3.  Of the class of books here referrred [sic—­KTH] to, that which I have mentioned in an other chapter, as Lily’s or King Henry’s Grammar, has been by far the most celebrated and the most influential.  Concerning this treatise, it is stated, that its parts were not put together in the present form, until eighteen or twenty years after Lily’s death.  “The time when this work was completed,” says the preface of 1793, “has been differently related by writers.  Thomas Hayne places it in the year 1543, and Anthony Wood, in 1545.  But neither of these accounts can be right; for I have seen a beautiful copy, printed upon vellum, and illuminated, anno 1542, in quarto.  And it may be doubted whether this was the first edition.”—­John Ward, Pref., p. vii.  In an Introductory Lecture, read before the University of London in 1828, by Thomas Dale, professor of English literature, I find the following statement:  “In this reign,”—­the reign of Henry VIII,—­“the study of grammar was reduced to a system, by the promulgation of many grammatical treatises; one of which was esteemed of sufficient importance to be honoured with a royal name.  It was called, ’The Grammar of King Henry the Eighth;’ and to this, ’with other works, the young Shakspeare was probably indebted for some learning and much loyalty.’  But the honour of producing the first English grammar is claimed by William Bullokar, who published, in the year 1586, ‘A Bref Grammar for English,’ being, to use his own words, ’the first Grammar for English that ever waz, except my Grammar at large.’”

4.  Ward’s preface to Lily commences thus:  “If we look back to the origin of our common Latin Grammar, we shall find it was no hasty performance, nor the work of a single person; but composed at different times by several eminent and learned men, till the whole was at length finished, and by the order of King Henry VIII.[,] brought into that form in which it has ever since continued.  The English introduction was written by the reverend and learned Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s, for the use of the school he had lately founded there; and was dedicated by him to William Lily, the first high master of that school, in the year 1510; for which reason it has usually gone by the name of Paul’s Accidence.  The substance of it remains the same, as at first; though it has been much altered in the manner of expression, and sometimes the order, with other improvements.  The English syntax was the work of Lily, as appears by the title in the most ancient editions, which runs thus:  Gulielmi Lilii Angli Rudimenta.  But it has been greatly improved since his time, both with, regard to the method, and an enlargement of double the quantity.”