He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and was called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1861. Among his many publications may be noted his invaluable Handbook to the Popular, Poetical and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain, from the Invention of Printing to the Restoration (1867), supplemented in 1876, 1882, 1887 and 1889, a General Index by JG Gray appearing in 1893.
He published further contributions to the subject in Bibliographical Collections and Notes on Early English Literature made during the years 1893-1903 (1903), and a Manual for the Collector and Amateur of Old English Plays ... (1892). He was the chief editor of the useful 1871 edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, and compiled the Catalogue of the Huth Library (1880).
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.