friend. Loikhart quotes an interesting letter written by Mrs Cockbuni in 1777, describing the precocious conduct of little Walter Scott, then scarcely six years old, during a visit which she paid to his mother. It was Mrs Cockburn also who wrote the character-sketch of Scott s father, which, when it was given as a toast, was so true as to be immediately recognized. Scott himself spent pleasant evenings at Mrs Cockburn s house when she was a very old lady and he a young advocate. Mrs Cockburn died in 1794, having survived her only child, Captain Adam
Cockburn, fourteen years.COCKBURN, Sir George (1772-1853), admiral, was of Scottish extraction, and was born in London. He entered the navy in his ninth year. After serving on the home station, and in the East Indies and the Mediterranean, he assisted, as captain of the " Minerve," at the blockade of Leghorn in 1796, and a year afterwards he fought in the battle of Cape St Vincent. In 1809, in command of the naval force on shore, he contributed greatly to the reduction of Martinique, and signed the capitulation by which that island was handed over to the English ; for his services on this occasion he received the thanks of the House of Commons. After service in the Scheldt and at the defence of Cadiz he was sent in 1811 on an unsuc cessful mission for the reconciliation of Spain and her American colonies. He was made rear-admiral in 1812, and in 1813-14 he took a prominent part in the American war, especially at the battle of Bladensburg and the cap ture of Washington. Early in 1815 he received the Order of the Bath, and in the autumn of the same year he carried out, in the "Northumberland," the sentence of deportation to St Helena which had been passed upon Bonaparte. In 1818 he received the Grand Cross of his Order, and was made a Lord of the Admiralty ; and the same j r ear he was returned to parliament for Portsmouth. He was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral in 1819, and to that of admiral in 1837 ; he became senior naval lord in 1841, and held office in that capacity till 1846. From 1827 he was a privy councillor. In 1851 he was made Admiral of the Fleet, and in 1852, a ysar before his death, his brother s baronetcy fell to him by inheritance. See O Byrne, Naval Biography; James, Naval History ; Gentleman s Magazine for 1853.
COCKBURN, Henry Dundas (1779-1854), known as Lord Cockburn, was born in Edinburgh, October 26, 1779. He was educated at the High School and at the university of Edinburgh; and he was a member of the famous Speculative Society, to which Scott, Brougham, and Jeffrey belonged. He entered the faculty of advocates in the year 1 800, and attached himself, not to the party of his relatives, who could have afforded him most valuable patronage, but to the Whig or Liberal party, and that at a time when it held out few inducements to men ambitious of success in life. On the accession of Earl Grey s ministry in 1830, he became Solicitor-General for Scotland, In 1834 he was raised to the bench, and on taking his seat as a judge in the Court of Session he adopted the title of Lord Cockburn. Cockburu s forensic style was remarkable for its clearness, pathos, and simplicity ; and his conversational powers were unrivalled among his contemporaries. The extent of his literary ability only became known after he had passed his seventieth year, on the publication of his biography of Lord Jeffrey in 1852, and from the Memorials of his Time, which appeared posthumously in 1856. He died on the 26th of April 1854, at his mansion of Bonaly, near Edinburgh.
COCKER, Edward, the reputed author of the famous Arithmetick, the popularity of which has added a phrase to the list of English proverbialisms, was born about 1632, and died between 1671 and 1675. He was an engraver, and also taught writing and arithmetic. He is credited with the authorship and execution of some fourteen sets of copy slips, one of which, Daniel s Copy-Bool; ingraven by Edward Cocker, Philomath, is preserved in the British Museum. Pepys, in his Diary, makes very favourable mention of Cocker, who appears to have displayed great skill in his art. Cocker s Arithmetick, the fifty-second edition of which appeared in 1748, and which has passed through some sixty editions in all, was not published during the lifetime of its reputed author, the first impression bear ing date of 1678. The late Professor De Morgan in his Arithmetical Books (1847) adduces proofs, which may be held to be conclusive, that the work was a forgery of the editor and publisher, John Hawkins ; and there appears to be no doubt that the Decimal Arithmetic (1684), and the English Dictionary (second edition, 1715), issued by Hawkins under Cocker s name, are forgeries also. De Morgan condemns the Arithmetick as a diffuse compilation from older and better works, and dates " a very great de terioration in elementary works on arithmetic " from the appearance of the book, which owed its celebrity far more to persistent puffing than to its merits. He pertinently adds, " This same Edward Cocker must have had great reputation, since a bad book under his name pushed out the good ones."
COCKERELL, Charles Robert (] 788-1863), architect, was born in London. After a severe preliminary training in his profession, he visited and studied the great architec tural remains of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. At ^Egina, Phigalia, and other places of interest, he conducted exca vations on a large scale, enriching the British Museum with many fine fragments, and adding several valuable monographs to the . literature of archaeology, the best of which is said to be that on the mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Elected in 1829 an associate of the Royal Academy, he became a member in 1836, and in 1839 he was appointed professor of architecture, Ids lectures in which capacity were so greatly esteemed as to be attended by all the students of the several arts professed within the school. On the death in 1837 of Soane, the distinguished architect of the Bank of England, Cockerell was appointed Lis suc cessor, and successfully carried out the alterations that have been needed in that building. In addition to branch banks at Liverpool and Manchester he erected in 1840 the New Library at Cambridge, and in 1845 the university galleries at Oxford, the last one of the architect s least happy efforts, as well as the Sun and the Westminster Fire Offices in Bartholomew Lane and in the Strand ; and Tite and he were joint architects of the London and Westminster Bank. On the death of Henry Lonsdale Elmes in 1847, Cockerell was selected to finish the St George s Hall, Liver pool, a task which he executed with great success. Cocker- ell s best conceptions were those inspired by classic models ; his essays in the Gothic the college at Lampeter, for instance, and the chapel at Harrow are by no means so successful. Among his numerous publications, however, may be mentioned those On the Iconography of Wells Cathedral, and On the Sculptures of Lincoln and Eoccter Cathedrals, which prove his thorough knowledge of Gothic art as well as of Greek. His Tribute to the Memory of Sir Christopher Wren (1838) is a collection of the whole of Wren s works drawn to the same scale.
town of England, in the county of Cumberland, 25 miles by rail from Carlisle, at the confluence of the Derwent and the Cocker, both of which are crossed by bridges in the immediate vicinity. The town is irregularly built, but is clean and well paved. It has remains of au old castle, built soon after the Conquest, a town-hall, a free grammar school, and a house of correction ; and its manufactures include linen and woollen goods, thread, hosiery, hats, and papor.
In the neighbourhood are extensive coal mines, which give