Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MAR 28, 1003.

" crank." He undoubtedly had a bee in his bonnet, and that bee chiefly buzzed to the tune of the eradication from our language of all elements but those drawn from the strictest English or Saxon sources. The faintest trace of Latin, Greek, or any other foreign origin in any given word was to him what a red rag is to a bull. In his opinion all such words ought to be ruthlessly rooted out from our speech.

Now to sane people it is obvious that this is not only undesirable, but impossible. We know that the truly English element in our language forms but a fraction of the grand and marvellous compound which we call English. Prof. Meiklejohn, himself a reason- able champion of Saxon, truly says that the Latin element is indispensable, and that with- out it the writings of Shakespeare and of Milton would have been simply impossible ; and the same author cites a brief passage written by Leigh Hunt in express condem- nation of the use of Latin derivatives, and enjoining the employment of the Saxon element alone ; and yet that very passage, brief as it is, con tains no fewer than thirty-five words of Latin origin, or about one-half of the whole passage. In point of fact, it would be almost impossible to write, or to accept, an invitation to dinner without the use of words drawn from Latin sources ; and even if it were possible to dispense with such words, it would be undesirable and ridiculous to do so just as ridiculous, in fact, as it would be for us to discard the comfortable and complete clothing of the present day, and return to the rude and scanty habiliments of Gurth and Wamba ; or, to use a still homelier simile, it would be as absurd as to try to make a plum-pudding out of suet alone, rejecting all the other valuable and indispensable ingre- dients which go to the composition of that delicacy.

In the pursuit of this ridiculous fad Barnes regaled the world with some most extrava- gant and ludicrous forms of speech. He wanted to abolish the word " language " itself, and to call it "speechcraft." Adjec- tives were in future to be "mark words of sucnness. Degrees of comparison were to be known as " pitchmarks " ; and he gravely tells us that "pitchmarks offmark sundry things by their sundry such nesses." " Carni- vorous ' was to become " flesh-eatsome " ;

ruminating" was henceforth to be "cud- cnewsonie" ; logic was to be known as " rede- V * ?y llo g lsm wa in future to be styled

a redeship of three thought-puttings" : and so forth However, to cut the matter short, 1 append a brief list containing a few well-

known English words as now by custom established, placing opposite to each the grotesque and gruesome new-fangled expres- sion which Mr. Barnes kindly proposed to substitute in its place. Here it is :

Criticism Deernsterhood.

Quadrangle Fourwinkle.

Botany Wortlore.

Perambulator Push wainling.

Generation Child-team.

Electricity Fire-ghost.

Democracy Fol kdom.

Ambassador Statespellman.

Telegram Wirespell.

Omnibus Folk wain.

Butler Cellar-thane.

Epidemic Manqualm.

Could the force of folly further go 1

PATRICK MAXWELL. Bath.

ARTHUR O'CONNOR. (See ante, p. 81.) At this reference OXONIENSIS calls attention to the language used by Froude in regard to Arthur O Connor, one of the Irish mal- contents of 1798. Froude describes him as "another Phelim O'Neil, with the polish of cultivation, and with the inner nature of a savage." Those who have lived much amongst savages know that at bottom they are extremely like civilized people. But we know what Froude meant, and those who have studied the history of the Irish dis- contents know also that "savage" was the last epithet that could rightly be applied to such a nature as that of Arthur O'Connor. There is a short account of this leader in that very rare book ' Critical Essays of an Octo- genarian,' privately printed, 1851, ii. 147, 148. After O'Connor's death in 1852 at the Chateau de Bignon, the birthplace of Mirabeau, MR. JAMES ROCHE, of Cork, the author of the 'Critical Essays,' amplified his former account, and made a most interesting com- munication to 'N. & Q.' (1 st S. v. 579). MR. ROCHE did not long survive his friend, dying in 1853, and leaving a much regretted gap in the ranks of the early contributors to this journal (see 1 st S. vii. 394 ; ix. 217).

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

LITTLE WILD STREET CHAPEL, DRURY LANE. The pulling down of this old chapel by the County Council, and the removal from it of several hundred coffins to Brook wood Cemetery, may be worth a passing mention in the pages of ' N. & Q.' Almost the last of the old Dissenting chapels of the seventeenth century, it ranked at one time with White- field's Tabernacle, Bunhill Row Chapel, and the celebrated Spa Fields Chapel. People came from far and near to attend the minis- trations of popular ministers there, and