William Cockin Explained

William Cockin (baptised 1736 – 1801) was an English schoolmaster and versatile author.^[1]

William Cockin
Death Place:	Burton-in-Kendal, England, Kingdom of Great Britain
Birth Place:	Burton-in-Kendal, England, United Kingdom
Occupation:	Schoolteacher, writer, accountant

Life

The son of Marmaduke Cockin (1712–1754), he was born at Burton-in-Kendal, Westmorland. His father was a schoolmaster.^{[1] [2]}

After time spent as a teacher in schools in London, Cockin was in 1764 appointed writing-master and accountant to Lancaster Grammar School, a post he held for twenty years. He was then for eight years at John Blanchard's Nottingham Academy.^[2]

Cockin retired to Kendal. He was a friend of George Romney the painter, and he died at Romney's house in Kendal, on 30 May 1801, aged 65. He was buried at Burton-in-Kendal.^[2]

Associations

Among Cockin's friends was the Rev. Thomas Wilson of Clitheroe, and Peter Romney, brother of George, was a correspondent in the later 1760s.^{[2] [3]} Other associates were John Dawson, and Rev. John James D.D., of Arthuret.^[1]

Works

Cockin's works included:^[2]

• A Rational and Practical Treatise of Arithmetic, 1766.
• Occasional Attempts in Verse, privately printed at Kendal.
• Ode to the Genius of the Lakes, 1780.
• The Theory of the Syphon, 1781.
• The Fall of Scepticism and Infidelity predicted, 1788, in the form of a letter to James Beattie.^[1]
• The Freedom of Human Action explained, 1791
• The Rural Sabbath, a poem, 1805. This posthumous volume includes a reprint of the Ode to the Lakes, with biographical notes.

Cockin contributed to the Philosophical Transactions a paper An Account of an Extraordinary Appearance in a Mist near Lancaster.^[4]

Elocutionist

In 1775 Cockin published The Art of Delivering Written Language; or, An Essay on Reading, dedicated to David Garrick, a work on elocution.^[1] In this book Cockin is representative of the 18th-century elocutionary movement, and within elocutionist he is assigned to the "natural school".^{[5] [6]} His comment on the prescriptive approach of Thomas Sheridan, a leader of the movement, was that works of elocution might be as much about perceptions of ways of talking as speaking.^[7]

Cockin noted in particular the connection between modulation in speech and silent reading.^[8] He pointed out that in both speech and singing, pauses are used to frame and for emphasis.^[9] He took comical mimicry to be a low form, in terms of artistic prestige. His exposition on the topic is now a standard authority for this attitude to imitation and mimesis.^[10]

Guide books

Thomas West's Guide to the Lakes, on the English Lake District, first appeared in 1778, and Cockin assisted in its compilation.^[2] He edited, anonymously, the second edition in 1780, West having died in 1779, including a preface that discussed the sources used: John Brown's Letter on Keswick, Thomas Gray, Thomas Pennant and Arthur Young.^[11] This expanded work and a later edition influenced William Wordsworth's 1810 guide.^[1] They contained the Letter on Keswick and Gray's Journal of the Lakes as appendices.^[12] Other additions included an engraving of Grasmere, after John Feary;^[13] Cockin was also responsible for footnotes, and tables of heights of the mountains.^[14]

External links

Attribution

Notes and References

1. 5786. David A.. Cross. Cockin, William.
2. Cockin, William. 11.
3. Heather Birchall, Henry Pickering fl 1740-70: An 18th-century portrait painter, The British Art Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 88–91, at p. 91. Published by: British Art Journal
4. Phil. Trans. (1780), lxx. 157.
5. Jacqueline George, Public Reading and Lyric Pleasure: Eighteenth Century Elocutionary Debates and Poetic Practices, ELH Vol. 76, No. 2 (Summer, 2009), pp. 371–397 at p. 383. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
6. Book: Kuypers. Jim A.. King. Andrew. Twentieth-century Roots of Rhetorical Studies. 15 May 2018. 2001. Greenwood Publishing Group. 9780275964207. 120 nite 53.
7. L. C. Mugglestone, Cobbett's Grammar: William, James Paul, and the Politics of Prescriptivism, The Review of English Studies Vol. 48, No. 192 (Nov., 1997), pp. 471–488, at p. 478. Published by: Oxford University Press.
8. Dana Harrington, Remembering the Body: Eighteenth-Century Elocution and the Oral Tradition, Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric Vol. 28, No. 1, The 2nd Biennial Conference of the Chinese Rhetoric Society of the World – Call for Papers (Winter 2010), pp. 67–95, p. 93 note 81. Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric DOI: 10.1525/rh.2010.28.1.67
9. Robert Toft, Rendering the Sense More Conspicuous: Grammatical and Rhetorical Principles of Vocal Phrasing in Art and Popular/Jazz Music, Music & Letters Vol. 85, No. 3 (Aug., 2004), pp. 368–387, at p. 377. Published by: Oxford University Press.
10. Jan Rüger, Laughter and War in Berlin, History Workshop JournalNo. 67 (Spring 2009), pp. 23–43, at p. 40, note 44. Published by: Oxford University Press.
11. Betty A. Schellenberg, Coterie Culture, the Print Trade, and the Emergence of the Lakes Tour, 1724–1787, Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 44, No. 2 (Winter 2011), pp. 203–221, at pp. 214–5. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Sponsor: American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS).
12. Mary R. Wedd, Light on Landscape in Wordsworth's "Spots of Time", The Wordsworth Circle, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Autumn 1983), pp. 224–232, at p. 228. Published by: Marilyn Gaull
13. Book: Woof. Robert. Museum. Grasmere and Wordsworth. The discovery of the Lake District, 1750-1810: a context for Wordsworth: at the Grasmere and Wordsworth Museum, 20 May-31 October, 1982. 1982. Trustees of Dove Cottage. 23.
14. Book: Donnachie. Ian. Lavin. Carmen. From Enlightenment to Romanticism: Anthology II. 15 May 2018. 2004-04-08. Manchester University Press. 9780719066733. 3.