Peter Elmsley, an English scholar, born in 1773, died March 8, 1825. He was educated at Westminster school, and at Merton college, Oxford. He officiated for a time in a small chapelry in Little Horkesley, Essex; but becoming master of a fortune by the death of an uncle, he devoted himself to literary studies, and particularly to Greek literature. He lived for a while in Edinburgh, where he was intimately associated with the founders of the " Edinburgh Review," and contributed to that periodical several articles, among which were reviews of Heyne's "Homer," Schweighauser's "Athenaeus," Blomfield's "Prometheus," and Porson's "Hecuba." In 1816 he made a voyage to Italy in search of manuscripts, and passed the winter of 1818 in researches in the Lauren-tian library at Florence. The next year he was appointed to assist Sir Humphry Davy in trying to decipher some of the papyri found at Herculaneum. After his return to England he became principal of St. Alban's hall, Oxford, and Camden professor of modern history in the university.

From 1809 to 1823 he published editions of several of the Greek tragedies.