ABSTRACT
E.A. Abbott (1838-1926) had been briefly a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, but had resigned when he married. In 1865, at the early age of 26, he had become headmaster of the City of London School. There he introduced English literature throughout the school, though pupils also continued with classics. Each term the sixth form studied one Greek play and one Shakespeare play. He introduced some comparative philology, and even taught some of his senior pupils Sanskrit. Abbott was a Church of England clergyman, closely identified with the Broad Church, and was a friend of Sir John Seeley, a leading Broad Church figure. In addition to his work as a headmaster, he published a number of books, including studies of the gospels, sermons, an edition of Bacon’s Essays, a study of John Henry Newman, text-books, and practical books on the teaching of Latin, as well as English language and composition.
