JOHN, an architect, of Welsh descent, was born in London in 1752. After studying architecture with unwearied perseverance under Sir Robert Taylor, he became a measuring surveyor and speculative builder. In course of time he retired to a small property at Caernarthen. In 1790, however, misfortune induced him to resort to architecture for a livelihood; and in 1792 he took up his abode in London. He soon acquired extensive business; and in 1797 he is found receiving a patent for a new mode of using hollow iron boxes in the construction of the arches and piers of bridges. In 1812 he was employed to plan the laying out of Regent's Park, of which he afterwards designed all the terraces, except Cornwall Terrace. A more successful undertaking was the planning of Regent Street in 1813. In carrying out this plan, he endeavoured to give a picturesque effect by uniting several houses into one façade, and covering the bare brick walls with the newly-introduced Roman cement. In 1815, through royal favour, he was appointed architect, valuer, and agent for letting land, to the Board of Woods and Forests. In this capacity he laid out the routes and designed the architecture of several streets. He also assisted Repton in altering and enlarging the Opera House in 1816-18, built the Haymarket Theatre in 1820-21, commenced Buckingham Palace in 1826, and superintended the improvements in St James's Park in 1827-29. The large fortune which Nash had acquired from these and other enterprises enabled him to retire in 1834. His death took place in May of the following year at East Cowes Castle.

RICHARD, better known as "Beau Nash," a famous master of the ceremonies at Bath, was the son of a gentleman of limited means, and was born at Swansea in 1674. From Caermaerth School he was sent to Jesus College, Oxford, to prepare himself for ultimately studying law. But that thoughtless love of amusement which afterwards became his ruling passion soon began to influence him. At the age of seventeen, he entered into a matrimonial engagement, which caused his expulsion from the university. A commission in the army was then bought for him. But even the barrack life of a soldier was too serious an employment; and so, under the guise of studying law at the Middle Temple, he devoted his life to pleasure. A fairly-acquired success at the gaming-table supplied him with money. His fine clothes, his imperturbable effrontery, and especially his scrupulous attention to all the ceremonies of polite life, introduced him in a short time to the leaders of fashion. So eminent a master did he become in the science of gentility, that the members of the Temple appointed him to conduct the pageants with which, in accordance with an old custom, they entertained King William. This difficult duty was performed with a masterly tact, and would have been rewarded with a knighthood had not the uncertain income of the "beau" been inadequate to maintain such a dignity. The notoriety of Nash, however, did not commence until he repaired to Bath in 1704. That city was then a paltry watering-place, where a few visitors sought for health and pleasure in comfortless lodging-houses, ill-regulated entertainments, and assembly-rooms perfumed with tobacco-smoke. With his usual forwardness of spirit, Nash got himself appointed master of the ceremonies, and inaugurated his rule by a thorough reformation. By his exertions a handsome assembly-hall was erected, the streets and houses were improved and ornamented, and Bath began to assume the appearance of a city consecrated to pleasure. Good breeding was installed as the ruling principle of the balls and entertainments, and was guarded by a code of laws rigorously enforced upon all. He constituted himself umpire of all quarrels, and prevented appeal from his decisions by forbidding swords to be worn. He also endeavoured, gambler though he was, to keep the thoughtless young of both sexes from the clutch of designing villains. At the same time, his exertions for the improvement of the city, his native vivacity, and his free though sometimes misdirected benevolence, made him popular with the people of the town. In his old age, however, the act of Parliament against gambling deprived him of the means of subsistence. The absurd pomp with which, in his character of "King of Bath," he was wont to secure the respect of the frivolous and the vulgar, could no longer be maintained. The glory of the old beau faded simultaneously with the gaudy trappings that decked his ungainly person. Yet with tottering steps he continued to pursue those vanities which no longer afforded him any enjoyment. He died in February 1761, and was honoured with a public funeral. A Life of Richard Nash, by Goldsmith, was published anonymously, in 8vo, London, 1762, and has been reprinted in the edition of Goldsmith's works by Peter Cunningham, in 4 vols. 8vo, London, 1854.

THOMAS, the most brilliant pamphleteer of the Elizabethan age, was born about 1564, at Lowestoft in Suff- Nashua folk. He became a student of St John's College, Cambridge, and in 1584 took the degree of B.A. With this honour, however, his university career closed. His satirical faculty began to try its edge upon the college authorities; and he was in consequence expelled. The next few years seem to have been spent in visiting the Continent, and moving about without any settled employment. At length, in 1589, he took up his abode in London as a literary adventurer. His pugnacious propensity hurried him at once into the contest with the Puritans. He attacked them with their own favourite weapons of ridicule and invective, and proved more than a match for them. *Pap with a Hatchet*, *An Almond for a Parrot*, and *A Counter-cuffe to Martin Junior*, following each other in rapid succession, overwhelmed his opponents with a shower of humorous sallies and cutting jibes. Such a clever satirist could scarcely fail to attract notice. Accordingly he soon became a reigning wit at supper-tables, and a choice boon companion among literary men of pleasure. He was also employed in 1590 to assist Kit Marlowe in composing *The Tragedy of Dido*; and in 1592 a comedy of his, entitled *Summer's Last Will and Testament*, was played before Queen Elizabeth. But the wit and the fancy that were so active and lively amid the din of controversy were dull and spiritless in the calm region of the drama. This failure in writing for the stage cut off Nash from almost the only source from which the professional authors of that day derived a tolerable pittance. It is no wonder, then, that we find him in 1592 in the midst of bare poverty, writing *Pierce Penissle*, his *Supplication to the Divell*; and, with the graphic strokes of one who was representing a stern reality, describing himself as "sitting up late and rising early, contending with the cold, and conversing with scarcity," cursing the day of his birth, and scarcely restraining himself from ending his misery with his own hand. His *Christes Tears over Jerusalem*, published in 1593, is written in the same strain. But this melancholy was soon shaken off, when about this time he got once more into the congenial region of satire, and began to attack Dr Gabriel Harvey. That worthy individual, the friend of Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney, was then the common butt of some of the most mischievous wits about town. But "that restless buffoon Tom Nash," as old Anthony Wood calls him, used him worst of all. He twisted the many foibles of the pedantic doctor into the most ludicrous and grotesque shapes, and exposed them to ridicule. He raked up every family scandal, and cast it in his teeth. He even sketched the appearance of the lank and shrivelled old scholar with all the vivid fidelity of a portrait-painter, and held it up before the original to make him mad. In vain the learned doctor most manfully wielded his stately invective and cynical humour. These cumbrous weapons were no guard against the keen and light shafts that came pouring in upon him. The most poignant of Nash's pamphlets in this memorable contest were, *Strange Newes of the Intercepting certaine Letters and a Convoy of Verses*, 1592, and *Have with You to Saffron Walden*, 1596. At length, in 1597, the battle waxed so hot that the Archbishop of Canterbury interfered, and issued an order that all the books of both the combatants should be seized. In the same year Nash was again employed to write for the stage, and, conscious probably that the faculty of ridicule was the only power of his that could achieve success, he produced a satirical play called *The Isle of Dogs*. The lash, however, had been plied too vigorously. Scarcely had the drama been performed, when the author was lodged in the Fleet prison. He seems to have lain there for several days. This play is his last work on record. His death took place in 1600 or 1601. (See Disraeli's *Calamities of Authors*; and Collier's *History of English Dramatic Poetry*.)