of Dissenters to degrees,
and in consequence of his action in the matter had to resign his Univ.
tutorship. Thereupon Lord Brougham, then Lord Chancellor, presented him
to the living of Kirkby Underdale. Between 1835 and 1847 he wrote his
great _History of Greece_, which has a place among historical classics.
In 1840 he was made Bishop of St. David's, in which capacity he showed
unusual energy in administering his see. The eleven charges which he
delivered during his tenure of the see were pronouncements of exceptional
weight upon the leading questions of the time affecting the Church. As a
Broad Churchman T. was regarded with suspicion by both High and Low
Churchmen, and in the House of Lords generally supported liberal
movements such as the admission of Jews to Parliament. He was the only
Bishop who was in favour of the disestablishment of the Irish Church.

THOMS, WILLIAM JOHN (1803-1885).--Antiquary and miscellaneous writer, for
many years a clerk in the secretary's office of Chelsea Hospital, was in
1845 appointed Clerk, and subsequently Deputy Librarian to the House of
Lords. He was the founder in 1849 of _Notes and Queries_, which for some
years he also ed. Among his publications are _Early Prose Romances_
(1827-28), _Lays and Legends_ (1834), _The Book of the Court_ (1838),
_Gammer Gurton's Famous Histories_ (1846), _Gammer Gurton's Pleasant
Stories_ (1848). He also _ed._ Stow's _London_, and was sec. of the
Camden Society. He introduced the word "folk-lore" into the language.

THOMSON, JAMES (1700-1748).--Poet, _s._ of the minister of Ednam,
Roxburghshire, spent most of his youth, however, at Southdean, a
neighbouring parish, to which his _f._ was translated. He was _ed._ at
the parish school there, at Jedburgh, and at Edin., whither he went with
the view of studying for the ministry. The style of one of his earliest
sermons having been objected to by the Prof. of Divinity as being too
flowery and imaginative, he gave up his clerical views and went to London
in 1725, taking with him a part of what ultimately became his poem of
_Winter_. By the influence of his friend Mallet he became tutor to Lord
Binning, _s._ of the Earl of Haddington, and was introduced to Pope,
Arbuthnot, Gay, and others. _Winter_ was _pub._ in 1726, and was followed
by _Summer_ (1727), _Spring_ (1728), and _Autumn_ (1730), when the whole
were brought together as _The Seasons_. Previous to 1730 he had produced
one or two minor poems an