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Category Archives: Lowth
Lowth at New College, Oxford
If you think you spotted a familiar hand in this LinkedIn message by Christopher Skelton-Foord, you’re right! This is a letter by Robert Lowth, and part of a wonderful batch of letters that recently surfaced and that was acquired by … Continue reading
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Lowth on the cover
Congratulations, Bryan Garner, on this newly published book! What a great collection you possess, and what a wonderful idea to share it with the general public. (Source of the image: https://twitter.com/BryanAGarner/status/1344016547782733824/photo/1).
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Letters by Lowth auctioned at Sotheby’s
Occasionally, it seems, new letters by Lowth still come to light. This is a great find: 32 letters altogether. Wonder who bought them.
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Lowth an Archbishop?
In my book The Bishop’s Grammar (OUP, 2011), I tried to put an end to the myth that it was as a bishop that Lowth wrote his Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762). While he was indeed a clergyman when he wrote … Continue reading
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Tagged Forbidden words, Kate Burridge, Keith Allan, The Bishop's Grammar
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A scrap of a letter from Lowth
I’m very pleased to have become the owner of a scrap of a letter by Lowth, which basically contains his signature only. I was in two minds about bidding for it on ebay, because I’m appalled at the idea that … Continue reading
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New portrait by Robert Lowth?
An oil painting has just shown up that might very well represent Robert Lowth. Though the painter is currently unknown, the portrait shows clear similarities with the one that you normally see when you google for images of him. Once … Continue reading
Lowth letters in Leiden
Great news: Leiden University Library owns two letters from the most authoritative 18th-century English grammarian, Robert Lowth (1710-1787) . They were identified accidentally by Myrte Wouterse, BA English and Honours Academy student at the University of Leiden. Myrte and a fellow student had been taken to the … Continue reading
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Tagged Bishop's Grammar, H.A. Schultens, Late Modern English, Lowth's letters, University of Leiden
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Gilbert Sorsby his book
The frontispiece of Susan Whyman‘s The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers 1660-1800 (OUP 2009), contains an image from the notebook of Gilbert Sorsby Jr with the words: Gilbert Sorsby/ His Book: 1763. Sorsby is identified as a Devonshire farmer, but … Continue reading
Robert Lowth in the Chawton House Library
The Chawton House Library, which according to its website is “set in the home and working estate of Jane Austen’s brother”, that is, Edward Austen Knight, possesses three copies of Lowth’s grammar, a first edition (1762) and two so-called “New … Continue reading
You was and Lowth’s grammar
The first grammarian of English to condemn you was was Robert Lowth, in the first edition of his grammar (1762) (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2002), and as I show in my article, usage dropped significantly after that date. This suggests immediate influence … Continue reading
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