“ In 1884–1890 he was Clark Lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. Himself a writer of literary verse of much grace, and master of a prose style admirably expressive of a wide and appreciative culture, he was conspicuous for his valuable work in bringing foreign literature home to English readers. Northern Studies (1879) , a collection of essays on the literature of Holland and Scandinavia, was the outcome of a prolonged visit to those countries, and was followed by later work in the same direction. ”

“ To the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica he contributed numerous articles, and his services as chief literary adviser in the preparation of the 10th and 11th editions incidentally testify to the high position held by him in the contemporary world of letters. ”

“ Hypolympia, or the Gods on the Island (1901) , an “ironic phantasy,” the scene of which is laid in the 20th century, though the personages are Greek gods, is written in prose, with some blank verse. His Seventeenth Century Studies (1883) , Life of William Congreve (1888) , The Jacobean Poets (1894) , Life and Letters of Dr John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s (1899) , Jeremy Taylor (1904, “English Men of Letters”) , and Life of Sir Thomas Browne (1905) form a very considerable body of critical work on the English 17th-century writers. ”