His presence is
capable of adding a gloom to an undertaker's establishment. The last
time I fell in with him was on a coaching trip through Devon, and in
spite of what I have said I must confess to receiving an instant of
entertainment at his hands. He was delivering a little dissertation on
"the English and American languages." As there were two Americans on
the back seat--it seems we term ourselves "Amurricans"--his choice
of subject was full of tact. It was exhilarating to get a lesson in
pronunciation from a gentleman who said _boult_ for bolt, called St.
John _Sin' Jun_, and did not know how to pronounce the beautiful name of
his own college at Oxford. Fancy a perfectly sober man saying _Maudlin_
for Magdalen! Perhaps the purest English spoken is that of the English
folk who have resided abroad ever since the Elizabethan period, or
thereabouts.
EVERY one has a bookplate these days, and the collectors are after it.
The fool and his bookplate are soon parted. To distribute one's _ex
libris_ is inanely to destroy the only significance it has, that of
indicating the past or present ownership of the volume in which it is
placed.
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