The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-12-06
AMUSING BLUNDERS.
Absurd Mistakes Which Have Been Made
Inv Iearned and Prominent Persons

Absurd Mistakes Which Have Been Made
by Learned and Prominent Persons.
Horace Walpole records that when
the Duchess of Bolton wished to divert
George l., she affected to make some
ridiculous mistake, which never failed
to put the King in good humor. Blum
ders frequently take the place of the
medieval testers, the chief of whose wit
appears to have rested upon the absurd
mistakes they feigned to make. Lord
Falmouth's dispute with Pitt in the
House would have dropped into OBJ
livion with countless other unimportant
Parliamentary debates save for the
ridiculous mistake of one of the speak
ers. Pitt concluded his argument with
Latin quotation, which Lord Falmouth
did not understand but conceived to be
something of unflattering nature APP
piled to himself. Demanding what was
meant, Pitt dryly replied that the ex-
preston was not his own, but HOraees.
Il did not believe Horace Walpole
would have insulted me after the obi
cations | have laid him under" cried
TIVE atfroned peer, WIG, 5ns {bettf az,
quainted with the owner OF Strawberry
Hill than wit.the Latin poet His er-
ror was somewhat akin to that Of the
lady who remarked that she was sur
prsed that Lord Nelson, who never
made a great profession OF eligion,
should have written book or The
Fasts and Festivals of the English
Church." 1t is often assumed hat it is
only ignorant or stupid persons who
make ludicrous mistakes; but this is
quite a fallacy. Actual bills" to
match any in Miss Edgworthb famous
collections, have been perpetrated by
clever men, from the days when Sir
Isaac Newton cut a hole for tie cat, and
hole for the kitten in his Study door
| D'Israei has written at Length on the
''foIies of the learned" and many cele-
brated names figure in everybit Of what
may be termed Historical plumbers. -
Dr. Stukeley discovered coin of
Carausus, on which he decbhered the
letters "Oriyna Avg" and, conceiving
this to relate to a wife, wrot an article
on this hitherto unknown "august
Oriyna." Unluckily, a brother antigua
rian possessed the same coli in better
condition and showed the Inscription to
be Fortuna Avg" 1t i said that
the legend of St. Ursula ant her II 600
virgins arose out of a misre,ding of the
authorizations in an ancient MS, which
spoke of st. Ursula ct Jndecimilla.
"V. M est Ursula andJndecimilla;
virgin martyrs'). This wise tran
scriber read and copied Is Ursula ct
Undecim Militia Martyrum Virginum, y
and made two names into 1000. Vol
taire relates an amusing story OF
another antiquarian blunder When
the fragments of the Letin author,
Petronius, were much talkel of in the
literary world, professor at Lubbock
saw letter written by brother scholar
at Boulogne, in which the latter re-
marked, this city possesses an entire
Petronius," never doubling that this ex.
preston referred to the ancient author
and fired with the hope of acquiring tn
complete work, of which only a frao
ment had yet been recovered, the Ger
man savant set out at once for Bou
logne. Arriving there, he anxiously in
quired of the librarian of the city if
We're really true that the town boaste,
a complete Petronius. Certainly
does, was the prompt reply, 18th
blessed saint Petronius lies buried il
yOndcr church. "-L0djeS' TreaSuYg.