painter. He was one of those instrumental in the foundation of the Manchester Royal Institution (which has since become the City Art Gallery), and he gained the Heywood gold medal for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in water colour. Much of his time was necessarily devoted to teaching, but all the moments that could be spared from it were passed in the lake districts. Even in his later years, when confined to his bed by failing health, he occupied himself in recording his reminiscences of natural beauty. He died at Bowness, Westmoreland, on 26 Feb. 1852, and was buried there.
The father of the landscape-painter, Charles Calvert the elder, was an amateur. He was born in 1754; died on 13 June 1797, and is buried in St. Mary's churchyard, Manchester; a younger brother, Raisley Calvert, who died in 1794, was a sculptor, and is well known as the friend and admirer of Wordsworth, to whom he bequeathed 900l. Another son of Charles Calvert the elder, Frederick Baltimore Calvert, is separately noticed. Two other sons, Henry and Michael Pease, were both painters.
[Art Journal, 1852, p. 150 (the same notice appears in the Gent. Mag. June 1852, new ser. xxxvii. 630); Nodal's Art in Lancashire and Cheshire, 1884.]
CALVERT, CHARLES ALEXANDER (1828–1879), actor, was born in London on 28 Feb. 1828, and educated at King's College School. On leaving it he spent some time in the office of a London solicitor and in a mercer's business in St. Paul's Churchyard; but before long he was drawn to the stage, having derived a first impulse towards it from the plays of Shakespeare produced at Sadler's Wells Theatre by Phelps, from whom Calvert afterwards modestly declared that he had learnt all his art. He first entered into an engagement as an actor in 1852, at Weymouth Theatre, under the management of Sothern, the famous Lord Dundreary of later days. Then he played leading parts at Southampton and in South Wales, till about 1855 he joined the company of Messrs. Shepherd and Creswick at the Surrey Theatre in London, where he played leading youthful parts of a ‘legitimate’ type. A year after his arrival in London he married Adelaide Ellen Biddles, who, as Mrs. Calvert, attained to a good position on the stage. They had several children, of whom five (three sons and two daughters) have followed their parents' profession. In 1859 Calvert became stage-manager and principal actor in the Theatre Royal, Manchester. In this town he was to make his name; but it was not till
