Morshead was famed for his personal idiolect, eccentric even by the standards of Victorian schoolmasters, known as "Mushri".
His pupils compiled and privately published a "Mushri-English pronouncing dictionary", which proved popular enough to run to seven editions.
Notably for a classicist in the late 19th century, he spoke out against the view, held by some of his colleagues, of science as "the enemy", and considered some defences of his discipline as bigoted, ill-informed assaults upon it.
Stray emphasises his contribution to personal idiosyncrasy in the increasingly homogenous age of the Industrial Revolution, and draws parallels between Morshead's teaching and that of teachers in the Greek and Roman era.
Morshead is chiefly known for his translations into English of the plays of Aeschylus, written in metred verse.