PORSON,+Richard

PORSON, Richard (1759-1808) 1CL London Institution 1806-1808 Previously a Fellow of Trinity Coll., Cambridge and Regius Professor of Greek, he was appointed to the new post as the Directors felt that his immense learning would be of great value to members and readers. But the library saw so little of him that the Directors' classic letter-rebuke 'We only know you are our librarian by seeing your name attached to the receipts for your salary' seems to have been well deserved. In any case his drinking problem made him difficult to employ other than in an unreformed college or university of the period. J S Watson //The life of Richard Porson// (Chapter 25) (1861)