The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-13 00:00:00

THE LATE MR• BRITTON.

The third ordinary meeting of this society took place
yesterday evening, at their rooms, 16, Grosvenor-street,
under the presidency of G. G. Scott, Esq., when, after the
usual formal preliminaries,
Mr. DIGBY WYATT took occasion to allude to the loss
the institute had recently sustained in the lamented death
of Mr. John Britton, on whom he proceeded to pass a
warm eulogium. From a paper which he held in his hand
Mr. D. Wyatt recalled the more prominent features of
their late distinguished associate's career, and applauded the
energy and earnestness of purpose that had converted the
ignorant rustic into the accomplished writer and eloquent
and instructive speaker. Mr. Britton was, it appeared,
born in 1771, in a Wiltshire village, of parents so poor as to
be wholly unable to develops or properly cultivate his great
natural abilities. At an early age he was apprenticed to a
wine merchant in London, but soon displayed his inborn
activity and zeal for literary pursuits. Au anonymous
contribution of his accepted in the Attic Miscellany deter-
mined his future career, and his earlier efforts consisted
of song-books and other trifles compiled for Fairbur ,
the Catnach of his day. Subsequently, taking amo e
ambitious range, he got up stories of Pizarro, Cortez, and
Columbus, and the difficulties he here experienced in
the mechanical process of book-making constituted one
of the most amusing chapters in his autobiography. In
1801 he got employed on a work illustrating the beauties of
his native county, which had a large sale, and was shortly
afterwards selected to do all the British topography for
" Rees's Cyclopmdia," for which work he wrote in
all eight hundred quarto pages. He next published this
great work on the architectural antiquities of his country,
on which was expended 17,0921., and of which 1,300 copies
were sold at prices varying from 281. 12s. to 431. On his
" Cathedral Antiquities" 19,0001. was expended ; and an-
other work of his on Normandy and a third on London, li
both of which he was joined by Mr. Pugin, had great and
merited success. Of the last named work 1,000 copies
were sold. It was a curious fact, however, that the two
of his productions which had the greatest success related
to topics wholly apart from his ordinary pursuits. Of his
" Lecture on Railways" 5,000 copies were sold, and an
octavo of 139 pages on the " Pleasures of Human Life"
c
sold 2,000. Mr. Britton died on the Ist of the present
month, at the advanced age of 86, having in the course of
lhiinee engravingslongliterarytocabreeeerxeaZtetden,
and directed the outlay of pages, caused 1,700
11
115,0001. The result of all this labour and outlay had been
to give new life to the topography of this country. Before
Mr. Britton's time, they had only the dull opaque county
histories, and the words of Grose, Gilpin, and Twedale
Price; but their lamented friend had introduced quite a
new style, and to him wore they mainly indebted for the
present satisfactory position of their topographical litera-
ture. Mr. Wyatt concluded his obituary notice with a
suggestion that a subscription should be raised for the
erection of a tablet to their deceased friend's memory in
Salisbury Cathedral, which was unanimously and promptly
responded to by the meeting.
The remainder of the sitting was occupied by the read-
ing of Mr. Janson's paper on the architectural peculiarities
of Heidelburg Castle, which was interesting only to a pro-
fessional audience.