Laying wreath of seasonal nouns
Oh those days at school, days that in my case were spent gazing out of a window dreaming of listening to my Connie Francis records! (Sad, I know.) But then my reverie was interrupted by irrelevant things like physics, chemistry or maths.
How I hated those early years when we had to do every subject.
I was a terrible student, and if something didn't interest me, I virtually opted out. So how lovely it was when, as the years went on, we could concentrate on lovely things like English and French!
I loved English and have always been grateful for the incredible enthusiasm of both 'Polly' Davies and 'Jock' Campbell, who somehow managed to get me to learn a little of the wonders of English grammar.
I can't say that it was easy then and still isn't today and even though I have to 'use' grammar every day in my work, I frequently have to stop and think about what is correct, and even then, I often get things wrong.
So I suppose I, and all those who have fought with 'the garden of grammar' should make a pilgrimage to Nether Heyford and lay a wreath of seasonal nouns, adverbs, verbs and adjectives all tied up with a beautiful conjunctive ribbon!
Let me tell you why. A chap called John Stanbridge was born in Nether Heyford in 1463.
He was a bright spark and probably received his formal education from the local clergyman at what in those days was called a reading school.
He excelled and he went on to Winchester College and, like most of the students there, entered William of Wykeham's other great institution, New College at the University of Oxford.
It was the time when that institution was coming to the end of its 'reign' as the king-pin of education in medieval England.
While at Oxford 'Heyford Johnnie' went on to become the father of English grammar and so it is to him that we owe either praise or blame for all those agonising hours fighting with clause analysis!
He was a member of a select group of six humanist Oxford scholars who were the very first to formulate English grammar.
They were all teachers working at schools connected with the colleges.
In John's case, as well as teaching at Magdalen College's school where he became headmaster in 1488, he was also made Master of Magdalen College itself in 1490 and was ordained as a priest. So he was a bit of a V.I.P. egghead.
He got around quite a bit too and worked all over the place ending up in 1501 at Banbury as head of the new grammar school and in 1508 he was also appointed Rector of Winwick between Yelvertoft and West Haddon.
He died in 1510, probably of exhaustion.
John Stanbridge was the most successful academic of his day and his work became the most famous. He wrote many books on English grammar, works that formed the basis for all subsequent teaching of the subject.
I wonder what he would think of the huge changes in grammatical usage over the years since he was around!
He also wrote several text books designed to be used in schools, they were called 'vulgars'.
No, they weren't dirty books, but they were full of short texts to be translated by students.
And John was also a pioneer in what we would now call the type of dictionary similar to a phrase book.
In 1496 he broke new ground by publishing a Latin-English vocabulary with words and expressions in parallel columns.
Not only was it well received (no doubt by package holiday makers booking an all-in fortnight watching the gladiators in Rome) but it was also reprinted many times.
This, as well as his other books, were printed by none other than the great William Caxton.
Now, what is the Latin for 'the wheel has fallen off my chariot'?
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Friday 10 February 2012
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