A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Pattison, Mark

Pattison, Mark (1813-1884). -- Scholar and biographer, b. at Hornby, Yorkshire, s. of a clergyman, ed. privately and at Oxf., where in 1839 he became Fellow of Lincoln Coll., and acquired a high reputation as a tutor and examiner. At first strongly influenced by Newman and the Tractarian movement, he ultimately abandoned that school. In 1851, failing to be elected head of his coll., he threw up his tutorship, and devoted himself to severe study, occasionally writing on educational subjects in various reviews. In 1861, however, he attained the object of his ambition, being elected Rector of Lincoln Coll. In 1883 he dictated a remarkable autobiography, coming down to 1860. In 1875 he had pub. a Life of Isaac Casaubon, and he left materials for a Life of Scaliger, which he had intended to be his magnum opus. He also wrote Milton for the English Men of Letters Series, and produced an ed. of his sonnets.