ABSTRACT
The history of Lily’s Grammar may be divided into three periods: from its birth in 1509 until the Royal Proclamation of about 1540; from 1540 to the time when the Grammar was appropriated as the Eton Grammar; and from then to the present. In the first period, 1509-1540, the Grammar was in process of formation. The adoption of the Grammar as the authorised Latin Grammar, is parallel to the authorization of a particular rendering of the Scriptures. It is a cardinal point, about which centre the disputes of the progressive grammarians, as against the reactionary and conservative party which held closely to Lily. Although the authorised Latin Grammar was ordinarily called Lily’s Grammar, it is really a compilation. Thomas Hayne, a master at Merchant Taylors’ School and at Christ’s Hospital later, wrote a Grammar which is called Grammatices Latinae Compendium, in 1637.
