Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/352

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Smith

in 1879, C. M. Ingleby's 'Shakespeare's Centurie of Prayse,' to which she made many additions.

Miss Toulmin Smith's most important contributions to research and scholarship were her editions of the 'York Plays' (1885); of the 'Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land by Henry, Earl of Derby (afterwards Henry IV) in 1390–1 and 1392–3,' issued by the Camden Society in 1894, a mine of information upon continental travel in the fourteenth century; and of Leland's 'Itinerary,' the preparation of which occupied her leisure for many years. The 'Itinerary in Wales' was issued in 1906, and the 'Itinerary in England' in 4 vols. 1907–10.

In November 1894 Miss Toulmin Smith left Highgate on being elected librarian of Manchester College, Oxford; she was the first woman in England to be appointed head of a public library, and held the post until her death. Her house at Oxford became the meeting-place of British and foreign scholars, at whose disposal she always placed her aid and advice and even her labour. At the same time she was an accomplished gardener and housewife. She died at 1 Park Terrace, Oxford, on 18 Dec. 1911, and was buried in Wolvercote cemetery. A memorial is to be placed in the library of Manchester College.

Besides the works already mentioned Miss Toulmin Smith edited 'Gorboduc' for Vollmoeller's 'Englische Sprach- und Literaturdenkmale' (1883) and 'A Commonplace Book of the Fifteenth Century' (1886). She translated Jusserand's 'La Vie Nomade et les routes d'Angleterre' under the title of 'English Wayfaring Life' (1889). Her 'Manual of the English Grammar and Language for Self-help' (1886) is a clear and practical work on historical lines. She assisted Paul Meyer in editing 'Les Contes moralisés de Nicole Bozon' for the Société des anciens Textes français (1889), and took some part in the editing of the medieval chronicle 'Cursor Mundi' (1893) and of the Registers of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta, which she examined during a six months' visit to Malta (1880–1).

[The Times, 21 Dec. 1911; The Inquirer, 23 Dec. 1911 (notice by C. H. Herford); Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]

E. L.


SMITH, REGINALD BOSWORTH (1839–1908), schoolmaster and author, born on 28 June 1839 at West Stafford Rectory, was second son in the family of four sons and six daughters of Reginald Southwell Smith (1809–1896), who graduated M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1834, was rector of West Stafford, Dorset, from 1836, and canon of Salisbury from 1875. His grandfather was Sir John Wyldbore Smith (1770–1852), second baronet, of Sydling and the Down House, Blandford, Dorset. His mother was Emily Genevieve, daughter of Henry Hanson Simpson of Bitterne Manor House, Hampshire, and 12 Camden Place, Bath. From Milton Abbas school, Blandford, Bosworth Smith passed in August 1855 to Marlborough College, where he was head boy under two headmasters—George Edward Lynch Cotton [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Calcutta, and George Granville Bradley [q. v. Suppl. II], subsequently dean of Westminster. At Michaelmas 1858 he matriculated at Oxford, with an open classical scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and he graduated B.A. in 1862 with first-class honours both in classical moderations and in the final classical school. In the same year he was president of the union. In 1863 he was elected to a classical fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford, and was appointed tutor of that college, and lecturer both there and at Corpus Christi. In the same year he published 'Birds of Marlborough,' a first testimony to his native love of birds, which he cherished from boyhood. He proceeded M.A. in 1865.

On 16 Sept. 1864 he began work as a classical master at Harrow School, on the nomination of the headmaster. Dr. H. Montagu Butler. He married next year, and in 1870 he opened a new 'Large House,' The Knoll, which he built at his own expense, and where he designed an attractive garden. 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