English clergyman and author; born in London on the 2nd of May 1810. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, taking a first class in civil law in 1835; and ordained in 1836. He is the author of a number of historical, educational and popular science books, but he is most widely known and appreciated for his many literary, scientific and other compilations and dictionaries containing a vast amount of information in an easily accessible and handy form, saving literary workers much time in research, as well as putting within their reach much that aids them in illustrating, by quotation and reference, any subject they may have in hand. Of these useful works the following may be mentioned: Guide to Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, with Key (1850); A Guide to Every-Day Knowledge (1864); Great Central Points of Mediæval and Modern History (1870); Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1855); The Reader’s Handbook of Allusions, Plots and Stories (1884); Authors and their Works, with Dates (1884); Dictionary of Miracles (1884); Historic Note-Book (1891). Many of these have gone through several editions, each edition having been carefully revised.
