10 



he was never betrayed into an error of either inter- 

 pretation or construction. He had studied Latin and 

 Greek in the school of the ancients, and had mas- 

 tered the great principles that underlie them. From 

 that stand-point, he had pursued the study of the 

 modern languages. There have been and now are 

 in this country, men skilled in all tongues ; but I 

 doubt, whether any one of them had attained his com- 

 pleteness of scholarship. He was trained by a teacher 

 from the Emerald Isle, in the system of grammatical 

 accuracy ; and the superstructure he reared was based 

 on the same deep and broad foundation. 



His Dictionary of English surnames, in twelve 

 volumes, is now ready for the publishers. It is a stu- 

 pendous monument of learning, is thoroughly exhaus- 

 tive of the subject of which it treats, and bears the 

 impress of a strong and original genius. A volume of 

 it was left with a publisher in London, and passed 

 under the inspection of the scholars of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, and was deemed to be by them so complete 

 and satisfactory, that they expressed a desire to incor- 

 porate it into a work of their own. Nothing less than 

 a patient and careful examination of it can give any, 

 the least idea, of its magnitude and importance, and 

 that I have neither the time nor the learning to make. 

 When published, as I trust it will be, it will speak for 

 itself more eloquently, than the tongue or the pen of 

 the ablest and most discriminating of his friends could 

 possibly do. His Concordance of the Prayer Book is 

 also finished. The larger work, the Dictionary of that 

 wonderful compilation, was unhappily left unfinished. 

 The Suspiria Sanctorum, sonnets for the Holy Days, is 

 ready for publication. It is illustrated by drawings, 

 copied from the masters, the work of his own pencil, 

 which are executed with remarkable taste and spirit. 



