OBITUARY NOTICES. 
443 
and was settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, for the long 
period of fifty years. Of Mr. Bancroft’s American ancestors 
his father was the first who gave evidence of scholarly .and 
literary tastes. He w T rote a “ Life of Washington,” which 
was reprinted in England. He was a member of the Ameri¬ 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences and was also president 
of the American Unitarian Association. 
George Bancroft entered Harvard College in his thirteenth 
year and graduated before he was seventeen. He was then 
sent to Germany, on the' recommendation of the faculty, to 
pursue a course of study with the view of becoming a teacher 
in the college. His degree of Doctor of Philosophy he re¬ 
ceived from the University of Gottingen in 1821, and he after¬ 
wards studied at Berlin and Heidelberg. Despite his youth, 
he seems to have won acquaintance with distinguished 
scholars, for, as a student and later as an European traveler, 
he met Schleiermacher, Humboldt, Goethe, Cousin, Constant, 
Manzoni, and Bunsen. 
Returning home in 1822, he entered upon duty as a tutor 
of Greek at Harvard College. With this work, however, 
he soon became discontented, owing, it is understood, to 
dissatisfaction with the college authorities, who failed to 
afford him the encouragement he sought in certain special 
plans of work. In 1823, wdth Professor Joseph G. Griswold, 
then librarian of the college, he left Harvard, and together 
they set about establishing what seems to have been to them 
a kind of ideal school for boys. 
Mr. Bancroft had inherited not only his father’s scholarly 
and literary tastes, but some of his theological bias also, and 
while a tutor at Cambridge he preached several sermons. 
He also attempted poetr} r , with greater success he seems to 
have thought, since he soon abandoned preaching, but he 
did not forsake the muse until he had published a volume 
of eighty pages entitled “ Poems by George Bancroft.” 
The school founded by Mr. Bancroft and his friend Gris¬ 
wold was known as the Round Hill School, and became 
quite famous. Beginning with a few dozen pupils, the school 
