Evening star., 1913-12-07
BY WILLIAM S. WALSH


his eye: @but | was at Lord John Russell's
the other day, and having to wait for him
few minutes, took up a book, which hap
pened to be volume of Tom Moore's
Diary. There | read under date of 1926,
think, that Luttrell, the wit, dining next
gentleman whose father invented the nap
kins or serviettes which were used after din
ner for finger glasses, addressed him as Mr..
Doyley and was informed rather angrily
that the real name was Deh'-oyley. Very
WELL retorted Luttrell in his blandest man
ner May | trouble you, Mr.. Deh'-oyley, for
a little of that deh-umpling.' So you see,
added Dickens triumphantly, "your joke is
at least thirty years old.
RUT, indeed, it was even older. Dickens
= might have found this story in Horace
Walpole's Letters:
A caller at the house of one Cholmondeley
in London asked the servant who opened the
door if Mr.. Chol-mon-de-ley was at home,
pronouncing the name with all its syllables,
in infringement of custom, which shortens it
to Chumley.
"Don't know, Sir" replied the lackey;
@but I'll ask some of his people"
DURSUING his researches even further
back, Dickens might have found the
de-umpling story itself told in the follow
ing fashion about famous wit of the eigh-
teenth century:
Dean Swift was in company one day when
the conversation fell upon genealogy. The
ladv of the house expatiated a little too
freely on her ancient descent, observing that
her ancestors name began with De, show
ing that they were not merely Normans but
mobiles.
@And now, Madam" interrupted Swift,
twill you be SO kind as to help me to piece
of that de-umpling?"
HAWKINS, Q. c., famous pleader of the
mid-Victorian era, was engaged before
Lord Campbell in case that arose out of a
collision between brougham and an omni
bus. One of the advocates pronounced the
word @brougham" as a dissyilable, evidently
unaware that the name of the vehicle, like
the surname of Lord Brougham, is abbre-
waited into a monosyllable. After several
repetitions the Judge grew irritated and ex-
claimed:
Brother Hawkins, if you would say
broom you would save a syllable and the
time of the court.
Counsel took the hint; but bided his
time for retort. Presently the Judge be-
gan TO sum up, and had occasion to speak OF
the Omnibus.
aMv Lord, interrupted the audacious ad-
vocate, "if your Lordship would only say
bus, you would save two syllables and the
time of the court"
T ORD MANSFIELD received much
: harder setting down from Thomas Frs
kline. The latter was arguing a case before
the House of Lords,-a Scottish appeal re-
lating to trust estate. In the course of his
argument he had frequent occasion to use
the word Curator always pronouncing it
in the manner approved in the Scottish
courts; that is, with the accent on the first
syllable.
This grated upon the ears Of Lord Mans
field, who, though Scotsman by birth, had
taken pains to become Anglicized. At last
he broke out:
"Mr Erskine, we are in the habit in this
country of saying curator, following the
analogy of the Latin, in which, as you are
doubtless aware, the penultimate syllable is
long
Il thank your Lordship very much,' re-
turned Erskine. ave are weak enough in
Scotland to think that in pronouncing the
word cu'-rator we are following the analogy
of the English language but need scarcely
say that | bow with pleasure to the opinion
Of so learned a senator and SO great an
orator as your Lordship."
THE last story suggests a retort attrib-