GRIMTHORPE, EDMUND BECKETT, 1ST BARON (1816-1905), son of Sir Edmund Beckett Denison, was born on May 12, 1816. He was educated at Eton and Trinity college, Cambridge. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1841, became Q.C. in 1854, and was for many years a leader of the parliamentary bar. From 1877 to 1900 he was chancellor and vicar-general of York, and he was raised to the peerage in 1886. He was interested in astronomy, horology and architecture, more especially Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. The present tower clock of the Houses of Parliament, popularly known as "Big Ben," was constructed after Lord Grimthorpe's designs. He undertook in the late 'seventies to "restore, repair and refit" the abbey of St. Albans. His treatment of the roof, the new west front, and the windows inserted in the terminations of the transepts, excited a storm of adverse criticism. He died on April 29, 1905.