A guide for the child and youth : in two parts : the first, for children, containing plain and pleasant directions to read English, with prayers, graces, and instructions fitted to the capacity of children : the second, for youth, teaching to write, cast account, and read more perfectly : with several other verities, both pleasant and profitable / by T.H., M.A., a teacher of a private school.
In addition to the lists of Roman and italic alphabets and two-letter syllables, contents include: many short sections for memorization (Dutiful Child's Promises), an alphabet rhyme (beginning "In Adam's fall/ We sinned all"), English proverbs alphabetically arranged, questions and answers about famous Bible characters; a catechism (The Penmen of the Holy Bible), verse (Child's Behaviour from Morning to Night), a brief dialogue between a master and his scholar, engravings showing hand-writing samples in Secretary, Italian, and Round hands, and a final Chronology of Several Remarkable Observations.
Notes
Cotsen copy: Inscribed ("upside down") on rear inside board: "John Beague," and below that, "John Beague, Hollam House in Dulvter." (Dulverton?) and on facing last page of text (page [128]) "Beague" with pen trials; inscribed on read cover "John Beague, Hollam House in Dulvter" (?). (John Beague suceeeded his uncle (Robert) to the estate of Hollam in 1766; the estate remained in the Beague family until in the 19th century.)
Caption title: "The Child's Guide" at head of leaf A2r.
Running titles: "The Child's Guide" (A2v-C9r) and "The Youth's Guide" (C9v-end).
The prayers and chronology on page [128] refer to Queen Anne ("our gracious Queen"); the first rhyming alphabet with the third stanza, "The Cat Doth Play/ And After Slay" was used by Jane Collier as the caption for the frontispiece of "The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting" (1733).
The earliest surviving copy dates to 1667. The author suggests in the brief preface that he compiled the work during the Commonwealth, but did not publish it until after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. He describes his method as "easy and pleasant and the Brevity supplied by a delightful mixture of Varieties."
Cotsen copy: Running title trimmed on many pages.
Binding note
Publisher's dark brown sheep, covers with double blind-ruled borders and blind-stamped flower at center, spine blind-ruled; wooden boards
References
Alston, English Language, IV 318 (other)
Other title(s)
Child's guide
Youth's guide
OCLC
1340465402
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