A lyric poet, born at Liverpool; son of a cotton merchant; educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, whom he held in the highest regard; was at Oxford, as a Fellow of Oriel, at the time of the Tractarian movement, which he arrayed himself against, and at length turned his back upon and tore himself away from by foreign travel; on his return he was appointed examiner in the Education Office; falling ill from overwork he went abroad again, and died at Florence; he was all alive to the tendencies of the time, and his lyrics show his sense of these, and how he fronted them; in the speculative scepticism of the time his only refuge and safety-anchor was duty; Matthew Arnold has written in his "Thyrsis" a tribute to his memory such as has been written over few; his best-known poem is "The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich" (1819-1861).