DYER, GEORGE, was born in London on the 15th of March, 1755. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, where, when his standing in the school gained him access to the library, be acquired that taste for extensive reading which produced the works that will preserve his name : he was at the school from the age of seven to nineteen. While at school be was much noticed by Dr. Askew, physician to the hospital, at whose table he was a frequent guest, in company with much of the distinguished part of the literary world. In 1774 ho entered at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1778. After being for a time usher at a free grammar school and several others, he returned to Cambridge, not taking up his residence in college, but, having become a Baptist, in the family of his friend the Rev. It. Robinson, the Baptist minister, as tutor to his children and pupil of their father. He next officiated for some time at Oxford es a Baptist minister; but after reliuquishine this duty, and again residing for some time in Cambridge, be finally settled in London in 1792. From that time till 1830 his time was employed at first as reporter iu the Ifriuse of Commons (which occupation he abandoned after two months' trial of it), afterwards as a private teacher, finally in various literary undertakings presently mentioned. In 1330 his eyesight gradually failed, and at length he became totally blind. He died at his chambers in Clifford's Inn, on the 2nd of March 1841.
Dyer was a poet, a scholar, and an antiquarian, deeply veraed in books and their history. As a poet ho attracted notice, but not fame; as a scholar he edited some plays of Euripides and an edition of the Greek Testament ; but he is best known as editor, or joint editor, of Valpy's combination of the Dolphin, Bipout, and Variorum editions of the Classics, in a hundred and forty-one volumes, in which all the original matter and' additamenta,' except the preface, were con tributed by him. As an antiquary his principal works are—' History
of the University and Colleges of Cambrid;e; 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1814; 'Privileges of the University of Cambridge,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1824; the first volume containing the charters, statutes, &c., the second being a supplement to the history ; and in connection with these, 'Academic Unity,' Svo, London, 1827, being a translation with additions of the 'Dissertatio Generally' in the second work. Dyer published a ' Life of the Rev. I1obert Robinson,' and many other works of less note (a list of which is in the postscript of the second volume of the ' &c., just mentioned), and was a large contributor to the msgaziues.
Dyer was a man of a remarkable single-mindedness and simplicity of character ; and not only remarkable, but remarked and recorded, and that in a singular manner, by his friend Charles Lamb (so well known under the signature of Elia') in the ' London Magazine' for October and December 1823, and republished in the Essays of Elia.' Dyer's ' History of Cambridge' Is rather a sketch than a history ; but it is the sketch of a man who had all the reading necessary for writing the history ; and it may be added that the materials for the early annals of the uuiversity are very defective. Dyer has given a good account of his materi Lis ; but it is much to be regretted that he has not made more specific references to them in the body of the work. It will be found however, on examination, to be the work not only of a laborious but of a very honest man—for to this character he has a most nnimpeachable title—and as meth the 'History of Cambridge' is a very important addition to what existed on the subject ; and nothing but the opportunities of a Wood will surpass it.