Creator
Robert Lowth
Title
Lord Eldon’s copy of Lowth’s English Grammar.
Coverage
London
Publisher
J. Dodsley
Date
1769
Subject
New ed.
Description
John Scott (1751–1838), 1st Earl of Eldon, obtained this volume while attending University College, Oxford. He graduated in 1770, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1776, and became attorney general in 1793. He unsuccessfully prosecuted Horne Tooke on charges of high treason. Despite that embarrassing failure, Scott was elevated to the peerage in 1801 when he became Lord Chancellor—a post he held until 1827. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls him “the greatest lawyer of his time.”