Funny. What was the need for prescriptive grammars back in the Victorian and Georgian eras? All the lads (sans lasses) were getting their daily dose of grammar in their grammar schools and being caned for cheating or by other means molded into model subjects of His or Her Majesty. So why is it that no matter how far back one goes, people then also complained about the language being degraded and becoming decayed and harkened back to the Golden Days™ when the language was pure and fraffly well spoken?

Ceci n'est pas un seing.