ELMSLEY, PETER English classical scholar, was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford. He trav elled extensively in France and Italy, and spent the winter of 1818 in examining the mss. in the Laurentian library at Florence. In 1823 he was appointed principal of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, and Camden professor of ancient history. A man of extensive learning, Elmsley was considered the best ecclesiastical scholar in England; but he is chiefly famous for his work on the mss. of the Greek tragedians. He edited the Acharnians of Aristophanes and several of the plays and scholia of Sophocles and Euripides He was the first to recognize the importance of the Laurentian mss. (see Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. 1908) .