Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kynaston, Herbert
KYNASTON (formerly Snow), HERBERT (1835–1910), canon of Durham and classical scholar, born in London on 29 June 1835, was second son of Robert Snow by his wife Georgina, daughter of Roger Kynaston and sister of Herbert Kynaston [q. v.], high-master of St. Paul's school. His maternal grandmother was Georgina, daughter of Sir Charles Oakeley [q. v.], governor of Madras. From 1844 to 1847 Herbert Snow was at a private school at Beaconsfield, and from 1847 to 1853 was an oppidan at Eton, where he was among the selected candidates for the Newcastle scholarship, and made his mark on the football field and the river, rowing in both the Britannia and Monarch. In 1853 he gained a scholarship at St. John's College, Cambridge. His university career was brilliant and exceptionally versatile. In 1855 he won the Porson scholarship, which was then awarded for the first time, together with Camden's gold medal for Latin hexameters and Browne's gold medal for Latin alcaic ode, and in 1867 he was bracketed senior classic with (Sir) John Robert Seeley [q. v.] and two others. He became fellow of St. John's college on 22 March 1858, graduating B.A. in 1857 and proceeding M.A. in 1860 when he vacated the fellowship on his marriage. Nor was it only in scholarship that Snow excelled as an undergraduate. He rowed seven in the university boat in the Oxford and Cambridge race of 1856, and was stroke in 1858. He was a member of the Alpine Club from 1862 to 1875. He was one of the earliest members of the Amateur Dramatic Club, and became a freemason. Throughout his life he was devoted to the craft, passing the chair in Foundation Lodge, Cheltenham, and afterwards being grand chaplain of England and one of the founders of Universities Lodge, Durham.
In 1858 Snow returned to Eton as assistant master and was ordained deacon in 1859 and priest in 1860. After sixteen years at Eton, he was elected principal of Cheltenham College in 1874. In 1875 he assumed his mother's family surname of Kynaston. In 1881 he proceeded B.D. and the next year D.D. at Cambridge; for the former degree he wrote a Latin thesis on the use of the expression 'The Kingdom of God' in the New Testament, and for the latter an English essay on 'The Influence of the Holy Spirit on the Life of Man.'
Resigning Cheltenham in 1888, Kynaston was for nearly a year vicar of St. Luke's, Kentish Town. In 1889 Bishop Lightfoot appointed him canon of Durham and professor of Greek in the university, in succession to the distinguished scholar and teacher, Thomas Saunders Evans. He remained at Durham till his death there on 1 Aug. 1910.
He married (1) in 1860 Mary Louisa Anne, daughter of Thomas Bros, barrister; and (2) in 1865 Charlotte, daughter of Rev. John Cordeaux of Hooton Roberts. He had four sons and three daughters.
Kynaston's academic distinctions fail to exhibit the range of his powers. Always devoted to music, of which he had a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge, he had a good tenor voice. As a linguist he was at home in five or six languages, and could improvise effective poetical translations. Once, in less than two hours, he rendered an Italian song into English verse which fitted the music.
An admirable composer in Greek and Latin, Kynaston was too fastidious a writer to make any contribution to scholarly literature commensurate with his capacities. His best-known book is an edition of Theocritus with English notes (Oxford, 1869; 5th edit. 1910). His other works are: 1. 'Nucipruna: exercises in Latin Elegiac Verse,' 12mo, 1873. 2. 'Sermons preached in the College Chapel, Cheltenham,' 1876. 3. 'Poetæ Grseci,' extracts with English notes, 1879. 4. 'Exercises in Greek Iambic Verse' and Key, 12mo, 1879-80. 5. 'Exemplaria Cheltoniensia,' 1880. 6. 'Selections from the Greek Elegiac Poets,' 18mo, 1880. He also published translations of Euripides's 'Alcestis' into English verse (1906) and of the prayers from 'Vita Jesu Christi' of Ludolphus of Saxony (1909).
[The Times, 2 and 8 Aug. 1910; Eagle, Dec. 1911; Life of Kynaston, by E. D. Stone, 1912; Classical Review, Nov. 1910; personal knowledge; private information.]