The Grammar of English Grammars

One needs to do some reserach before trying to read this book. It is an amazing achievement of the author who summed up grammatical knowledge of his time in one volume (nearly 3,000 pages long). It takes a lot of time and dedication to do something like that even today, and Goold Brown did it in 1851! So if you are looking for a grammar book to help you with your English, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a great masterpiece illustrating an outstanding achievement, you will enjoy reading this book. Obviously, it cannot be used as a grammar manual today, but don't we still admire Samuel Johnson' dictionary (1755), though no one would use it today as a guide to proper usage?