Note 247 — Chapter II · LEARNED LADIES IN ENGLAND FROM 1650 TO 1760 (continued 3)

July 31, 1715, Mr. Hearne wrote to Mr. Hickes thanking him for his "excellently learned Thesaurus," and for Mrs. Elstob's Grammar. He comments on her Preface as "judicious, learned, and elegant." He is particularly pleased with her remarks on the author of the "Dissertation on reading the Classicks, and forming a just stile." This gentleman was of St. Edmund's Hall and was always looked upon as a vain, flashy person. "I look'd upon him as the most unfit Person I knew of a Scholar to write upon this Subject.... His book hath been sufficiently ridiculed & condemned her by ye best Judges." (Hearne's Collections, vol. IV, p. 83.)