His early education was neglected, but by diligent study in the Guildhall Library he acquired enough Greek and Latin to enable him to matriculate at Oxford on 22 June 1848.
[1] After the publication of an inaugural lecture, The Philosophy of Mind: a Corrective for some Errors of the Day, London, 1867, 8vo, he confined himself to oral teaching.
An enthusiastic bibliophile, he began his accession to office by a strong protest against the practice of lending the rare printed books and manuscripts preserved in that venerable repository.
Throughout the greater part of his life he was a prey to insomnia, which in his later years induced the fatal habit of taking chloral in enormous quantities.
[1] His books and manuscripts he left to Mrs. Evans, wife of the master of Pembroke, and she by a deed of gift dated 17 October 1889 gave them to the college on condition that they were preserved as a separate collection.