After attending Westminster School he studied at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College), graduating in 1879 (B.A., 1st class Classical and Mathematical Triposes; M.A.
In addition to his work on Vedic Sanskrit, he published a number of textbooks on Classical studies, most notably on the pedagogical pronunciation of Latin and Greek, and on Roman Stoicism.
Arnold was involved in Welsh protests against the Armenian massacres of 1894 to 1896 by Turkish troops, editing a newspaper titled Wales and Armenia – Cymru unllais.
"[7] In the opinion of Philipp Kubisch, "the stanza and verse types of the Rgveda (RV) have been described in detail for the first time by Hermann Oldenberg in ... his Die Hymnen des Rigveda (1888: 1–190) and even more comprehensively by Edward Vernon Arnold in his monograph Vedic Metre in its Historical Development (1905)".
[8] The importance of Arnold's mathematical approach to the study of metre is pointed out by Saul Migron: "Unfortunately, our task is rendered difficult by the state of our knowledge in Rgvedic metrics.