Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/286

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10- S. V. MARCH 24, 1906.

majority of Scottish students of ' The Pil- grim's Progress' err with "the Slough of Despond "; in any case, "the Sloff" is very largely favoured. THOMAS BAYNE.

Latham considered myth a comparatively new word in English when he brought out his dictionary in 1870, and devotes con- siderable space to its orthography and pro- nunciation. It is astonishing in how many words derived from the Greek the quantity of the original vowels is disregarded. I have made no attempt to form an exhaustive collection of them, but the following imme- diately suggest themselves : cinematograph, encyclopedia, misanthrope, misogynist (and the like), pedagogue, myriad, phthisis, tele- gram, telephone, telescope (and the like). This disregard of quantity in English words derived from the Greek may possibly be due in part to the fact that the later Greeks themselves paid small attention to quantity, and that even in Alexandrian times accent had largely taken its place. Thus, when the early Western Church incorporated Kvpit e\y(rov into the Mass, the latter word became simply " eleison " ; and in. modern Greek, as I am credibly informed, quantity goes for nothing. Among English words derived from the Latin, on the other hand, I can, at the moment, think only of " origin," as an example of quantity being disregarded, though there are probably many others.

In 'The Society upon the Stanislaus,' Bret Harte writes :

Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point of

order when A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the

abdomen.

Here scansion seems to require the penul- timate syllable of the last word to be short; but Truthful James is not an authority on pronunciation, and in this case probably has but few followers.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

The reply to the question whether "either" or *'eether" was right was, according to my memory, "ayther or other," in Lancashire

fifty years ago.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

Tryst is a word still commonly used in the sense of an appointment in Scotland, and in my experience is invariably pro- nounced long. That Scott so pronounced it we gather from the passage in ' Rob Roy ' where Francis Osbaldistone meets Rob Roy at Glasgow Bridge : " * You walk late, sir,' said I. * I bide tryste,' was the reply." See 4 Rob Roy,' ii. 53 (Edinburgh, Adam & Charles Black, 1853). T. F. D.

LACONIC LETTERS (10 th S. v. 108, 153, 171, 197). According to Campbell's ' Lives of the Admirals,' Sir George Walton was sent in pursuit of a Spanish squadron, and reported what took place in the following dispatch to the admiral in command :

SIR, I have taken or destroyed all the Spanish ships as per margin. Yours, &c., G. WALTON.

Horace Wai pole in one of his papers in The World praises the following letter, written by Lady Pembroke in the reign of Charles II. I quote from memory, but think that Lady Pembroke wrote to Lord Arlington, who had insisted on her allowing Sir Joseph William- son to be returned member for her borough of Appleby :

SIR, I have been bullied by a usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man shan't stand.

ANNE PEMBROKE.

M. N. G.

I have some memory of a story that some person wrote to the first Duke of Wellington, threatening to publish certain letters of his, and that he replied :

DEAR JULIA, Publish and be damned.

Yours, WELLINGTON.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

When Lord John Russell announced the breaking up of Earl Grey's Cabinet * on 27 May, 1834, Mr. Stanley, Colonial Secretary, wrote the following to Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty ('Hist, of Reform Club,' by Louis Fagan) :

MY DEAR G., Johnny has upset the coach.

Yours, &c. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

The Rev. Sydney Smith tells my late father of his having obtained a living for him, thus : DEAR SIR, You have got the living.

Yours ever,

Feb. 20, 1843. SYDNEY SMITH.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

A certain lady having written to Talley- rand informing him of the death of her husband, he replied : CHERE MARQUISE, Helas !

Votre devoue, TALLEYRAND.

At a later date the same lady wrote telling him of her approaching marriage. To this he replied :

CHERE MARQUISE, Ho ho !

Votre devout, TALLEYRAND.

CHARLES HERBERT THOMPSON. 133, Harley Street, W.

[MR. A. HALL also refers to Talleyrand's letters.]