The royal English dictionary: or, a treasury of the English language...to which is prefixed a comprehensive grammar of the English tongue

London: printed for S. Crowder, at the Looking-glass, in Pater-noster Row, 1761. First edition, issue with the date correctly printed; 8vo, pp. viii, 16, [916]; lexicon in double column; contemporary full calf, rubbed and worn, hinges cracked, cords holding; early grammatical marginalia on flyleaves and endpapers; front free endpaper torn, with loss to the marginalia; still, a nice enough copy, unrestored, with the approbation leaf, in which George III (to whom the book is dedicated) grants Fenning a license to print his dictionary for a period of 14 years. Little is known of Fenning. He was a compiler of several school texts, including an arithmetic, a geography, and a speller, the last of which had notable popularity in America before Webster. Webster himself was no doubt well acquainted with Fenning's speller, which in London made a 71st edition in 1823. This dictionary contains terms used in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, architecture, printing, natural history and navigation, with "each word followed by an initial letter to denote the part of speech"--the first time, I believe, in a dictionary. A competent, trustworthy dictionary on "so extensive a plan as to unite the different excellencies of all other English dictionaries." Alston V, 227; Kennedy 6257; Vancil, p. 89. ESTC does not notice this issue with the corrected date.