Creator
Ellin Devis
Title
The Accidence: Or First Rudiments of English Grammar.
Coverage
London
Publisher
Bedwell Law
Date
1786
Subject
5th ed.
Description
From a family of respected painters, Devis (1746–1820) was the schoolmistress at various London schools. She taught the novelist Maria Edgeworth, who at 13 and 14 was miserable as Devis’s student because her superior intellect was neither recognized nor challenged. As founder of the school then known as “the Young Ladies’ Eton,” Devis wrote this book to make the study of grammar “less difficult to children.” Disclaiming originality, she said that “the greatest part is selected from the works of our best grammarians.” She was uncommonly forthright.