Paget Toynbee

[2] After spending some years as a private tutor, including periods in Cape Colony in 1881 and Japan and Australia 1886–87,[2] he decided to concentrate on literary research and writing.

[8] Toynbee married Helen Wrigley (19 October 1868–18 April 1910) on 23 August 1894 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, where they later built a house named Fiveways.

[1] The couple had no children, and apart from a tame robin for company he became a virtual recluse for the rest of his life although he sometimes stayed in Oxford with another Dante specialist, William W.

[2] It seems that Toynbee had been assisting his wife in her literary endeavours for many years, and after her death he completed her three unfinished volumes of letters from Marie du Deffand to Walpole, published in 1912.

[11] The current Paget Toynbee Lecturer in Italian Medieval Studies at Balliol College (as of 2024) is Professor Elena Lombardi.