John Earle

Born in 1824, this English philologist and clergyman became closely associated with Oxford, where he built a reputation as a scholar of Anglo-Saxon and the history of the English language. He is remembered for writing and editing works that opened older stages of English to students and general readers.

His books include studies of early English literature and language, and he also wrote on English prose style. Alongside his literary scholarship, he was known as a botanist, a reminder of the wide-ranging curiosity that shaped many Victorian scholars.

He died in 1903. Although he is less widely read today than some of his contemporaries, his work formed part of the foundation for later study of Old English and the development of English philology.