Marginalia as Evidence: The Unidentified Hands in Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762)

This article provides a detailed study of the annotations in the two Winchester College copies of Robert Lowth’s (1710–1787) Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) which R. C. Alston used for his facsimile edition (1968). Alston believed that one of the copies belonged to Lowth and that the other copy was used for the second edition of the grammar in 1763. My article, however, demonstrates that this was not the case. It present arguments that serve to identify the owner of the second copy, and it demonstrates that there is one feature in his language the historical development of which was very likely due to influence from Lowth’s grammar. From a wider perspective, this article will highlight the extent to which contemporary readers responded to books they owned by including annotations in them.