Today, I picked up ‘A Grammar of the English Language’ by William Cobbett, which I’d bought in the early 2000s. This is part of the Oxford Language Classics Set. It was first published in 1819 and re-issued as a paperback in 2002. William Cobbett lived between 1763 and 1835. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, he was ‘the noblest English example of the noble calling of the agitator’. The text of this book is that of the 1823 edition, which includes grammar lessons “to lay the solid foundation of literary knowledge amongst the Labouring classes of the community, to give practical effect to the natural genius found in the Soldier, the Apprentice, and the Plough-boy…” It is written in an epistolary fashion and is by the author to his 14-year-old son, James, in the form of letters, each letter outlining a lesson in English Grammar. The book is dedicated to Queen Caroline. Many of the rules are as relevant today as they were in 1820. “Letter XVIII offers exactly the adv...
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