together with those of the Rev. Samuel Carte, several original manuscripts, and some engraved plates, he presented to John Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire, who made use of them in the compilation of his great work (Nichols, Leicestershire, pref.; Gent. Mag. lxv. 185). Farmer found more congenial employment in the study of Shakespeare and his commentators. In 1767 he brought out the first edition of his only published work, an ‘Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare’ (Cambridge, 8vo), addressed to his friend and schoolfellow, Joseph Cradock of Gumley. A second edition of this valuable performance was called for the same year, in which there are ‘large additions.’ A third edition was printed at London in 1789, without any additions except a note at the end, accounting for his finally abandoning the intended publication of the antiquities of Leicester. A fourth edition appeared at London in 1821, 8vo. The essay is also given at large in Steevens's edition of Shakespeare 1793, in Reed's edition 1803, in Harris's edition 1812, and in Boswell's ‘Variorum,’ 1821. In this masterly little essay Farmer demonstrated that Shakespeare's knowledge of classical history was obtained at second hand through the medium of translations.
In 1767 he took the degree of B.D., and on 8 July 1769 Dr. Terrick, bishop of London, appointed him one of the preachers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. When in London he usually resided at the house of Dr. Anthony Askew [q. v.], the eminent physician, in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. In 1775, on the death of Dr. Richardson, he was chosen master of Emmanuel College, Henry Hubbard, the senior fellow, having declined the post on account of age and infirmities. He now took the degree of D.D., and was very soon succeeded in the tutorship by Dr. William Bennet, afterwards bishop of Cloyne. He served the office of vice-chancellor of the university in 1775–6, and again in 1787–8. During his first term of office the university voted an address to the king, in support of the American policy of the government. One member of the Caput refused to give up the key of the place containing the university seal, whereupon Farmer is said to have forced open the door with a sledge-hammer—an exploit which his democratic biographers allege to have been the cause of all his subsequent preferments. On the death of Dr. Barnardiston, master of Corpus Christi College, he was (27 June 1778) unanimously elected principal librarian of the university. In April 1780 he was collated by Bishop Hurd to the prebend of Alrewas, and the chancellorship annexed, founded in the cathedral church of Lichfield. In March 1782 he was installed a canon in the ninth prebend of the church of Canterbury. After enjoying this prebend for several years he resigned it on being preferred by Mr. Pitt to a canonry residentiary and the prebend of Consumpta-per-Mare at St. Paul's, London, on 19 March 1788. The latter years of his life were pretty equally divided between Emmanuel College and the residentiary house in Amen Corner. His residence in London was favourable to his love of literary society, and for many years he was a member of different clubs composed of men of letters, by whom he was much esteemed. Among these societies were the Eumélean Club at Blenheim Tavern, Bond Street, of which Dr. John Ash was president, the Unincreasable Club, Queen's Head, Holborn, of which Isaac Reed was president, and the Literary Club, founded by Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Farmer twice declined a bishopric that was offered to him by Mr. Pitt as a reward for the tory principles which he strove to propagate in his college and in the whole university. In 1796 he was admitted ad eundem at Oxford.
He died, after a long and painful illness, at the lodge of Emmanuel College, on 8 Sept. 1797, and was buried in the chapel. A monument was erected to his memory in the cloisters, inscribed with a Latin epitaph composed by Dr. Parr.
A portrait of him was engraved by J. Jones from a painting by Romney.
When a young man he wrote some ‘Directions for Studying the English History,’ which have been printed in the ‘European Magazine’ for 1791 and in Seward's ‘Biographiana;’ but his only work of any importance is the ‘Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare.’ Invincible indolence prevented him from achieving other literary triumphs. He was content to be the hero of a coterie, and to reign supreme in a college combination-room amid the delights of the pipe and the bottle. To his ease or his disappointment in love may be attributed a want of attention to his personal appearance, and to the usual forms of behaviour belonging to his station. In the company of strangers the eccentricity of his appearance caused him sometimes to be taken for a person half crazed. There were three things, it was said, which he loved above all others, namely, old port, old clothes, and old books; and three things which nobody could persuade him to do, namely, to rise in the morning, to go to bed at night, and to settle an account. In his own college he was adored, and in the university he exercised for many years more influence than any other individual. His
