UC-NRLF 
 
SIR JAMES MURRAY 
 
 1837-1915 
 
 James Augustus Henry Murray was born at Denholm, near Hawick, 
 Hoxburghshire, in 1837. He received his early education at the 
 parish school in his native village, and afterwards at another school 
 in the neighbourhood, where he acquired the rudiments of Latin, 
 French, and Grisek. At the age of eighteen he became an assistant 
 master in the Hawick Grammar School, and, three years later, head 
 master of a school at Hawick called the 'Subscription Academy'. 
 Here he assiduously pursued his studies, gaining a good working know- 
 ledge of several languages, and some acquaintance with the researches 
 both of native and foreign scholars in the history of English and its 
 relation to the kindred tongues. He also devoted much attention to 
 •he study of the local dialect. His love of knowledge, however, by no 
 means confined itself to philology ; indeed he was accustomed to say 
 that in early life he was much more strongly attracted to natural science 
 than to the studies to which in later years he was chiefly devoted. 
 There seems, indeed, to have been no branch of natural or physical 
 science of which he had not more than a merely elementary knowledge, 
 and even in advanced age a new discovery always excited his keen 
 interest. The Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society, of 
 which he was one of the founders, and for some time the secretary, 
 •jntain many papers from his pen on the history, antiquities, natural 
 listory, geology, and languages of the Border Counties. 
 
 After some years spent in teaching at Hawick, he removed to London, 
 .vhere he obtained a position in the Chartered Bank of India. His 
 first wife died in 1864, and in 1867 he married Ada Agnes, daughter 
 of George Ruthven of Kendal. In 1870 he became a master in Mill 
 Hill School, a position which he held for fifteen years. 
 
 His residence in and near London gave him the opportunity of fre- 
 <juent intercourse with the distinguished group of scholars — including 
 i^'urnivall, Skeat, Sweet, and Richard Morris — who were zealously 
 labouring in the investigation of the history of the English language, 
 and the publication and illustration of the older English literature. 
 By this circle Muri'ay was welcomed as a collaborator of extraordinary 
 ability and attainments. To the publications of the Early English Text 
 
 VIII 2 G 
 
%'M ;-'T.^^'?P.lK^?i.9^' THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 Society he contributed editions of The Minor Poems of Sir David 
 Lyndesay (1871), The Complaynt of Scotland {\ 81 4!\ and The Romance 
 and Pj'ophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune (1875). For several years he 
 contributed largely to the columns of the Athenceum. It was in this 
 journal, in a review of Skeat''s edition of the Anglo-Saxon and Northum- 
 brian Gospels (April S, 1875), that he published his brilliant discovery 
 of the relation between the Old English glosses in the Lindisfarne MS. 
 and those in the Rushworth MS. 
 
 In 1873 the Philological Society issued his memorable book on The 
 Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland^ which may be said to 
 have laid the foundations of the scientific study of the local varieties 
 of English speech, and even at the present day remains in some respects 
 an unsurpassed model of methodical investigation in this department. 
 The value of the work did not consist solely in the large amount of 
 accurate information which it contained on its special subject. By its 
 insistence on the true principles of philological inquiry, which at that 
 time were familiar in this country only to a few, and by the illustration 
 which those principles received in their application to particular 
 problems, it had an appreciable effect on the progress of linguistic 
 science in general. Written in a popular style, it found not a few 
 interested readers among those who had no acquaintance with 
 philology. The book received much favourable notice in the 
 press, and in 1874 the University of Edinburgh conferred on the 
 author the degree of LL.D. in recognition of its merit. His article 
 on ' English Language "■, published in the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 
 1878, though extending only to twelve pages, was by far the most 
 complete and accurate historical survey of the subject that had up to 
 that time appeared, and established the writer's reputation as one of 
 the most accomplished scholars in English philology. 
 
 It was through his connexion with the Philological Society that 
 Murray was led to undertake the gigantic task which absorbed his 
 whole energies during the last thirty-six years of his life. In 1857, 
 at the suggestion of Dr. Trench, then Dean of Westminster, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Dublin, the Society had committed itself to the 
 preparation of a great historical dictionary of the English language, 
 in which the whole literary vocabulary from the middle of the twelfth 
 century should, so far as possible, be included, the history of every 
 word with regard to changes of form and meaning from the time of 
 its earliest occurrence being recorded and illustrated by dated quota- 
 tions. The scheme was taken up with great enthusiasm and energy, 
 some hundreds of persons being induced to co-operate, without fee or 
 reward, in providing the body of quotations that was to serve as the 
 
SIR JAMES MURRAY 3 
 
 basis of the work. Mr. Herbert Coleridge, as the designated editor 
 of the dictionary, zealously devoted himself to the task of reducing 
 to order the ever-growing mass of material, but his early death in 
 1861 seemed to threaten the collapse of the enterprise. Probably this 
 would have ensued but for the resolute zeal of Furnivall, who stepped 
 into Coleridge's place as editor, encouraged the workers to continue 
 their contributions, and endeavoured, as far as his many occupations 
 would permit, to grapple with the enormous difficulty of arranging 
 the accumulated quotations. After some years he was obliged to give 
 up the struggle ; but he continued to cherish the confident hope of 
 being able to get the work taken in hand by some scholar inspired 
 by an enthusiasm equal to his own, and possessing the indispensable 
 qualifications in which he acknowledged himself to be lacking. There 
 was much excuse for those who thought it impossible that 'the Society ""s 
 Dictionary', of which Furnivall was continually talking, would ever 
 see the light. To find a scholar qualified by knowledge and ability 
 for the work, and able and willing to devote to it the enormous amount 
 of time and effort that it would demand, might well seem hopeless ; 
 and even if this difficulty were surmounted there remained another 
 difficulty not less formidable. It had come to be recognized that if 
 the Dictionary was to fulfil efficiently its intended purpose, it must be 
 on a scale so large that no ordinary publisher could be expected to 
 undertake to bring it out. At length Murray, who by the general 
 consent of all who were interested in the scheme was the only man 
 capable of the work, was induced to accept the post of editor, and in 
 1879 an agreement was made between the Philological Society and 
 the Delegates of the Oxford University Press, by which the latter 
 body took upon itself the burden of publication. The great collection 
 of quotation slips was removed to Mill Hill, an iron building, which 
 became well known as ' Dr. Murray's Scriptorium ', being erected in the 
 editor's garden for its reception and the accommodation of the workers. 
 The activity displayed by Murray during the next few years cannot 
 be contemplated without amazement. When he came to examine the 
 material accumulated on his shelves, he found that, although amount- 
 ing to a million and a half of slips, it was utterly inadequate for its 
 purpose. He therefore at once set himself to enlist a new army of 
 voluntary workers to supply its deficiencies, and to aid in the pre- 
 liminary arrangement of the continually increasing mass. It was 
 necessary to correspond constantly with these outside helpers, to 
 assign to them their respective shares in the work, to instruct them 
 in methods of operation, and to keep records of their progress. All 
 these labours, together with those more immediately connected with 
 
^ PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 the preparation of copy for the press (including a large amount of 
 correspondence relating to scientific and technological points), had to 
 be carried on concurrently with the discharge of the editor's duties as 
 a schoolmaster. To any one who can appreciate the magnitude of the 
 task, and the unfavourable conditions under which the editor laboured, 
 it will seem wonderful that it was possible to issue the first part of the 
 Dictionary, extending to the word Aid, and containing 352 pages, so 
 early as January 1884. 
 
 This first instalment was at once recognized by all competent critics 
 in Europe and America as fully satisfying the high expectations that 
 had been formed. The value of the new historical method of treat- 
 ment and the lucidity of the typographical arrangement (then a novel 
 feature in works of the kind, though it has since been extensively 
 copied) could not escape the notice of any educated reader, though it 
 was only the few that could adequately appreciate the skilful pre- 
 sentation of the development of meaning in words, or the greatness 
 of the advance in scientific precision shown in the etymological part 
 of the work. In 1885 the second part {Ant — Batten) was published, 
 and Murray removed from Mill Hill to Oxford, in order to devote his 
 whole time to the Dictionary. 
 
 When IMurray began his labours, it was estimated that the Dic- 
 tionary would extend at most to seven thousand pages, and might be 
 completed by a single editor, with only a few assistants, in something 
 like ten years. It may well be doubted whether he would not have 
 refused to venture on the task if he had foreseen that the work, though 
 shared eventually with three other editors, was destined to engross 
 the remaining thirty-six years of his life, and to be still unfinished 
 after his death. In 1885 it was evident that the original estimate of 
 the time required for the completion of the Dictionary had been far 
 too sanguine. Still, when allowance was made for the time consumed 
 in preliminary labours that would not need to be repeated, the progress 
 made seemed to encourage the hope that, under the more favourable 
 conditions now established, the end would be reached well within the 
 limits of the nineteenth century. It was very soon found, however, 
 that the first two sections afforded no adequate measure of the diffi- 
 culties to be encountered in the ensuing portions of the work. The 
 portion of the English vocabulary hitherto dealt with included hardly 
 any of those words that have come down from the earliest period of 
 the language, developing in every century an abundance of new 
 meanings and constructions, which former lexicographers had ignored, 
 but which the plan of the new Dictionary required to be accurately 
 ascertained by the light of the quotations, and arranged in genea- 
 
SIR JAMES MURRAY 6 
 
 logical order. The words beginning with 'A' include a multitude 
 (quite without parallel elsewhere) of classical derivatives containing 
 Greek and Latin prefixes ; and though soipe of these words had an 
 interesting history that had never been fully exhibited, the vast 
 majority had been used in only one or two senses, to which sufficient 
 justice had been done by lexicographers from Johnson onwards. Under 
 the letter ' B ', as in most other parts of the alphabet, a very large 
 proportion of the words can in an ordinary dictionary quite rightly 
 be disposed of in a few lines, but in an historical dictionary require 
 elaborate treatment. It therefore became necessary, if the com- 
 pleteness of exposition and illustration, which was the peculiar merit 
 of the published portions of the Dictionary, was to be maintained, to 
 exceed the limits of space originally contemplated. Another serious 
 difficulty was created by the daily increasing mass of quotations. 
 Although only a small proportion of these could be used, nothing 
 could be rejected without examination ; and the new material con- 
 stantly revealed the existence of words and senses of words previously 
 unknown. The slowness of progress due to these causes was a source 
 of grave disappointment to the editor and to the authorities of the 
 Oxford Press. Long before the end of the letter 'B' had been 
 reached, it was felt that the work was too vast to be accomplished 
 by a single responsible editor. It was therefore deci4ed that the 
 present writer, after working for a year under Dr. Murray's super- 
 vision, should be entrusted with the production of a separate 
 part of the Dictionary, beginning with the letter 'E\ My work 
 as independent editor began in 1889. The ten years once regarded 
 as the probable term for the completion of the Dictionary had 
 passed, and the end of the letter 'C had not nearly been reached. 
 It cannot have been without a painful sense of disappointment that 
 Murray found himself under the necessity of resigning to an untried 
 man a share in the direction of his great undertaking ; but he spared 
 no pains to ensure that the quality of the work should suffer as little 
 as possible from the inexperience of his colleague. I shall always 
 remember with gratitude the abundant help which I received from 
 him in the shape of criticism of my earlier efforts, and suggestion of 
 the authorities to be consulted on points of science, technology, or 
 history. 
 
 Although the Dictionary had now two editors, each with his own 
 staff of assistants, the acceleration of its progress continued to 
 fall short of what was expected and desired. It is easy to per- 
 ceive, after the event, that this was inevitable. The addition of 
 new quotations to the already unwieldy mass continued to go on 
 
6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 incessantly ; the advance of science and industry, and the unexampled 
 literary activity of the age, were daily bringing into use a multitude 
 of new words, and developing new applications of words, which needed 
 to be explained and traced to their sources ; the historical treatment 
 of the older words became more and more difficult and voluminous as 
 the gaps in their record were filled up ; and the constant struggle to 
 prevent the scale of the work from exceeding all permissible limits, 
 with as little sacrifice as possible of valuable illustrative matter, 
 involved the expenditure of many hours in labour that had no visible 
 result. At the end of the nineteenth century, when Dr. Murray had 
 been at work for twenty years, and his colleague for half as long, the 
 Dictionary was still not half finished. It had long been strongly 
 urged by several persons that there was need for the appointment of 
 a third editor, and the Delegates of the Clarendon Press were now 
 fortunate enough to secure the services of Mr. W. A. Craigie, a scholar 
 perhaps uniquely qualified by ability and training for the work, who 
 is now Professor of Anglo-Saxon in tne University, but still continues 
 his labours on the Dictionary. In 1913 a fourth editor was appointed, 
 Mr. C. T. Onions, a London graduate, who had been for twenty years 
 a member of the editorial staff. 
 
 Tlie thirty years of Murray's life in Oxford were spent in strenuous 
 and almost unceasing toil, wholly devoted to the one sole object. 
 Except for occasional illnesses, a brief yearly holiday, and one absence 
 of some months on a visit to South Africa, his daily labour of many 
 hours went on without interruption from year to year nearly to the 
 end. He wrote no books or articles, and, although he was a Fellow 
 of the British Academy from its foundation, and often attended its 
 meetings, he never found time to contribute to its Proceedings. He 
 was an acceptable popular lecturer, but the subject was always the 
 Dictionary. He might, if he had so chosen, have left many monu- 
 ments of his great and various powers, but he thought it his duty to 
 devote his whole strength to the accomplishment of the one great 
 undertaking to which he had pledged himself. Murray's services to 
 scholarship were recognized by a knighthood conferred in 1908, by 
 honorary degrees from eight universities, including Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, and by membership of many learned societies. He was happy 
 in his family life, and enjoyed a rare exemption from bereavement, his 
 wife and eleven children having survived him. He had great cause 
 for satisfaction in the distinctions gained by his children ; one of his 
 sons is Sir Oswyn Murray, now Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty. 
 
 In the year 1915 he was attacked by serious illness, and his life for 
 a time was despaired of. He made a wonderful recovery, and in June 
 
SIR JAMES MURRAY 7 
 
 I found him again hard at work, showing marked signs of physical 
 weakness, but ready to discuss etymological problems with his accus- 
 tomed lucidity and acuteness. There seemed to be reason to hope 
 that he might still have some years of work before him ; but he 
 presumed too much on his recovered strength, and his exertions 
 brought on the illness from which he died on the 26th of July. 
 
 Until the hand of death was upon him he never ceased to cherish 
 the hope of living to celebrate the completion of the Dictionary. 
 Although this crowning satisfaction was denied him, he was permitted 
 to see the work so far advanced that there was no longer any cause to 
 fear that it might not be carried through to the end ; and he was able 
 to take his full share in it almost to the close of his life. Even in his 
 last days the quality of his workmanship would have done no discredit 
 to his prime. The great English dictionary will always be known 
 chiefly by his name, with far stronger reason than the great German 
 dictionary bears the name of Grimm. It is to his marvellous energy 
 in the organization and direction of a new body of readers that the 
 Avork is indebted for by far the greater part of the vast collection of 
 material on which its value so largely depends. The portions of the 
 Dictionary for which he was personally responsible amount to about 
 one half of the whole, and in the quality of their workmanship leave 
 all earlier lexicograpliy far behind. The colleagues who have shared 
 and continued his labours owe to his example not a little of what is 
 best in their own work. When the remaining part of the last volume 
 is finished, the Oxford English Dictionary will stand unrivalled in its 
 completeness as a record of the history of the vocabulary of a living 
 language, and it is to Murray far more than to any other man that 
 the honour of this great achievement will belong. 
 
 HENRY BRADLEY. 
 
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