The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-01
CLIPPED ENGLISH.

CLIPPED ENdhlSh
"Nothing is more striking TO an American
when he first visits London than the constanI
misuse of the French a pronounced d0 by
the high school Of coclcneys. The lower classes
of her Maiesty's subjects use the PLAIN Old
fashioned English "a as an expletive, as wen
as an offset to the other Ga fashion, by the
way, derived from the Greeks, Tor their IAN
guage is full Of expletives), in this Manner
/ was a. qoinq, or ! was a-thinking, or l was
sa-,opinp.' or ] was 'a-hironing,' and so on
through the whole family of verbs. Now this
misuse of the vowel is so common to the com
mon people, that to hear it from the lips of
any person is sufficient to suggest that his
education has been quite imperfect. This
being so, Il IS quite fair that we should acduit
Lord Brobdignag of a similar charge, when we
hear him read from master of style, thus
They saw dW that it was a,D-Liston's firm
belief, that he-aw was aw. great and neglected
tragic actaw. They say-aw that ev-aw-ry one
Of us believes, in his heart, or would Iike-aw
to have others believe, that he-aw is some
thing which he is aw-not =
at is well known that in the
glorious old English tongue every word carries
a meaning with IT.; a little history in its womb
such as 'belly-timber,' as applied to food and
'bread-b basket as applied to its receptacle.
So the lord of thousands of broad acres in
Merrie England
"'Lovely in England's (ddeleSS green'-Hdlleck--
was called the Earl of Bedu-chdmpS, from the
Norman French, as in Scotland the name of
Campbell is derived from an Italian origin
meaning the same thing as Beau champs,
Campo-bellO. Just as the constellation in the
Southern hemisphere called Charles Oak re-
calls the history of that royal and ragged
refugee, in Boscobell, so a vast number of
words in English once represented ideas. They
were words with poetry and history locked up
within them, like flies, in perpetual amber.
The river 'Alne, in Cumberland, the stream
celebrated in many border foray, has upon
its banks the ancient town of Alnecester, and
the home of the Percy's high-born race Ain
wick Castle. Should you inquire for either
place, there is not a man in England who
would understand you. But Just ask for
Anster and Annick, and there is not a red
coated, boot brushing boy in the neighborhood
of Temple Bar that cannot tell you where to
find the train that will carry you to the resi-
dence of the Lords of Northumberland.
81 remember once that l hired a post and
pair to 60 down to Stratford-upon- Avon. A
jaunty position in spotless white dimity knee
breeohes, white top-bOots, silver-rim hatband,
and whole carlton of bell-buttons on his
jacket, touched his hat as l stepped into the
SHAY Drive me round, said l, by the way
of Charlecote Hail. for | wished to see the
place where Shakespeare was tried for deer
stealing. That was a puzZler. The friendly
landlord of the Warwick Arms the aged
pensioner of the Bear and Ragged staff; the
obsequious waiter; the radical tailor, who
made red riding coats for fox-hunting squires
and - them in the bitterness of his sartorial
soul; the small boy that always followed
stranger as the mite-fy follows a cheese; the
paTochial beadle with his bell; the blue eyes
of the chambermaid, from an upper story of
the Warwick Arms; all, in dire suspense, in
that dewy morning, waited to hear
the reply of the post-boy. There
was no reply. Presently an under
holster, who had been lowering around the
horses like a spiritual gad-hy, whose wings
were horse-brush and curry-comb, spoke out
in a foggy voice:-'P'raps the gemman means
ChawcutY' Shade of Shakespeare And
Cha,ocut it was, as everybody understood it
there. So it is that in this puckered-up Eng
lish-Warwick, itself a splendidly significant
name, becomes Waric. The Beauchamp Chapel
is Beecham. Charlesbury has lost its ancient
significance in Chawbree. ChOlmondeley is
Chumlee. Berwick of old renown, royal Ber-
wick beach of sand, is now Berric: Candle
wick street in London is Cannick; Gloucester
is Gloster, Smithfeld is Smifld and Worces-
ter-Wooster So too, the wond dear to every
domestic tie, housewife, is hlsS1, subtle is
'Suttle, and High Holburn, Lobtrn.
"Can anybody doubt that the corruption OF
these good old expressive English words into
| bastard French is not undermining the Queens
English p