Dawes

RICHARD DAWES (1708 - 1766)

Dawes has the reputation of being one of the chief Greek scholars this country has produced. He was, however, a man of peculiar habits and outspoken language.

The Newcastle Grammar School had been in existence since 1525, when it was founded by Thomas Horsley, five times Lord Mayor of the city. Dawes was appointed headmaster of the school in 1738 and appears to have become almost completely unhinged. His eccentric conduct and continuous disputes with the governors ruined the school. He responded with spirit in Extracts from an MS pamphlet intitled "The Tittle-Tattle Mongers" (Newcastle, 1747). The poet Mark Akenside (q.v.) was one of his pupils and refers to Dawes in his Pleasures of the Imagination:

Thee too, facetious Momion wandering here,
Thee, dreaded censor..................................
Flushed with thy comic triumphs and the spoils
Of sly derision!

Dawes finally resigned in 1749 and retired to Heworth, where he chiefly amused himself in boating on the Tyne. The book on which his fame rests Miscellanea Critica was published in Newcastle in 1745 and has been described as 'an honourable and enduring monument of English scholarship'.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
RICHARD DAWES (1708 - 1766) Dawes has the reputation of being one of the chief Greek scholars this country has produced. He was, however, a man of peculiar habits and outspoken language. The Newcastle Grammar School had been in existence since 1525, when it was founded by Thomas Horsley, five times Lord Mayor of the city. Dawes was appointed headmaster of the school in 1738 and appears to have become almost completely unhinged. His eccentric conduct and continuous disputes with the governors ruined the school. He responded with spirit in Extracts from an MS pamphlet intitled "The Tittle-Tattle Mongers" (Newcastle, 1747). The poet Mark Akenside (q.v.) was one of his pupils and refers to Dawes in his Pleasures of the Imagination: Thee too, facetious Momion wandering here, Thee, dreaded censor.................................. Flushed with thy comic triumphs and the spoils Of sly derision! Dawes finally resigned in 1749 and retired to Heworth, where he chiefly amused himself in boating on the Tyne. The book on which his fame rests Miscellanea Critica was published in Newcastle in 1745 and has been described as 'an honourable and enduring monument of English scholarship'.
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