Farrar spent much of his career associated with Westminster Abbey. He was successively a canon there, rector of St Margaret's (the church next door), archdeacon of the Abbey. He later served as Dean of Canterbury; and chaplain in ordinary, i.e. attached to the Royal Household. He was an eloquent preacher and a voluminous author, his writings including stories of school life, such as "Eric, or, Little by Little" and "St. Winifred's" about life in a boys' boarding school in late Victorian England, and two historical romances.