Grammatical Institutes, or, An Easy Introduction to Dr. Lowth's English Grammar

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by John Ash

Grammatical Institutes
George Wythe bookplate.jpg
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
 
Author Robert Lowth and John Ash
Editor
Translator
Published :
Date
Edition Precise edition unknown
Language
Volumes volume set
Pages
Desc. 12mo

Robert Lowth (1710 – 1787), was an Anglican Bishop, Hebrew scholar, and Oxford professor. His Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) was one of the most influential English textbooks of its time, remaining in use into the 20th-century. Among other precepts, Lowth was responsible for the idea that ending a sentence on a preposition is grammatically incorrect.

John Ash (c. 1724 – 1779) was an English minister and lexicographer who published an English dictionary, as well as this "Easy Introduction" to Lowth's Grammar, first published in 1763.[1] Ash added lessons in "bad" and "good" English, as well as a list of books "proper for young gentlemen and ladies" to "to shorten the path to knowledge."

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Thomas Jefferson's inventory of books inherited from Wythe lists "Ash's Introduction to Lowthe's grammar. 12mo." as a book kept for Jefferson's collection.

Henry Clay mentions Lowth's Grammar as one of the books Wythe recommended while Clay was working in the High Court of Chancery as a young man.[2]

See also

References

  1. Robin C. Alston, A Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800, vol. 1, English Grammars Written in English (Leeds, E. J. Arnold & Son, 1965), 33.
  2. Epes Sargent, The Life and Public Services of Henry Clay, Down to 1848, ed. Horace Greeley (Auburn, NY: Derby & Miller, 1852), 14.

External links