Synopsis
For the first time, Hillard & Botting’s elementary Latin exercises have been collected into a single volume. Thoroughly revised for the 21st century, this book is an invaluable addition to any beginner’s bookshelf, covering both Latin-to-English translation and English-to-Latin composition from the very basics (amo, amas, amat). In a tradition stretching back over a hundred years, Hillard & Botting have guided generations of Latin students along the path to fluency, pausing on the journey to read the stories that were left to us over 2000 years ago. Classical scholars of any age will find these exercises are the natural prelude to North & Hillard’s canonical textbook, and a solid basis for GCSE exam success.
About the Authors
Albert Ernest Hillard (1865-1935) was High Master of St Paul's for 22 years. An Anglican clergyman and talented classicist, he ordered three immediate innovations, the holding of Confirmation classes, the introduction of the 'modern' pronunciation of Latin, and the institution of the prefect system. Dr Hillard also encouraged the teaching of English Literature to pupils, as there had previously been no provision for any specialist English teaching, and many boys were failing their university entrance exams. At the time, one teacher noted it was ironic that schoolfellows of Milton should in the matter of English be "the hungry sheep who looked up and were not fed". Collaborating with Michael Arthur ('Neddy') North of Clifton College, he wrote Latin Prose Composition (1895) which remained the standard textbook in English grammar schools for much of the twentieth century; this, more than his leadership, was his legacy to education. Hillard was profoundly shy, and avoided both teachers and pupils alike, only on the rarest of occasions visiting a classroom. Staff salaries stagnated during his time in charge of St Paul's, and this, combined with his social difficulties, meant he had few admirers. A history of the school written a quarter of a century after his retirement glosses over Dr Hillard's 22 years as a stepping-stone between two personality-driven leaders.
Cecil George Botting (1870-1929) was educated at Dulwich College and Cambridge University before teaching Classics, first at Colet Court Prep School and then at St Paul's itself. In all, he spent 37 years at the schools, and was known as the "supreme scholarship winner", having coached more boys to success in university entrance exams than any other teacher. It was written later than he was driven to augment his income with out-of-school coaching, "to the grave detriment of his health", and the blame for this was pinned squarely on Hillard's salary policy. Cecil converted to Catholicism at the age of 36, and forced his wife and seven-year-old daughter to do the same. By his admirers he was said to have found the perfect flowering of his beloved Greeks within Catholic philosophy, and to him it seemed the spirit of Plato, even more than that of Aristotle, informed Catholic thought. His daughter, the author Antonia White, suffered mental illness for a large portion of her life. According to her autobiography, her disciplinarian father did not get the son he had hoped for, and she implies in her semi-autobiographical novels that he saw his conversion as salvation for sins of forbidden love.
Nigel Wetters Gourlay lives with his family in Singapore.
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