Academy in 1806 ; but in this and the following twelve years he exhibited there only fourteen of his works. With very few exceptions Crome s subjects are taken from the familiar scenery of his native county. Fidelity to nature was his dominant aim. " The bit of heath, the boat, and the slow water of the flattish land, trees most of all the single tree in elaborate study, the group of trees, and how the growth of one affects that of another, and the characteristics of each," these, says Mr Wedmore, are the things to which he is most constant. He still remains, says the same critic, of many trees the greatest draughts man, and is especially the master of the oak. His most important works are Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, now in the National Gallery ; Clump of Trees, Hautbois Commou ; Oak at Poringland ; the Willow ; Coast Scene near Yarmouth; Bruges, on the Ostend River; Slate Quarries ; the Italian Boulevards ; and the Fishmarket at Boulogne. He executed a good many etchings, and the great charm of these is in the beautiful and faithful repre sentation of trees. Crome enjoyed a very limited reputation during his life, and his pictures were sold at low prices; but since his death they have been more and more appreciated, and have given him a high place among English painters of landscape. Ha died at Norwich after a few days illness, April 22, 1821. A collection of his etchings, entitled Norfolk Picturesque Scenery, was published in 1834, and was re-issued with a memoir by Dawson Turner in 1838, but in this issue the prints were retouched by other hands. For a genial and appreciative critique on this attractive painter, see Mr Frederick Wedmore s Studies in
English Art (1876).CROMLECH (Gaelic or Welsh crom, curved, vaulted, and leac or llech, a monumental stone) is the name given in Britain to those megalithic monuments exclusively which i-onsist of a great stone supported on three or more stones set on end in the ground. In France, however, and on the Con tinent generally, it is exclusively employed to denote a totally different class of monument, for which in this country we only use the descriptive names of " stone circles," or " circles of standing stones." This application of the term in different countries to different classes of monuments has given rise to much confusion. The earliest known use of the word occurs in Bishop Morgan s transla tion of the Bible into Welsh (1588), where "the clefts of the rocks " of our translation is rendered by cromlechydd y creigiau. Its earliest occurrence in the special sense in which it Las continued to be used by antiquaries is in a description of some ancient remains by Rev. John Griffith of Llanddyfnan (1650), in which ha says, "There is a crooked little cell of stone not far from Alaw, where according to tradition Bronwen Leir was buried ; such little houses, which are common in this country, are called by the apposite name cromlechaw." The restricted sense in which the term has been. applied in recent times in this country has given rise to the notion that a cromlech, or great stone supported on props of smaller size, is a species of structure complete in itself, and distinct from the dolmen or chambered cairn. Mr Fergusson, in his recent work on Rude Stone Monuments, has described the monuments usually known by the term cromlech as " free-standing dol mens," and maintains that they were never intended to be covered with a mound or cairn. It is evident that the removal of the loose stones of the enveloping cairn would leave its megalithic chamber exposed as a cromlech, and undeniable that many of the examples adduced as " free standing dolmens " in England do exhibit traces of such removal. But on the other hand the steendysser or " Giants Graves" of Denmark and Sweden, which are perfectly analogous to the cromlechs of this country, are never wholly bidden in the mounds which envelop their bases. Tli3 present tendency is towards the entire disuse of the term cromlech, and the adoption of the term dolmen for all the varieties of tombs with megalithic chambers, whether " free-standing" or partially or wholly enveloped in mounda of stones and earth.
CROMPTON, Samuel (1753-1827), the inventor of the spinning-mule, was born at Firwood near Bolton- le Moors, Lancashire, of poor parents. While yet a hoy he lost his father, and removed with the rest of his family to Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, where he educated him self as well as circumstances would allow, maintaining himself by working as a cotton-spinner. His musical capacity he had sufficient taste and knowledge to composes several hymn-tunes enabled him to earn a little money by playing the violin at the Bolton Theatre. Meanwhile he was working hard to perfect his invention for .spinning yarn for the manufacture of muslin, and he had brought it into working order before his marriage, which took place in 1780. The expense of a patent proving too costly for his limited means, he was glad to make known the con struction of his machine to a few manufacturers for very small sums of money. Several refused to fulfil their agree ment, and all he received was about 60. The use of his invention spread rapidly, and he constantly made improve ments upon it ; but though in 1801 he had, with the aid of 500 lent him by a friend, extended his business by employing a number of hands besides liis own family, he was nearly sixty years of age before he obtained any important pecuniary recompense. Urged by the monetary difficulties in which he had involved himself through his somewhat -shy and nnbusiness-liko tempera ment, he drew up a paper showing how marvellously extensive and useful was the employment of the mule, and 5000 was allowed him by Parliament. In 1826, how ever, his business had again failed, and another attempt was made to obtain a second Government grant, but without success. He died on the 26th June 1S27. (See his Life by G. French.)
Commonwealth, was born at Huntingdon, 25th April 1599. His father, Robert Cromwell, was the second son of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrook, surnamed, for his munificence, The Golden Knight. His mother,[1] Elizabeth Steward, was the daughter of a gentleman of some property in the city of Ely. The connection of the Cromwell family with that of the celebrated Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex, and of the Stewards with the royal line of Scotland, is not without interest.[2] The stories of Cromwell s youthful visions and adventures, his violence and profligacy, are derived from the most questionable authority, and are little worthy of serious notice. The authentic facts of his early history seem to be confined to these : that he was educated at Huntingdon grammar-school, under a rigid and pious instructor, Dr Thomas Beard ; on 22d April 1616 he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; on his father s death in June 1617 he left the university, carrying away at least as much Latin as enabled him in after years to make occasional use of that language; and soon after he proceeded to London to gain some knowledge of law. There is no proof that he ever attended any of the
inns of court ; and regarding his life in London, and the
- ↑ The character of Cromwell, in some of its noblest aspects, seems to have been inherited from his mother. She died at Whitehall, November 16, 1654, in her ninetieth year. "A little before her death," Bays Thurloe, " she gave my lord her blessing in these words : "The Lord cause His face to shine upon you, and comfort you in all your adversities, and enable you to do great things for the glory of your Most High God, and to be a relief unto His people. My dear son, I leave my heart with thee. A good night ! "
- ↑ See the proofs adduced in Forster s British Statesmen, vi. 2 ; Carlyle s Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, i. 32, 40.
