John Mason Neale

NEALE, John Mason. b. London, 24 January 1818; d. East Grinstead, Sussex, 6 August 1866. The son of a Church of England clergyman, he was educated privately in Shepperton by the Revd William Russell, then at schools in Blackheath; Sherborne, Dorset; and Farnham, Surrey. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1836, and was the best classicist of his year; but weakness in mathematics meant he only gained a pass degree in 1840. Neale entered Cambridge as an Evangelical, but emerged an Anglo-Catholic. He began reading the tracts produced by the Oxford Movement*, and developed a passionate interest in the medieval church. By 1839 his fascination with architectural antiquarianism...