GARDINER, Samuel Rawson, English historian: b. Ropley, Hampshire, 4 March 1829; d. Sevenoaks, Kent, 23' Feb. 1902. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, studied also at Edinburgh and GOtungen; was pro fessor of history at King's College, London, in 1877-85, historical lecturer for the University Extension Society in 1880-94, and examiner in the Oxford final history school in 1886-89. He was elected to a research fellowship by All Souls, Oxford, in 1882, and to a similar fellow ship by Merton, in 1894. On Froude's death (1894) he declined appointment to the Oxford regius professorship of modern history. It is for his work of research in the history of England from 1603 to 1660 that he is best known. The results were published in instal ments later assembled in various collective edi tions. In the course of his investigations he examined the minutest details with• extraor dinary care. He inspected the scene of most battles which he described; he thoroughly familiarized himself with the state papers of the Record Office; and for the study of the state papers foreign and the contents of other national archives learned six continental lan guages. No source of information was left unexhausted. It is stated that he was the only one that ever read the entire collection of Thomasson tracts in the British Museum. Though himself a Liberal in politics, his writ ing was wholly judicial and impartial. Perhaps no other English historian ever labored more enthusiastically for historical truth and no one was more judicious in his treatment of sources.
His style is clear and well-ordered, and in later volumes vigorous and often 'impressive. He was the first to describe in full the period of Commonwealth and Protectorate from an unprejudiced viewpoint, and he was also the first to explain satisfactorily the beginnings of the Cavalier party and the rise of the civil war. He was fortunately enabled to utilize many newly discovered sources. His work was not at first popular, but its worth was later fully recognized. In 1882 he received a civil list tsension of i150. The titles of the larger divisions of his great undertaking are 'History of England from the Accession of James I to the Disgrace of Chief Justice Coke' (1863); 'History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of ,the Great Civil War'' (1883-84) ; 'History of the Great Civil Wary (1886-91); and 'History of the Com monwealth and Protectorate' (1894-1901), in three volumes, a fourth to be completed by Firth. He wrote also
Place in History' (1897) 'Oliver Cromwell' (1899); and other works, including