Guest.

Guest. EDWIN, a learned antiquary, born in 1800, entered Cairns College, Cambridge, in 1819, was eleventh wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1824, and was thereafter elected to a fellowship. He was called to the bar, but did not practise, and early gave himself to antiquarian and literary studies. The only book he published was his well-known History of English Rhymes (1838; 2d ed. revised by Professor Skeat, 1882)—a work of great erudition, and written, moreover, before the era of good editions of old English poetry had begun. His frequent papers on the early history of Roman and Saxon England and the English were printed in the Archæological Journal and the Transactions of the Archaeological Institute and other learned institutions, and earned the praises of scholars so critical as Mr Freeman. These were collected posthumously, filling the second volume of Origines Celtice (a Fragment), and other Contributions to the History of Britain (2 vols. 1883). The first volume was devoted to the Celts and their ethnological and philological affinities; but, truth to tell, this work, laborious as it is, was conceived in a pre-scientific spirit, and its elaborate etymologies are valueless. In 1852 Guest succeeded Dr Chapman as Master of Cairns College, Cambridge, and next year received the degree of LL.D. He became F.R.S. in 1841, and was Vice-chancellor of the university in 1854. He resigned the mastership but a few weeks before his death, which took place on November 23, 1880.