Title:Letter from John B. Giles to Adlai Osborne,
July 29, 1806: Electronic Edition.
Author: Giles, John B., 1788-1846
Editor: Erika Lindemann
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the
electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by
Erika Lindemann and Julia Stockton
Images scanned by
Mara E. Dabrishus
Text encoded by
Sarah Ficke
First Edition,
2005
Size of electronic edition: ca. 12K
Publisher: The University Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2005
The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American
South.
Languages used in the text:
English
Revision history:
2005-03-15, Sarah Ficke finished TEI/XML encoding.
Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid
Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North
Carolina
written by
Lindemann, Erika
Source(s):
Title of collection: Adlai Osborne Papers (#2524-z), Southern
Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title of document: Letter from John B. Giles to Adlai Osborne,
July 29, 1806
Author: Giles, John B.
Description: 2 pages, 3 page images
Note:
Call number 2524-z (Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topics covered: Education/UNC Curriculum Health and Disease/Diseases Examples of Student
Writing/Letters and Letter Writing
Editorial practices The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 5 of
the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Transcript of the personal correspondence. Originals are in the
Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. DocSouth staff created a 600 dpi uncompressed TIFF file for each image. The TIFF images were then saved as JPEG images at 100 dpi for web access. Page images can be viewed and compared in parallel with the
text. Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the
trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line. Letters, words and passages marked as deleted or added in originals
have been encoded accordingly. All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed
as entity references. All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as ". All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as '. All em dashes are encoded as —. Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
For more information about transcription and other editorial decisions,
see Dr. Erika Lindemann's explanation under the section Editorial Practices.
Document Summary
Giles tells his friend, a former student, that he has joined the
junior class; a tooth extraction cost him part of his jaw bone.
Af After a slight and
approved examination on the Latin I entered the Junior Class—Being
extreamly rusty in what little Greek I had read I would not attempt an
examination I have to prepare my self on it before the 15 November—I
study Geography with the sophomore class.2
I will be extreamly happy to hear from you.
The day after I arrived I was taken most violently with the twoth
acke, I suffered the most excrutiating pain immagi[n]able—for near four
days—I then resolved to have it drawn—I was recommended to a
Gentleman as a very expert at the business—after three severe trials he
extracted it
Page 2
and brought with it a peice of the
gaw bone—I am very well at present and I am much obliged to the Gentleman
but I think he will never draw an other for me
Tender my best respects to
Spruce
David
Nesbit
, and D– Fortry3all and to all my Old freinds
1. Adlai Osborne Papers, SHC. The letter is addressed "Mr Adlai L. Osborne
/
Salisbury"; the postage endorsement reads "Chapel
Hill 29th July} 12 1/2." The word
"post" appears in the lower left corner.
2. The 1803 curriculum for first-year students required
examinations in
Virgil,
Horace's
odes, and
Lucian's dialogues (in place of the
Greek
Testament). Sophomores studied
Cicero,
geography, arithmetic,
Noah
Webster's and
Robert
Lowth's English grammars, and
Horace.
Juniors no longer studied astronomy but were examined in algebra,
Alexander Ewing'sA Synopsis of
Practical Mathematics,Euclid,
trigonometry, heights and distances, navigation, and logarithms. Seniors
studied
Hugh
Blair'sLectures on
Rhetoric and Belles Lettres,Claude François Xavier Millot'sElements of General History, and
William
Paley'sThe
Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (Battle 1:168-69). By
1806 the
trustees had revised the curriculum to require of
every graduate a knowledge of Greek.