Creator
William Lennie
Title
A Key to Lennie’s Principles of English Grammar.
Publisher
Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne & Co.
Date
1819
Subject
3d ed.
Description
Lennie (1779–1852) was a staunchly Latinate grammarian who thought English should be subjugated to Latin. In the preface, he called his little book “superior to any other book of the kind.” It is intended only for teachers whose “minds are ever on the stretch,” and not for those who “bid defiance to the fetters of form.” Meanwhile, parents received a stern admonition: “Many parents . . . in the lower ranks . . . grudge to pay for books to their children.” These wrongheaded parents believed that pennies were well saved if “fraudulently withheld from the teacher.”