the general standard of teaching very low, and Kennedy's position as assistant-master gave him no effective influence. But early in 1836 Dr. Butler was made bishop of Lichfield, and Kennedy, his former pupil, was, greatly to his satisfaction, nominated his successor in the head-mastership of Shrewsbury. Kennedy was at the same time made D.D. by royal mandate.
Kennedy remained at Shrewsbury until 1866, a period of thirty years, and throughout that time the school maintained an unparalleled reputation for classical training. It was poorly endowed, and could not secure brilliant boys by offers of rich scholarships. Although the head-master was fairly well paid, there were no means of remunerating under-masters liberally, and the whole burden of teaching the upper boys fell upon the head-master. The buildings of the school were meagre and the accommodation for boarders very defective. Until Kennedy went there was no cricket-ground, and the very scanty school grounds possessed a solitary fives-court as the sole provision for healthy amusement. The numbers of the school were consequently never large, and varied during his time from eighty to 140. None the less Kennedy regularly sent up to the universities a succession of pupils, who carried all before them. A list of the innumerable distinctions obtained by Shrewsbury men at Oxford and Cambridge between 1840 and 1860 undoubtedly establishes his claim to be the greatest classical teacher of this century (see Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Revenues and Management of certain Schools, &c., 1864, ii. 330–2). His success was due to his energetic nature; his enthusiasm, like all genuine enthusiasm, was contagious, and his pupils left him possessed of the true key of knowledge—a genuine and vigorous love of knowledge for its own sake. The veneration in which he was held by them is sufficiently proved by the large sum which was raised for a testimonial to him on his retirement in 1866. The money was devoted partly to the building of the chancel of the present chapel at Shrewsbury School, and partly to the founding of a professorship of Latin in the university of Cambridge. Kennedy added 500l. to the fund, on the condition that the professorship should not be called the Kennedy professorship, but merely the Latin professorship. The first occupant of the new chair was one of his pupils, H. A. J. Munro [q. v.], and the second was another, Mr. J. E. B. Mayor. It was to Kennedy that Munro dedicated his great edition of ‘Lucretius’ and Professor Mayor his equally great edition of ‘Juvenal.’
While at Shrewsbury Kennedy was, in 1843, appointed prebendary of Lichfield, and in 1861 select preacher in the university of Cambridge. In 1862 a royal commission sat to inquire into the condition of the nine chief public schools, including Shrewsbury, and Kennedy's published evidence clearly defined the value of classical study. Among the changes recommended was the use of the same Latin and Greek grammars in public schools, and the head-masters of nine chief schools unanimously selected as the basis of the new Latin grammar Kennedy's ‘Elementary Latin Grammar,’ originally published in 1843. In pursuance of this resolution a sub-committee, consisting of Kennedy, Dr. Hessey (of Merchant Taylors' School), and Dr. Scott (of Westminster School), constructed, on the basis of Kennedy's ‘Grammar,’ ‘The Public School Latin Primer,’ which was published in 1866. As a supplement to it, Kennedy, in 1871, published ‘The Public School Latin Grammar,’ a more thorough and complete work than any which had preceded it in England. The Latin primer met with much criticism, but it stood the test of time, and in 1888 Kennedy thoroughly revised it. Before Kennedy left Shrewsbury in 1866 he had accepted the living of West Felton, near Oswestry, vacant by the death of his son-in-law, William Burbury, patron of the living.
In 1867 Kennedy was appointed regius professor of Greek at Cambridge and canon of Ely, which offices he held until his death. He represented the Ely chapter as proctor in convocation for some years. At Ely he was much beloved, and largely helped to break down the barriers which long separated the cathedral body from the rest of the town. At Cambridge he took an animated part in the business of the university, and was elected a member of the council in 1870. With his daughters he took a warm interest in the movement for the education of women, and in an impressive speech in the Arts School in February 1881 he strongly supported the opening of the honour examinations of the university to students of Girton and Newnham colleges. He was from 1870 to 1880 a member of the committee for the revision of the New Testament, and took an active part in the work. In 1880 he was elected an honorary fellow of his old college, St. John's, and in 1885 an ordinary fellow of it for the second time after an interval of fifty-eight years. In the same year he received from the university of Dublin the honorary degree of LL.D. Kennedy died at Torquay on 6 April 1889; his wife predeceased him in 1874. His portrait by Ouless, painted by subscription, hangs in the hall of St. John's College.
Kennedy's passionate love of poetry, and
