Eric Graham

“ For more than thirty years Bosworth Smith mainly devoted his life to his duties at Harrow. His house was always one of the most distinguished in the school. His firm, but tolerant, government, his enthusiasm and simplicity, his wide interests, and his ready sympathy bound his pupils to him in ties of affection, which lasted long after they had left school. In his form teaching, which never lost its early freshness, he qualified the classical tradition by diverting much of his energy to history, scripture, geography, and English literature, especially Milton. ”

“ Bosworth Smith, who travelled frequently in his vacations and was keenly alive to the historical associations of foreign scenes, cherished many interests outside his school work, and was soon widely known as an author. In 1874 he delivered before the Royal Institution in London four lectures on Mohammed and Mohammedanism, originally prepared for an essay society at Harrow. They were published in the same year (3rd edit. 1889) . While maintaining the infinite superiority of Christianity as a religion, Bosworth Smith ably defended the character and teaching of the Prophet. ”

“ At Harrow he had steadily pursued his lifelong study of birds, making annual expeditions with chosen pupils to neighbouring woods, and occasionally to the Norfolk Broads and other places, to observe, but not to rob, birds' nests. In his holidays, too, he had been a keen but humane sportsman. At Bingham's Melcombe he enjoyed full scope for his predilections. To the 'Nineteenth Century' (November 1902-February 1904) he contributed six articles on birds, which were published with other chapters descriptive of Dorset life, as 'Bird life and Bird Lore,' in 1905 (new edit. 1909) . ”