86 



for 4 years up to 1871 the president of Manchester College 

 and as an earnest promoter of the Evening Class movement 

 at Owens College, he has certainly left a mark of his own 

 in tlie civilisation of his day and district. No one who had 

 the honour of friendly intercourse with Mr. Robinson ever 

 left him without being in some way better for the interview. 

 His life-long familiarity with the classical literature of 

 Greece and Rome, of Italy and Germany, and especially of 

 England, and a habit of even fastidious composition and of 

 ready and earnest address, secured to him a marked emi- 

 nence amongst the cultivated men of business who some 

 years ago distinguished Manchester society. 



In addition to continuous study in these directions he 

 devoted considerable attention to mastering the Persian 

 language and literature. Throughout his life he had much 

 pleasure in making and publishing, more or less privately, 

 a series of elegant translations of Latin, Italian, and German 

 poems, but his chief work is represented by a volume which 

 he published privately in 1883, of "Persian Poetry for 

 English readers, illustrated by specimens of six of the greatest 

 classical Poets of Persia, with biographical notices and notes." 

 A portion of this work consisted of a reproduction of a paper 

 on the " Life and Writings of Ferdosee " which Mr. Robin- 

 son read before the Society on the 24th of September, 1819, 

 and which was printed in the 4th volume of its Memoirs 

 in 1824. 



The Rev. William Gaskell, M.A. (Glasgow), died in 

 June, 1884, in his 79th year. Educated for the Ministry 

 amongst Unitarians, at the College, at York, he became in 

 1828 one of the ministers of Cross Street Chapel, in Man- 

 chester, an office which he held till his death. 



Of fine and faithfully developed scholarship, especially in 

 English subjects and literature, he lectured for many years 

 in these departments in Manchester New College, and in 



