St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-01-10
AMUSING BLUNDERS.
Absurd Mistakes Which Have Been Made
by Learned aud Prominent Persons,

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 fe;yned to make Lord
Falmouth 5 dispute with Pitt in the
House world have dropped into OBJ
iNion WIN countless other unimportant
Elementary debates save for the
Tidic .ulous mistake of one of the speak
err. Pitt concluded his argument with
Latin quotation. which Lord Falmouth
did not understand. but conceived to be
something of unfiattering nature ap-
piled to himself. Demanding what was
meant. Pitt dryly replied that the ex-
preston was not his own, but Horace's.
Il did not believe Horace Walpole
would have insnlted me after the obi
cations | have laid him under" cried
the affronted peer, who was better ac-
quainted with the owner of Strawberry
Hill than with the Latin poet. His err
ror was somewhat akin to that of the
lady who remarked thar she was sur
prised that Lord Nelson. who never
made great. profession of religion,
should have written book on 1.-The
Fasts and Festivals of the English
Church" 1t is often assumed that it is
only ignorant or stupid persons who
make ludicrous mistakes; but this is
quite fallaey. Actual .'bulls." to
match any in Miss Edgworth's famous
collections, have been perpetrated by
clever men, from the days when Sir
Isaac Newton cut hole for the cat, and
hole for the kitten, in his study door.
D'Israeli has written at length on the
..follies of the learned. and many cele-
brated names figure in every bit of what
may be termed Historical blunders."
Dr. Stukeley discovered coin of
Carausius, on which he deciphered the
letters .'Orivna Avg" and. conceiving
this to relate to wife, wrote an article
on this hitherto unknown "august
Orivna.' Unluckily. a brother antigua
rian possessed the same coin in a better
condition and showed the inscription 10
be Fortuna Avg" 1t is said that
the legend of St. Ursula and her l1.000
virgins arose out of a misreading of the
abbreviations in an ancient Ms, which
spoke of st. Ursula ct Undecimilla
ssV. NJ est Ursula and Undecimilla;
virgin martyrs'O. This wise tram
scriber read and copied as Ursula ct
Undecim Militia Martyrum Virginum. !"
and made two names into II, 200. Vol
taire relates an amusing story of
another antiquarian biunder. When
the fragments of the Latin author,
Petronius, were much talked of in the
literary world, a 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 the
complete work, of which only a frag-
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 it
were really true that the town boasted
complete Petronius. Certainly it
does" was the prompt reply, ..the
blessed saint Petronius lies buried in
yonder church. '-La.iies' Treasury.