Sentence:  ...to have gained both bachelor's prizes and have beat Professor Sandford, in competition for a Fellowship at Oriel; then to have become college tutor—embued the rising generation for six years with classical literature and philosophy —married a wife verging on her <WSD>tabbyhood</WSD>, and retired, without any reasonable prospect of a family, to read Jeremy Taylor in a snug living of ₤1000 a-year. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The state of being a spinster.