Blomfield. In January 1846 he was made domestic chaplain to H.R.H. Prince Albert, and in the summer of the same year was nominated by Dean. Gaisford to the headmastership of Westminster School, vacant by the retirement of Dr. Williamson.
It was during his residence as tutor at Oxford that Liddell published the 'Greek-English Lexicon' which will always be associated wich his name. This important work was undertaken in conjunction with his brother-student and contemporary, Robert Scott (1811-1887) [q. v.], and the first edition was published, after labours extending over nine years, in the summer of 1843. It was based upon the 'Greek-German Lexicon' of F. Passow, professor at Breslau and pupil of Jacobs and Hermann. Passow's name appeared on the title-page of the first three editions, but was afterwards omitted, as the book increased in volume, and a vast amount of new matter was continually added. Passow himself had spent his first efforts on the Greek of Homer and Hesiod ; to this he had added the Ionic prose of Herodotus ; but his early death in 1833, at the age of forty-six, had left his work quite incomplete. Much remained to be done, not only in the arrangement and method of treatment and illustration of the different meanings of words, but also in adding complete references to the principal Greek authors of various ages. The 'Lexicon' was the constant companion of Liddell in spare moments throughout his life, long after Scott had ceased to be his coadjutor. The dates of the several editions are : 1st 1843. 2nd 1845, 3rd 1849, 4th 1855, 5th 1861, 6th 1869, 7th (revised by Liddell alone) 1883, 8th 1897. The last two editions were electrotyped, and the last, embodying much new matter, was published when Liddell was in his eighty-seventh year. An abridgment of the 'Lexicon' for the use of schools, published immediately after the first edition, and an 'Intermediate Lexicon,' published in 1889, have rendered the labours of Liddell and Scott accessible to the beginners of Greek, as well as to the most advanced scholars.
Westminster School had much fallen in numbers when Liddell undertook the duties of head-master. Many changes were needed to restore its ancient reputation. New assistant-masters had to be appointed, new school-books introduced, the range of subjects of study enlarged, and many old abuses swept away. Under Liddell's wise guidance, and through his own unsparing efforts, much good was effected, and the number of boys soon rose from between eighty and ninety to about 140. He was in many respects a very remarkable ruler, and his appointment in 1852 as a member of the first Oxford University Commission showed the confidence reposed in him by the government of the day. But the labours of that commission formed a serious addition to his school work, and an outbreak of typhoid fever, an unfortunate result of Dean Buckland's sanitary reforms, led to grave anxieties, and to a serious diminution in the numbers of the boys. Unable to carry out his wish to move the school to a new home in the country, and despairing of its growth and expansion in London, Liddell was glad to accept Lord Palmerston's offer of the deanery of Christ Church in June 1855, on the death of his old chief, Dean Gaisford.
He held the deanery from the summer of 1855 till his retirement in December 1891 a period of more than thirty-six years, a longer tenure of the office than any former dean had enjoyed. It covered also an eventful epoch in the history of Christ Church. The recommendations of the commission of which he had been an influential member were embodied in an ordinance which became law in 1858, under which two of the eight canonries were suppressed, and the powers of the dean and chapter were largely curtailed, their ancient right of nominating to studentships being taken away, and a board of electors established, consisting of the dean, six canons, and the six senior members of the educational staff, who were to examine and select, after open competition, all students except those who were drawn from Westminster School. Instead of the old number of 101 students, there were for the future to be twenty-eight senior students (answering in some respects to fellows of other colleges) and fifty-two junior studentships, twenty-one annexed to Westminster School, and the rest open to competition.
This ordinance remained in force till 1867. But it satisfied nobody ; the senior students especially demanding a place in the administration of the property of their house, of which the dean and chapter had always enjoyed the sole management. After much controversy a private commission of five distinguished men was appointed, who drew up a new scheme of government, which all parties agreed to abide by, and which was embodied in the Christ Church Oxford Act, 1867. Under this act a new governing body was created, consisting of the dean, canons, and senior students, who were to be the owners and managers of the property. The rights of the chapter as a cathedral
