ABSTRACT
Vicesimus Knox was a practising schoolmaster who succeeded his father as headmaster of Tonbridge School in 1778, as well as an ordained priest of the established church. His interests were mainly literary; his Essays Moral and Literary were published on the recommendation of Dr Johnson. In so far as he is remembered today, he is thought of as the editor of a trio of anthologies, Elegant Extracts in verse and in prose and Elegant Epistles, weighty tomes intended for the improvement of youth, about which 'a certain glimmering of fame or illustrious obscurity has persisted'.1 However, he also wrote a two-volume work on education very much from a practical standpoint. Here one will find no insight into the deeper tensions of the period but an honest defence, with still persisting echoes of a humanist past, of classical and literary studies, albeit with certain concessions
to the Zeitgeist of the Enlightenment which reveal a cautious evolution of even highly conservative opinion on matters of curriculum.
