Thomas Ethelbert Page

“ None the less Kennedy regularly sent up to the universities a succession of pupils, who carried all before them. A list of the innumerable distinctions obtained by Shrewsbury men at Oxford and Cambridge between 1840 and 1860 undoubtedly establishes his claim to be the greatest classical teacher of this century (see Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Revenues and Management of certain Schools, &c., 1864, ii. 330–2) . ”

“ He was not a great teacher, certainly no theorist about education, no lover of exact rules, and rather one who allowed both boys and masters the largest measure of independence. Like the other three great schoolmasters of the century, Arnold, Thring, and Kennedy, he neither sought nor received ecclesiastical preferment. ”

“ In 1823 Kennedy went to St. John's College, Cambridge. Professor J. E. B. Mayor (Classical Review, May 1889) says that the list of what he had then read ‘sounds like the record of a Scaliger.’ In January 1824, when only in his second term, he won the Pitt university scholarship. During the examination Dean Law set Isaiah ch. xiv. 6–17 for Greek iambics, and Kennedy's translation (see Between Whiles) was so good that the Greek professor, Dobree, had it printed and circulated. His other university distinctions were the Porson prize for the second time in 1824, and for the third in 1826 ”

“ Kennedy was earnest and enthusiastic, and a determined enemy of intolerance and bigotry. His literary attainments were high, his knowledge of the English poets singularly wide, and he came into personal relations with many eminent men of letters, including, besides Coleridge and Washington Irving, Wordsworth, James Montgomery, Cary, the translator of Dante, Charles Kemble, and Mrs. ”

“ To which is added “The Reign of Youth, a Lyrical Poem,”’ London, 1840, 8vo. He also contributed notes to the Italian edition of Byron's poems published in 1842, and assisted his son, Charles Rann Kennedy, in the translation of ‘Virgil,’ published in 1849, he undertaking the first four Pastorals, the Georgics, and the first four Æneids. Some pieces by him will be found in the volume of poems issued by Charles Rann Kennedy in 1857. ”

“ Parr [q. v.] , the latter especially taking a keen interest in him. The example of his father early imbued him with a love of learning and passionate admiration for poetry, and he read widely in his father's large library. ”

“ Kennedy published: 1. ‘A Poem on the Death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales,’ London, 1817, 8vo. 2. ‘A Church of England Psalm-Book, or portions of the Psalter adapted ... to the Services of the Established Church,’ 1821, 8vo. 3. ‘Thoughts on the Music and Words of Psalmody as at present in use among the Members of the Church of England,’ Birmingham, 1821, 8vo; 2nd edition, London, 1822; 6th edition, 1827. 4. ‘A Tribute in Verse to the Character of George Canning,’ London, 1827, 8vo. 5. ‘Britain's Genius: a Mask, on occasion of the Marriage of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain. ... ”