PE 3719 
 
 L8 
 Copy 1 
 
Qass TE " 37I°I 
 Book ■ )..£> 
 
GLOSSARY, &c. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY W. N1COL, SHAKSPEARE PRESS. PALL MALL. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 TOWARDS A GLOSSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GLYNNE LANGUAGE 
 
 BY A STUDENT. 
 
 Language was given to man to conceal his thoughts."- 
 
 *o""-a»- """ ft 
 
 Talleyrand. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 THE DOUBTING DOWAGER 
 
 A TALE OF A HOUSE, 
 
 AN EPIC POEM IN ONE CANTO. 
 
 1S51 
 

 ; 2.3 
 
TO THE SHADES 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 GREAT PREDECESSORS 
 IN THE FIELD 
 
 OF 
 
 PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCE 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The origin of this singular language is lost in 
 obscurity. But it is probably indigenous in that 
 part of the marches of North Wales, which was the 
 birth-place of some of those who are now the 
 chief living authorities for its use. These are 
 the Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, the Hon. 
 Lady Glynne, Sir Stephen Glynne, Mrs. W. E. 
 Gladstone, and the Lady Lyttelton : and of these 
 the most leading appear to be, the Dean, and 
 Mrs. Gladstone. 
 
 The Author submits this first attempt to elu- 
 cidate an obscure and interesting province of phi- 
 lology, with an humble sense of the imperfection of 
 its performance : an imperfection arising from the 
 inherent difficulty of the subject, and particularly 
 from the minute shades of difference existing in 
 many of the cases. 
 
GLOSSARY, 
 
 &c. 
 
 [N.B. Alphabetical arrangement has been neg- 
 lected, as less appropriate to the mysterious and 
 anomalous character of the subjects treated of.] 
 
 $f>antotu 
 
 Apparently a corruption of the English word 
 phantom. The sense however is essentially dif- 
 ferent. It signifies generally e an imbecile person :' 
 6 one incapable of serious and rational procedure/ 
 It is perhaps most frequently used of one who has 
 become so, by the lapse of time, or by an unfore- 
 seen calamity. But it must be observed that this 
 complete form is not much in use. The autho- 
 rities generally substitute for it the expressive 
 initial abbreviation ' ph :' not however pronounced 
 as one letter, as ' f/ but in two : i p, 5 c h.' 
 
 It is equally used as a substantive and an ad- 
 
 B 
 
jective. Thus : e what a ph you are P e Lord 
 is become a ph.' 
 
 Or ' ph talk/ ' ph company/ &c. 
 Examples * * * * 
 
 % a 
 
 fitting €igf)t* 
 fitting Cro#stfegge&* 
 
 These phrases are put together in illustration 
 of the great difficulty of discriminating accurately 
 between some of the expressions of this language. 
 They do not mean quite the same, yet nearly so. 
 They both mean sitting in expectation of some 
 probable or anticipated event. Perhaps it may 
 be said briefly, that to sit tight is to be in eager 
 expectation, to sit crosslegged to be in patient 
 expectation. 
 
 The former when the event is much-desired, 
 and imminent : but may fail. 
 
 The latter when it is pretty sure to happen, but 
 may be delayed for some time. 
 
 Etymological considerations may justify this 
 
 a The examples here are omitted for obvious reasons. This 
 and some other omissions are supplied in the original Manuscript, 
 and the omitted passages may be learnt from the Author by any 
 discreet enquirer. 
 
view. To sit tight suggests the idea of a person 
 who feels that some slight movement on his part 
 might hinder the desired event, and is therefore 
 careful to prevent it : while to sit crosslegged is 
 the posture of composed and comfortable vigilance. 
 
 The latter also, from its passive character, may- 
 be especially used when it is an evil that is looked 
 for. 
 
 Illustrations : A lady looking for an advan- 
 tageous proposal for her daughter, sits tight for 
 it. 
 
 Another lady, awaiting the deferred arrival of 
 the dentist, sits crosslegged for it. 
 
 €ottertom 
 
 This so far differs from phantod, that it is 
 confined to the case of imbecility from second 
 childhood, or premature old age. Otherwise a 
 distinction cannot readily be perceived. 
 
 f©i?3I». 
 
 The leading authority for this word is Sir Stephen 
 Glynne. It is palpably derived from the English 
 wizen : but the sense is somewhat different. 
 
It means thin, sallow, older-looking than natural, 
 sharp-featured, shrunk. 
 
 Examples: ****** 
 
 a@aggte. 
 
 These culinary or gastronomic expressions be- 
 long also to the class of quasi-synonyms. They 
 are said of meat ; and it may be remarked that 
 while whatever is magpie is necessarily quaky, 
 what is quaky is not therefore unavoidably magpie. 
 
 Magpie means simply what is underdone : and 
 is said to be founded on a very arbitrary limita- 
 tion, to the tastes of that bird, of the willingness 
 to eat raw meat. 
 
 A slight digression may be here made, in illus- 
 tration of the jealous genius of this language, and 
 its somewhat cabalistic and capricious restriction 
 of terms. Upon the Dowager Lady Lyttelton's 
 modestly suggesting the word jackdaw as a com- 
 plete equivalent, in this sense, to magpie, the in- 
 trusive substitute was at once, with loud re- 
 clamations, but without any attempt at reason or 
 argument, rejected by all the professors present. 
 
 _ 
 
Quaky appears to mean anything over-tender, 
 and opposed to firm. 
 
 Example: The under-side of the sirloin of 
 beef. 
 
 Is a kindred word to the above, yet diverse. 
 It appears to mean very juicy and substantial 
 meat, and being, as it is, a term of derogation, it 
 can hardly be entertained except by a feeble and 
 delicate appetite. 
 
 Example : A Leicester leg of mutton. 
 
 SDauntering* 
 
 This seems to be an arbitrary perversion, in a 
 single letter, of the English maundering: with 
 which it coincides in sense. It is frequently 
 used by Lady Lyttelton of her husband, upon his 
 making any demonstrations of affection towards 
 his children. 
 
 The best authority for this word is Lady Glynne. 
 It is commonly used with the particles How, or 
 So : in the way of exclamation : ' How poor ! ' 
 6 So poor,' ' so very poor ! ' 
 
This is a highly idiomatic expression, but far 
 from being readily susceptible of scientific de- 
 finition. And indeed the novice may be here 
 advised once for all, that the comparative mastery 
 over this difficult language, which alone he can 
 venture with any confidence to hope that he may 
 reach, is more likely to be attained as a kind of 
 intuition derived from patient meditation on the 
 examples given of its various forms, than from 
 direct rendering or explanation. 
 
 It signifies unexpectedly short : bald : dispro- 
 portionate in means compared to the end : an an- 
 ticlimax: denuded of due and decent decoration: 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Examples : The hinder half of a French poodle. 
 The back of a pig without a tail. 
 
 *Jr 5j£ 5|C 5jC 5JC 5JC ^fc ?JC 
 
 Again, it has been laid down by Lady Glynne 
 that the poorest of all things was to return the bow 
 of a beggar in the road, who by bowing means 
 begging. The learner will not fail to remark 
 here the happy and racy appearance of paradox 
 which is one of the peculiar charms of this lan- 
 guage : inasmuch as by the uninitiated intellect 
 
the poorness would without hesitation be attributed 
 rather to the beggar than to the beggee. 
 
 A word perhaps peculiar to the Dean of Wind- 
 sor. It signifies bowels, 
 
 2DoIIp* 
 
 A dialectic abbreviation of the word Dowager, 
 in familiar use with Sir S. Glynne. 
 
 Examples: * * * * * * 
 
 Under this head the following remarkable pecu- 
 liarities may be noted. 
 
 From an overflowing fondness for this word, 
 prompting him to irregular and inexact uses of 
 it, Sir S. will often apply it to ladies who 
 neither are Dowagers nor are likely to become 
 
 CQ • £^§ * >i» T "h V * ^ 
 
 Again, he will not unfrequently indulge a happy 
 propensity to enlarge the scope of the language, 
 by saying Dowager of the male person corres- 
 ponding to that designation in its proper sense : 
 as, * * * * But, it is believed, 
 he has never been known to use the peculiar form 
 Dolly in this sense. 
 
It may be added that whenever Sir Stephen 
 uses the words c the Dowager' simply, it invariably 
 means the Dowager Lady Lyttelton. 
 
 It is undeniable that these phrases are intended 
 to convey some mild derision, if not reproach : 
 somewhat injuriously, as the Author conceives, 
 both to the respectable class indicated, and to the 
 habits thus attempted to be stigmatized. They 
 are simply those of decent order, unswerving 
 punctuality, sensitive tidiness, and methodical 
 arrangement: these, pushed, as it seems to be 
 alleged, by the spinsters in question and those 
 who resemble them, to a minutious scrupulosity 
 where no foundation of reason can any longer be 
 discerned for their observance. 
 
 The Author feels that the impartial reader will 
 at once be able to decide for himself whether the 
 view in question is a sound one, when he states 
 that the type of this class has been, by universal 
 consent, though not without a temperate protest 
 on the part of the victim, pronounced to be the 
 Lord Lyttelton. 
 
€toarip* 
 
 A word of doubtful orthography. It appears 
 to be limited in its usage to children under ten 
 years of age : and signifies querulous, peevish, dis- 
 posed to cry. (It may be noted parenthetically, 
 that the Author once heard Lady Lyttelton use 
 the anomalous derivative 
 
 <foier£ome 
 
 in lieu of this last expression.) 
 
 As may naturally be supposed, the chief autho- 
 rities for this word, among those who have been 
 mentioned, are those charged with the care of 
 infants, Mrs. Gladstone and Lady Lyttelton: 
 principally the former, as indeed she must be un- 
 derstood to be for all the terms noted in this 
 Glossary, when not otherwise expressed. 
 
 «Bru6ou& 
 
 A term perhaps derived, according to a com- 
 mon analogy, from its own sound, or aspect 
 when written. It appears properly to mean 
 dingy, dirt-coloured, mud-and-water-like. But 
 custom seems mainly to confine its use to these 
 
10 
 
 appearances when produced by trifling or tem- 
 porary indisposition. 
 
 €o €afte Ufte $orft* 
 
 See Audley End MSS. Art. Mapletoft. 
 
 The person here referred to was frequently if 
 not always fed from the house at Audley End : 
 and; from some unexplained reason, when pork 
 happened to be selected for this purpose, would 
 evince a total absence of gratitude for the well- 
 meant offering. By an obvious generalization, 
 the expression is applied to any one not duly 
 sensible of, and rather taking as a matter of course, 
 the favour and benefits conferred upon them. 
 
 Example: * * * * * * b 
 
 A complete and compendious equivalent for 
 Mrs., in constant use with Sir S. Glynne. 
 
 Examples: ****** 
 
 A striking variety in the use of this term is 
 when it is taken by itself, for the mistress of the 
 house: the Mum. 
 
 b See also below, Art. ' Want of Interest.' 
 
11 
 
 <©ne of <®uvg. 
 
 <©ne of §our^ 
 
 <9nt of 1$i$, 1$tv$, or €J}eit£* 
 
 These expressions may be considered elliptical, 
 and a dry and bare account of them might be 
 given by simply noting that e peculiarities, * or 
 ' habits/ is to be understood after the possessive 
 pronoun. But it rarely happens that the phrases 
 in this language can be exhaustively defined by 
 any such simple process as this, in the fulness 
 and comprehension of their spirit. By usage, 
 those now before us are mostly restricted to habits 
 of a small and trivial nature : such as he who has 
 them sets much store by, yet would not often talk 
 about, or would willingly have to justify in public : 
 often of an unreasoning and half-superstitious 
 character: known perhaps only to the nearest 
 associates, and with them matter rather for cheerful 
 toleration, than either actual approval, or the 
 attack of deliberate argument. 
 
 These terms are chiefly in use with Lady Lyt- 
 telton and Mrs. Gladstone, and most frequently 
 in reference to their respective husbands : as, 
 
12 
 
 of Mr. Gladstone when writing out a list of his 
 coats before a journey: of Lord Lyttelton when 
 folding up the well-read newspaper and flinging 
 it on the ottoman : of Mr. Gladstone when 
 agitated by a drop of spilt milk on the cloth : of 
 Lord Lyttelton when demurring to read in the 
 evening the book usually read in the morning, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 An old woman: almost always an old lady: 
 such an one, when short, faded, somewhat dow- 
 dily dressed and in sad-coloured garments, fragile- 
 looking, of inexpressive countenance, dim-eyed, 
 serious, with light hair. 
 
 Examples : ****** 
 
 An elegant classical similitude, with the obvious 
 meaning of a person dissolved in tears. The bold- 
 ness however and originality of the language is 
 vindicated, in that this word is not used in the 
 way of resemblance, but of actual personification ; 
 ' I was Niobe.' It is further to be remarked that 
 by the best authorities, as Mrs. Gladstone, this 
 word is always written with a small n. 
 
13 
 
 The most frequent subject for the application of 
 this term was one ******* ? a questionable person 
 of a lax and lachrymose character, once agent at 
 Hawarden, in the heart of the Glynne country, 
 
 A daring instance of the manner in which the 
 genius of this language deals with the proprieties 
 and analogies of the English language from which 
 it is taken; not merely neglecting, but entirely 
 reversing them. This word is well known in the 
 mother- tongue, in the sense of something above, 
 transcending, this world and human nature : in 
 the Glynne language it signifies something below 
 them. An English Poet would mean by an un- 
 earthly noise or sound, something heavenly or 
 ethereal : a Glynnese, something strange, not re- 
 ducible to the rules of experience, mysterious, but 
 apparently proceeding from some gnome or fiend : 
 or again something nasty and revolting. A very 
 exact application of this epithet, it is believed, is 
 one which is not uncommon, to the occurrence of 
 some new and odd, but disagreeable and offensive, 
 symptom in the course of a disease. 
 
14 
 
 An anomalous transmutation of a verb into a 
 noun. f My take ' signifies { my particular way, » 
 f the course that I consider best. 5 The use of 
 this term was once, by a most undeserved com- 
 pliment, attributed by Mrs. Gladstone to Lord 
 Ashley : who, she said, observed, ' my take is 
 to do this and that.' 
 
 2Do pou 2Dic I 
 
 These murderous metaphors are indicative of a 
 very harmless meaning. They simply denote 
 amusement. It is not denied that the original 
 derivation of them is from the common English 
 expression ' dying of laughter : ' but the use of 
 them is materially different, and has the Glyn- 
 nese stamp unmistakeably marked upon it. It 
 would be wholly alien from idiomatic propriety 
 that any expression referring to actual laughter 
 should be joined with these phrases : nor indeed 
 do they necessarily imply laughter at all. And 
 with the condensed brevity so characteristic of this 
 
15 
 
 dialect, they are commonly, and especially in the 
 mouth of Mrs. Gladstone who chiefly uses them, 
 said absolutely alone, and without any grammatical 
 garnish whatever. Differences here to be re- 
 marked are, that ' killing ' is generally used on the 
 receipt of facetious intelligence ; ' do you die ?' and 
 6 I died, ' in the communication of it : and the two 
 latter perhaps indicate a greater degree of mirth 
 than the former. Moreover they are all rather 
 used in letter-writing than in conversation. 
 
 The examples are all to be understood as from 
 Mrs. Gladstone's letters to Lady Lyttelton. 
 
 •So George was quite a dandy at your great 
 dinner : killing/ 
 
 ' I sat last night between Lord Lansdowne and 
 Lord Strangford, and talked Portuguese politics : 
 do you die ? ' 
 
 6 William this morning sang a tipsy song to 
 amuse little Mary : / died. ' The boldness of 
 assertion in this last phrase, when used by a per- 
 son in her usual health, has a curious effect. 
 
 €o &it upon* 
 €o ftz J*at upon* 
 
 These forcible expressions mean ' browbeating . 
 
16 
 
 overpowering in argument, or rather without ar- 
 gument, by mere noise and perseverance : generally 
 perhaps by numbers ; and properly imply persis- 
 tence during no short period, till the reluctant 
 consent is extorted. 
 
 They are evidently figurative, and from the 
 analogy of the oppressed and helpless condition of 
 a person who should be literally sat upon, espe- 
 cially by many people at once, and his total im- 
 potency, except by complete submission, to extri- 
 cate himself from his painful and degrading posi- 
 tion. 
 
 Examples : Lady Lyttelton ; ' Now, dear, I 
 won't be sat upon/ 
 
 Sir S. Glynne : * How did you find the Dowa- 
 ger ? ' c Rather sat upon by Caroline and Kitty to 
 go to London.' 
 
 A sort of chorus : c We all sat upon the old 
 maid to induce her to change the hour of dinner.' 
 
 A remarkable instance of the audacious meta- 
 morphoses which the language imposes on estab- 
 lished English words : by which one of the dryest 
 and most technical terms of the mercantile voca- 
 
17 
 
 bulary is referred to one of the lightest pastimes 
 of the leisure hour. It means a letter, imme- 
 diately after it has been read by the person to 
 whom it is addressed. This seems the rigid and 
 complete definition of the word : but perhaps, by 
 the more frequent usage, it may be said that it 
 specifically means such a letter sent through the 
 post, and again sent in that way to some third 
 person. And it is very particularly to be noted, as 
 showing that the word is removed as far as possi- 
 ble from its original purport, that it may be 
 doubted whether an example can be found of its 
 being applied to letters of business kept for busi- 
 ness purposes: it is almost always said of old 
 letters transmitted from one correspondent to 
 another for simple recreation. Thus 'Send me 
 all the vouchers you can. 5 ' Such a delightful 
 voucher of Harriet Brabazon from Sally James.' 
 
 dBroutfe* 
 
 The author fears there may be some shade of 
 
 difference between these words, which has escaped 
 
 his observation. They appear to mean rubbish : 
 
 what is worthless and may be used for vile pur- 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 poses. The latter word seems original Glynnese. 
 The word * offal ' is characteristically modified from 
 its English use, in that while in English it always 
 means the refuse part of something containing 
 also good parts, in the Glynn e language it has no 
 such limitation. 
 
 As far as the author is aware, the difference 
 between these words is only one of degree : ' offal* 
 meaning more utter rubbish than ( groutle/ 
 
 Example of offal : All Mrs. Gladstone's drawers. 
 
 of groutle : All Lady Lyttelton's 
 
 drawers. 
 
 This is a similar word to the two latter, but not 
 the same. They may all be properly used of the 
 contents of a drawer, and the appearance of a 
 drawer full of hydra would be nearly the same as 
 of one full of offal or groutle ; but the essential 
 difference is that the latter means necessarily 
 rubbish, whereas hydra often if not always means 
 what is indeed in disorder, but is mostly fit to be 
 kept, and deserves to be put in order. 
 
 The use of this term is perhaps peculiar to Sir 
 S. Glynne, who will often say, i I have been 
 several hours settling hydra' 
 
19 
 
 He affirms (but qu ?) that it is to be found in 
 Theresa Tidy : i Litter is a hydra' 
 
 The ground of the expression is of course that 
 letters, papers, &c., require constant sorting and 
 arranging, to prevent their daily increase and mul- 
 tiplication. 
 
 local 
 
 This is a satirical expression, used, chiefly by 
 Lady Lyttelton, always with reference to the 
 conversations or the communications of others: 
 and indicates a derisive criticism upon the said 
 communications or conversation, as limited too 
 exclusively to subjects of narrow and paltry inte- 
 rest, connected solely with the place where they 
 may have occurred. It is perhaps generally used 
 when the said place is somewhat remote from that 
 where the interlocutors are ; and it is another in- 
 stance of the exhaustive condensation in which the 
 language delights, inasmuch as this single word is 
 deemed equivalent to a complete sentence, and in 
 fact to imply all the answer or remark which 
 the communication deserved. 
 
 Example : Fragment of a dialogue between 
 Lord and Lady Lyttelton on the Pier at Brighton. 
 
20 
 
 Lord L. I dreamt last night that ****** 
 was to marry ***** ****# j an( j that 
 ************ ]^ a( j g £ twins. 
 
 Lady L. Local ! 
 
 a toag an 3Ebmiral 
 25 toag a 23oat£toaim 
 
 These expressions, which might be similarly 
 continued through the 24 letters, are taken from 
 the infantile book called the Child's Alphabet : in 
 which it will be remembered that for the assis- 
 tance of the imperfect memory of childhood, each 
 letter is illustrated by an original design of an 
 individual, of a class or profession of which the 
 first letter is the same as the letter in question. 
 And inasmuch as the said individuals are repre- 
 sented in the full appropriate costume of such 
 their class or profession, and inasmuch as, from the 
 homeliness of the execution, their countenances 
 and appearance are invariably of an inexpres- 
 sive and indistinctive kind, after the manner of 
 the waxen busts in the barbers' windows, these 
 phrases are used to describe real people, who in 
 the view of the speaker are mere generic specimens 
 
21 
 
 of the class to which they belong, neither rising 
 above it nor falling below it by any peculiar cha- 
 racteristic ; bare types, in which the individual and 
 original has been repressed and rubbed out by the 
 conventional and professional. It is to be observ- 
 ed as in a former instance, that not only have these 
 forms that pregnant brevity which is common in the 
 language, so that they are held to describe fully, or 
 at least so far as can be judged from outward ap- 
 pearance, the persons to whom they are applied, 
 but they are used for almost all the parts of speech, 
 and indeed in lieu of a whole sentence. 
 
 Examples : Mrs. Gladstone to Lady Lyttelton : 
 What sort of person is ******** ? 
 
 Lady L. Oh, C was a Clergyman. 
 
 Lady L. to Lord L. Who is that O was an 
 Officer in the corner ? 
 
 Lord L. That's ********* & c . 
 
 Sanguine* 
 
 The author is best acquainted with this word as 
 used by Lady Lyttelton : and the peculiarity of it 
 is that although the idea of it is not perhaps 
 essentially different from that which it imports in 
 English, it is never in Glynnese used as an epithet 
 
22 
 
 of a person, but as describing some attempt or 
 enterprise which none but an absurdly sanguine 
 person would undertake. 
 
 Example. ******* f Hagley setting off 
 to go up Milton's Hill on seeing the foxhounds 
 passing over the top of it. 
 
 fUiotic 
 
 This is a leading instance of the singular inver- 
 sion, or, according to the term used in the far 
 inferior Greek language, metonymy, in which this 
 language delights. It refers solely to messages or 
 instructions, spoken or written: and signifies not 
 that such instructions are imbecile and denoting 
 that he who utters them is an idiot, but that they 
 are such as would be addressed to one who, if not 
 an idiot, is of a slow and limited intellectual capa- 
 city, and therefore requires the most explicit and 
 minute clearness in whatever is communicated to 
 him upon which he is to act. So Lady Lyttelton 
 will adjure her husband to write an idiotic letter to 
 some servant : and Miss Lyttelton, a great admi- 
 rer and frequent speaker of this language, though 
 not one of its original authorities, will relate, in not 
 
23 
 
 undutiful mimicry, how the Dowager Lady L., 
 who is much given to this habit, will inculcate on 
 a royal fatman, with superfluous elaboration and 
 precision of detail, and with exemplary clear- 
 ness of voice, a commission in itself of a plain and 
 elementary character ; and always begin with an 
 emphatic pronunciation of the name of the fat- 
 man in question: as thus, e Sprague. Will you 
 go to the shop of Messrs. Civet and Scent, in Old 
 Bond Street ; not in New Bond Street but in 
 Old Bond Street ; and bring nine squares of yellow 
 soap, exactly nine, and bring them here and put 
 them on this table, just on the corner of this 
 table ; and then you will not be wanted again till 
 the usual time, as near as may be the usual time, 
 neither sooner nor later. 5 
 
 See this Glossary under the word ' unearthly', 
 to which this word has some analogy. It is a 
 favourite phrase with Mrs. Gladstone, and seems to 
 mean only one thing, namely e very absent : ' but 
 again it does not mean one habitually so, but for 
 the time, from some particular reason. 
 
 Example: Mrs. Gladstone in a letter from 
 
24 
 
 London : e I was not human last night talking to 
 Alick Wood, having the cares of William in his 
 new tights' : (see this Glossary, Art. ' Having the 
 cares/) 
 
 €a Sate. 
 
 This expression is known to the English lan- 
 guage, as a very strong description of the most 
 vehement expressions of delight or other emotion, 
 on some exciting subject. In the language before 
 us it is applied to simple expressions of pleasure, 
 by quiet people, on ordinary topics. Mrs. Glad- 
 stone will say : 
 
 ' I sat next to Georgiana Spencer, who raved 
 all through dinner of her visit to you.' 
 
 Or, * I was in a room fall of people who were all 
 raving of you and your baby.' 
 
 €66. 
 £66of3Life. 
 
 Compare above, the remarks on the word * un- 
 earthly ;' to which this phrase resembles in its being 
 both distorted in every way from its proper 
 meaning, and being dragged down from a lofty 
 region of thought to one wholly base and material. 
 
25 
 
 'The ebb of life/ the c ebbing waves of life/ are 
 among the most refined and pathetic metaphors of 
 the pensive poet and the melancholy moralist. So 
 much the more eagerly does the wicked Genius of 
 this language, as some grinning ape, clutch the 
 words, twist them out of their rightful meaning 
 and tone, and debase them among the lowest and 
 scrubbiest forms of expression. In the first place, 
 their usage with the definite article is quite pro- 
 scribed ; * the ebb of life,' is not genuine Glynnese ; 
 but i an ebb of life/ or, as commonly, ' an ebb ' 
 simply, (according to the abbreviatory habit of the 
 language) , imports anything, specially any occupa- 
 tion, that is low, loathsome, degrading, to a sad and 
 even ludicrous degree : the rationale of the phrase 
 no doubt being, that in its primary though by no 
 means its invariable application, it indicated that 
 the person so occupied had once been more 
 worthily engaged, and had come by a reverse or 
 6 ebb ' of fortune to his present function. 
 
 Example : Lady Lyttelton musing at the sight 
 of a shoveller-up of muck on the Stourbridge 
 road : ' What an ebb !' 
 
26 
 
 This terse elliptical form ought to have been 
 noted above in connexion with the phrase ' to 
 die:' being in fact only a somewhat less hyper- 
 bolical way of rendering the simple word ' to 
 laugh' ; though undoubtedly to burst with laughter 
 is not unlikely to lead to soon dying with the 
 same. The Rev. Henry Glynne, one of the less 
 frequently-quoted authorities in the language, 
 once observed very composedly : e Yesterday my 
 mother burst.' 
 
 It is said to be sometimes used similarly of 
 crying. 
 
 %utoimtt. 
 
 The form in which this is used is always that 
 of a given person being audience; often with an 
 epithet, as being great audience, immense au- 
 dience, &c. It is curious, and characteristic, that 
 unless the Author has failed in his observation, 
 this phrase is almost always used, not, as in 
 English commonly, of many persons, but of one. 
 But this circumstance is but one out of several, in 
 which it is distorted from the English model. 
 Thus, a person does not give audience, but is 
 
27 
 
 audience. Nor has it any particular reference 
 to the sense of hearing, according both to etymo- 
 logy and usage ; though it may include it. It is 
 a term of somewhat narrow application, and seems 
 susceptible of tolerably exact definition. It means 
 to be a patient, sympathizing, adulating, con- 
 descending, and probably half-sincere admirer of 
 something of which the owner is considerably 
 proud, and in praise of which he rather prosily 
 holds forth. Again, it is to be carefully observed 
 that the person is audience, not to the other person 
 who speaks, nor necessarily to any sound at all, 
 but simply to the thing admired. So the Author 
 heard Lady Lyttelton say e I went to * * * * * 
 and was audience to his poney :' not at all meaning 
 that the poney made any noises whatever, but 
 that she professed due admiration for him and 
 blandly listened to commendation of him on the 
 part of his reverend owner. 
 
 €1)0 W$z of ttje iLatin Superiatito* 
 
 Is to be noted among the forms of this lan- 
 guage. It is the adoption of the Latin adjective 
 superlative : and follows the rules of Latin in the 
 
28 
 
 single respect that it indicates an excess in the 
 thing referred to. In ail other points it sets rules 
 at defiance with characteristic audacity. It is 
 confined to the female authorities, Mrs. Gladstone 
 and Lady Lyttelton, as the least able to observe 
 any rules of Latin : it treats the adjective as an 
 indeclinable, knowing only one gender, the mas- 
 culine : and it derives an adjective superlative not 
 only from English adjectives, but from substan- 
 tives or any other part of speech. It is com- 
 monly used in disparagement, or acknowledgment 
 of a fault : thus, ' it was dullissimus last night :' ' I 
 know I shall be flatissimus then ;' and lastly Mrs. 
 Gladstone, always preeminent in the boldest in- 
 roads on the established rules of language, once 
 said •' I was niobissimus ;' perhaps an instance 
 that in so short a space cannot be surpassed, of 
 the violation of grammatical laws. 
 
 3f toulb €ljroto mp Sftoe at §im. 
 
 An expression denoting a state of great irrita- 
 tion in the presence of an eminent bore. It is 
 supposed to be an action that would naturally follow 
 from that state of mind. It is confined to ladies, 
 
29 
 
 from reason of costume too obvious to need ex- 
 planation : and is supposed indeed to have been 
 often actually practised by * * * * 
 
 <&uitt an 4Mb Sfjoe* 
 
 This is a personal attribute, which seems not 
 exactly complimentary nor yet the reverse : in- 
 dicating that such an one may be called in as a 
 familiar, long-known, and comfortable companion, 
 needing but small reciprocal attention, and some- 
 what below the person with whom he (or she) is 
 to be, in station and in intellect. The Author has 
 heard ****** called an old shoe : 
 on which he will venture to remark that it must 
 have been a shoe of peculiar Welsh make, and 
 provided with a tongue such as is found in some 
 kinds of half-boots. 
 
 Sin tt>e €t)air* 
 
 An ingenious metaphor, by which all the qua- 
 lities of mankind, and all thet ransactions of life, 
 are resolved into an imaginary public meeting, 
 presided over by the person to whom the figure 
 
30 
 
 in question is applied: it being thus signified 
 that he is the best, or rather the first, whether for 
 praise or blame, and deserves to be at the head 
 of all others, in some particular respect. For it 
 always applies to some one thing, and the gram- 
 matical structure is thus i to be in the chair for 
 this and that. 5 
 
 Examples : Miss Crump is in the chair for 
 spillikins. 
 
 Uncle George always was in the chair for 
 keeping children off the rug. 
 
 Lucy is in the chair for dabbling in the dirt. 
 
 A jovial continuation of the metaphor just 
 described : any good news being imagined as com- 
 municated to the public meeting alluded to, and 
 by them, according to British usage, received 
 with the triple cheer now before us. Thus, f three 
 cheers for the arrival of the monkey ! ' : or, (fre- 
 quently, and according to previous examples) as 
 a laconic and comprehensive reply. Lord L. ' I 
 have got the most delightful plan of hitching up 
 one's coat-tails in riding/ Lady L. ' Three cheers ! ' 
 
31 
 
 €o €attgle one'g €ongue. 
 
 This seems an attempt at a physical and scien- 
 tific explanation of the blunders in pronunciation, 
 transposition of letters and syllables, &c. which 
 people often make, as ' showder and pot,' for 
 1 powder and shot/ ' spit in that face/ for ' fit in 
 that space/ 'grattered and flattified 5 instead of 
 e flattered and gratified/ &c. : all which a Glynnese 
 would call i tangling the tongue/ as if arising from 
 actual embarrassment of that organ. 
 
 i©tjo's* i©J)o an* m>W$ &W- 
 
 A curious and difficult idiom, the use of which 
 is confined to those versed in the higher forms 
 of the language, and chiefly to Mrs. Gladstone. 
 On a quondam lover talking to her, when sur- 
 rounded by his children and in a scene of for- 
 mer ineffectual declarations to herself, she would 
 say c I thought who's who and what's what? 5 
 Again if any one in conversation with her enters 
 upon any unsuitable or improper subject, and 
 treats it in a still more offensive manner, the suf- 
 ficient criticism will be 6i Really, I mean, who's 
 who and what's what?' The difficulty of 
 
32 
 
 tracing the etymology of this expression will have 
 been perceived : but the Author apprehends it to 
 be a corruption of such phrases as ( Who are 
 you, to talk in this way ? ' * Who can this be ? ' 
 or, as in the first-named case, it may proceed 
 from such a strong sense of the change that has 
 occurred in the person in question as causes a 
 general bewilderment of faculties, and universal 
 suspicion of the identity of men and things. 
 
 ULifte a ^Brag^opper'g Wlntlt. 
 
 The Author feels no doubt of the meaning and 
 of the derivation of this form. It is held to 
 describe an awkward, involved, hardly seemly 
 posture of sitting : and is much delighted in by 
 Lady Lyttelton in teaching the lesser morals to 
 her children : as thus, i Now, Meriel, why do you 
 sit there like a grasshopper's uncle?' It is un- 
 questionably a figure taken from the presumed 
 likeness of such postures to that of a grasshopper : 
 but the Author must acknowledge his inability to 
 trace the principle on which, not the given grass- 
 hopper himself, but one of his relations, and still 
 more the particular relation above-named, is made 
 the object of comparison. 
 
33 
 
 Some apology is due for the insertion of this 
 filthy metaphor : but it is too well-established in 
 the language to be omitted. Peculiarly familiar 
 is it to Lady Lyttelton, whose appearance of su- 
 perior feminineness is wholly belied in this, if not 
 in other instances. It means anything that is 
 bad: useless when tried: and is applied chiefly 
 to small articles of domestic use, and, according to 
 idiomatic rule, to such things as are not susceptible 
 of rottenness, and have no analogy with intestines. 
 Bad sealing-wax, or a pencil that will not mark, 
 would be called ' rotgut ' : and Lady L. will say 
 with much severity, ' * * * * * * made 
 me a bonnet that turned out entirely rotgut.' 
 
 In these expressions the heart is regarded only 
 as the seat of courage or spirit, never as that of 
 the softer feelings. c Such a bad heart' in English 
 means a want of kindness or natural affection : 
 in Glynnese always a want of enterprise or con- 
 fidence : the opposite of * Sanguine/ on which see 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 this Glossary above. It is to be remarked that 
 this idiom is confined to the substantive c heart :* 
 a bad hearted person is not Glynnese in the above 
 sense. 
 
 2Satf)ing tfttl 
 
 A significant description of the state of mind 
 previous to some rather formidable undertaking, 
 resembling that of a child about to fall into the 
 arms of the bathing-woman. A nervous man about 
 to make a speech, has a ' bathing-feel : ' going 
 to the dentist, you have a ( bathing-feel : ' and Mr. 
 Gladstone, so long ago as 1841, had so far advanced 
 in the language that on being asked how he felt 
 on becoming Vice President of the Board of Trade, 
 he was able to reply, ' Bathing-feel.' The student 
 will note that the language disdains to use the 
 proper substantive ' feeling/ and replaces it by an 
 arbitrary application of the verb ( feel/ 
 
 €f>an OTptf), 
 
 Perhaps the strongest instance of ellipsis to be 
 found in this highly elliptical language. Its use 
 is confined to Lady Lyttelton, and is by her 
 meant to indicate an extreme opinion of some sort 
 
35 
 
 or other^ about something she has just said : but 
 all the particulars of that opinion are left to con- 
 jecture, together with the grammatical comple- 
 ment of the phrase. As thus, e I have been half 
 an hour teaching Albert to write : than which/ 
 It is evident that to assimilate this to any re- 
 cognized form of expression, some no less enor- 
 mous' ellipse must be imagined than this : ' than 
 which (nothing more bothering and tedious can 
 easily be undertaken.') 
 
 It is said in a tone of despairing good-humour, 
 and with a sort of combined smile, sigh, and re- 
 signed shake of the head. 
 
 €|)e Wl$t, antr tfje Correlative $on^ge, of 
 tfje particle a& 
 
 are also to be specified among the grammatical 
 freaks of the above-named lady : but they are con- 
 fined to her epistolary efforts. It is simply that 
 while she will always write, ; Will you be so kind to 
 let me have nine yards of lace,' &c. she will carefully 
 compensate for this anomalous omission by the 
 no less irregular insertion, f Lady L. begs Mr. 
 Wigblock to have the goodness as to send her six 
 small combs, 5 &c. 
 
36 
 
 €o Ztll it to a $a£gmff pgmatt. 
 
 The exact and complete derivation of this idiom 
 seems very difficult to discover, though its general 
 bearing, after some years' examination, may at 
 least modestly be suggested by the present writer. 
 It seems a rural image, perhaps of some idle and 
 gossipy person sitting in mild weather at the 
 open window of a small road-side house. Certain 
 pigs come by, laboriously driven, as in the 4 Bubbles 
 from the Brunnens, 5 by some Schwein-General, 
 probably Irish, with the friendly and sociable 
 countenance so frequent among that nation. The 
 gossipy person is charged with some tale or 
 some news, which he is moved to impart to the 
 said pigleader, and to enter into conversation with 
 him thereupon. And the case supposed is, that 
 he will have been warned by his informant, e Oh 
 you may talk about it: but don't tell it to any 
 passing pigman.' And so in this, and in many 
 similar ways it appears to mean any casually-met 
 person — the first person that may come by and 
 probably therefore of a low and scrubby descrip- 
 tion. The pleasure of the alliteration probably 
 influenced the choice of the word. But the 
 
37 
 
 Author cannot but class this phrase among the 
 more recondite of the dialect, and commits it not 
 without anxiety to the better labours of future 
 commentators. 
 
 This means pert: over-forward: unpleasantly 
 precocious: wanting in proper reserve on a sub- 
 ject: too confident and self possessed. In the 
 word 6 forward/ it is conceived, is indicated the 
 fundamental analogy of this singular term. We 
 are to imagine a visitor at a very early hour of 
 the morning, who to his surprise finds the person 
 whom he visits ' already up and dressed :' from 
 which the idea is generalized as above stated, 
 to any unexpected and premature developement. 
 But the tiro will carefully note, that though the 
 root of the phrase thus found in common life, is 
 clearly one which, if anything, should imply praise 
 and not blame, the strong idiosyncracy of the 
 language has not failed to vindicate itself, in that 
 its Glynnese application is invariably one of blame 
 and not praise. Thus, if a young gentleman from 
 college should hold forth to Mr. Gladstone on the 
 aspect of Church affairs, and how he ought to 
 
38 
 
 vote about them, Mrs. Gladstone would say : ( Very 
 up and dressed !' And a feeble sciolist in this 
 language, the Hon. and Rev. William Lyttelton, 
 applied this epithet, injuriously and to his own 
 immediate snubbing by every one present, to a 
 harmless letter written by a pupil at the Training 
 School : / am sorry to say, rather up and dressed. 
 
 The Author has heard this word used, but only 
 by Lady Lyttelton, in a very mysterious way, 
 which he can hardly explain. She uses it of her 
 children, and, to difference it still more from 
 English, of both sexes; and as far as he can tell 
 it only means * little fellow, or little thing :' cer- 
 tainly it has no connexion with the English word. 
 He last heard it, characteristically, of the one 
 who is perhaps the most removed from dandyism, 
 the small person called Neville: whom she de- 
 scribed as ( rather a bilious dandy at all times.' 
 
 ftieto, ftietoins* 
 
 This is the French vu, in the sense ' consider- 
 ing/ c taking into account ' : (as ' vu que cela est 
 ainsi'); wholly Anglified both in pronunciation, 
 
39 
 
 grammar, orthography, and in the second or par- 
 ticiple form ' viewing : ' but the sense is just the 
 same. It is frequent in the letters of Mrs. Glad- 
 stone : and the Author lately heard that lady say 
 6 Viewing Nora, I think Lady Lyttelton had as 
 well stay at the Rectory :' as if that young lady 
 was to be calmly surveyed, or contemplated, by 
 her grandmamma. 
 
 A pleasant colloquialism, answering nearly to 
 the English phrase { in full fling/ or the like. 
 It is used of any pursuit in which the individual 
 referred to is earnestly and hopefully engaged. 
 
 It is placed in close juxtaposition with the 
 word denoting the said pursuit, and the two 
 together, as might be conjectured, are used in 
 the most violently abridged and anti-grammatical 
 manner. 
 
 Example : Mrs. Gladstone to her sister : * I 
 went to the Palace to see Lady Lyttelton. Found 
 her high-gee accounts? 
 
40 
 
 antic. 
 
 This word, known to the English language chiefly 
 in the plural, is singular in its Glynnese use: 
 and whereas in English it always denotes some 
 action, in Glynnese it is also applied to sundry 
 visible objects. In the elucidation of this term, 
 the Author has had the rare good fortune of aid 
 from the fountain-head. He has been favoured 
 with an authentic definition of it by one of the 
 great primary authorities of the language, the 
 Lady Lyttelton. It was as follows : c Any small 
 thing or object which, from whatever reason, the 
 speaker will not or cannot describe in precise 
 terms/ Just before giving this definition, the 
 lady in question had applied the word in this 
 manner : e I like a cottage- roof without any little 
 antic;' which was construed to mean some frip- 
 pery wood-work decoration round the eaves. 
 
 A very characteristic use of this word would be, 
 as the substantive joined with the adjective un- 
 earthly in the phrase given at the end of the article 
 hereinbefore contained on the latter word, to which 
 the patient reader is referred. So on finding 
 some nasty and odd little pimple on his toe, or 
 
41 
 
 inexplicable little sound in his stomach, the 
 Glynnese scholar should say to his doctor, • what's 
 that unearthly little antic ? ' 
 
 Sfoponti* 
 
 This terra should be analyzed in conjunction 
 with ' Than which 5 (see above :) and may be said 
 to be the more ordinary Glynnese expression 
 for the sentiment which Lady Lyttelton alone 
 renders by the latter phrase. It is a more simple 
 form of ellipse, being merely that of i belief/ 
 c description,' or some such word. Mrs. Glad- 
 stone might say ' Really teaching Stephy is 
 beyond: 5 and if the Author is not mistaken, he 
 has once or twice heard or even seen written such 
 an astonishing combination as this ' Went to 
 * * * # * * dmrj er: beyond stupidissimus ; 
 which is not alleged as a perfectly correct use of 
 the word, but rather as an indication of its gram- 
 matical origin. 
 
 It may deserve to be noted as an early promise 
 of eminence in this branch of linguistic science, 
 That the Hon. Geo. Wm. Spencer Lyttelton, 
 once availed himself of the use which he had just 
 observed to be made of this word by his mother, 
 
42 
 
 to apply it to a book on which he entertained strong 
 and decided opinions : e This book is beyond : ' 
 but whether that gentleman did so with a full 
 theoretical appreciation of its force, may perhaps 
 be doubted. 
 
 25reaft* 
 
 The etymology of this elegant term is sufficiently 
 clear. It indicates any event or circumstance tha^ 
 breaks or tends to break the monotony of exis- 
 tence. It is certain that its proper and most 
 frequent use is of something of this sort which is 
 agreeable and rousing : yet is this not invariably 
 so. 
 
 Lady Lyttelton will considerately say, ' I think 
 Miss Brown rather wants a break :' e Miss Crump 
 ought to have a break' : and such would be a short 
 excursion, or visit from an amiable friend. 
 
 Again, Miss Lyttelton, before alluded to as a 
 sedulous cultivator of this language, would call the 
 appearance of a new baby born to one of her 
 numerous friends, e an immense break.' 
 
 Lady Lyttelton bringing her husband a bit of 
 buttered toast would say ' Here, dear, Pve brought 
 you a nice little break.' 
 
43 
 
 Again, in the secondary sense above noted, it 
 would be imputed to a person fond of morbid ex- 
 citement, that he would call the outburst of an 
 European war, e Such a break !' or a cheerful person 
 who makes the best of things, would be held 
 to consider his house being burnt down and having 
 to build a new one, { rather a break. ' 
 
 With this word may be suitably noticed what 
 was omitted in its proper place along with the use 
 of the Latin superlative, 
 
 tfje W$t of tfje Single Statin Comparative 
 ' a?ajor : ' 
 
 as break major, meaning merely a great or notable 
 break. It seems to be remotely derived from the 
 designations of boys in an Eton school list : or 
 possibly from the name of the constellation Ursa 
 Major, 
 
 fitting lifte a $em 
 
 This also is rather out of its place, and ought to 
 have been joined with the phrases sitting cross- 
 legged and sitting tight (q. v.) : from the use 
 
44 
 
 indeed of one of which, or some modification of 
 the two, it is not easy to distinguish it. We 
 apprehend that in Glynnese this word is quite 
 evacuated of its peculiar significance, as naturally 
 indicating a sort of incubation with a view to the 
 production of something : and properly means 
 merely long and unmoved sitting. Mrs Gladstone 
 would say, ' You are sure to find William sitting 
 like a hen up stairs ; 9 and Lady Lyttelton to her 
 husband in severe but jocose rebuke : ' Now, old 
 thing, how long do you mean to sit like a hen in 
 that stinkhole room of yours?' 
 
 €toopemtp, 
 
 A strange expression, of which the Author is 
 somewhat at a loss to conjecture the origin. It is 
 mainly applied to instances of conduct, as, 'a 
 twopenny thing to do 9 : and so ' a twopenny sort 
 of person ' means one who is addicted to such con- 
 duct. It means what is lowering : bad style : in- 
 consistent with due self-respect : verging on the 
 immodest and immoral : specially perhaps applied 
 to slightly indecorous conduct in ladies. As to 
 the etymology, we can only conjecture that it 
 either is to be sought in a loose analogy with the 
 
45 
 
 idea of cheapness as suggestive of lowness and 
 vulgarity, (compare the Gr. eureX^?, and the 
 various meanings of the Lat. vilis in the original 
 and the derivative languages :) or that the type of 
 the class indicated is the sort of person who would 
 buy twopenny things, be seen at twopenny shows, 
 &c. 
 
 A young married lady waltzing, would unques- 
 tionably be condemned as ' twopenny' by the 
 rigid decorum of the great Glynnese sisters ; 
 and in former days, before the Dowager Lady 
 Lyttelton had attained even the slight insight 
 into this language which she has since reached, 
 her daughter-in-law would appeal to her mature 
 judgment in such a question as this : ' Lady Lyt- 
 telton, is not it twopenny to go alone in a railway 
 carriage ' ? to the unfeigned but uncomplaining be- 
 wilderment, and hopeless incapacity to reply, of 
 the venerable Arch-Governess. 
 
 It may be noted here, as applicable to this 
 and to a great many of these phrases, that their 
 use is perpetually and powerfully enforced, espe- 
 cially by Mrs. Gladstone and the Rev, H. Glynne, 
 by a strong wink of one eye. 
 
46 
 
 A common and popular expression among the 
 Glynnese, and apparently a sporting or military 
 metaphor, as of a gun flashing in the pan : and so 
 used to signify any sham appearance of splendour, 
 power, or the like, when the substance is wanting. 
 Lady Glynne applied it to her daughter's marriage 
 with Lord Lyttelton, alluding to the combination, 
 in that nobleman's circumstances, of respectable 
 rank with comparative poverty: ' quite a false 
 flash/ 
 
 Obviously another military metaphor, derived 
 from musketry-practice, or perhaps from the 
 pleasant recollection of a review. But it is ap- 
 plied by the professors with extraordinary latitude, 
 so that it almost seems that any action in life may 
 be called firing-away. The critics however are 
 unanimous in holding, that its most proper sense is 
 that of writing a letter. So Sir S. Glynne will say 
 * I shall sit down and fire-away a cocked-hat note' 
 (see below) at ****** 
 
47 
 
 Also of making a speech : e I shall go and hear 
 William fire-away to night/ (Mrs. Gladstone.) 
 
 The tenth-rate scholar above-mentioned, the 
 Rev. Mr. Lyttelton, takes special delight in the 
 investigation of this idiom. 
 
 €o £f)oto &nc'$ iSittg* 
 
 A metaphor of a different, namely a matrimonial 
 kind. The ground-idea of it is that of a rather 
 vulgar and silly bride, (compare Mrs. Major Wad- 
 dell in The Inheritance) who in order to show to 
 the general observer her promotion to the order 
 of married ladies, loses no opportunity of obtruding 
 her wedding-ring in a prominently visible position. 
 Hence with admirable audacity it is applied to any 
 act of self satisfaction or vanity, on the part of any 
 one of any age or sex. 
 
 Examples : Lady Lyttelton with great compla- 
 cency to her husband, i Who shows his ring about 
 his eldest son's Latin ? ' 
 
 Mrs. Gladstone in a letter from London : * Saw 
 * * * * * . showing her ring about office.' 
 
 The Author fears he must commend it to the 
 care of acuter philologers to detect and analyze the 
 
48 
 
 exact difference between this phrase and the cog- 
 nate one of 
 
 €afeing ftanft upon a €f>ing. 
 
 That the difference is but slight he feels warranted 
 in asserting ; that it is null he does not venture to 
 pronounce. 
 
 The rationale of the latter expression is plainly 
 that the self satisfied person to whom it is applied, 
 is supposed to have an imaginary stock of promo- 
 tions or dignities at command, to one of w T hich 
 he elevates himself as a reward or consequence of 
 some action : and so means to be proud of, to 
 plume oneself about, a thing. It is suitably joined 
 with various epithets : as thus, ( I took immense 
 rank upon your letter being puffed in the Times, 5 
 (Lady Lyttelton to Lord L.) 
 
 2$attem 
 
 The Author has heard the use of this expression 
 bravely upheld by Lady Lyttelton, to whom it is 
 chiefly familiar, as one known to the English lan- 
 guage. He apprehends however that in English 
 it has but these meanings : the eating of car- 
 
49 
 
 rion by birds of prey ( to batten down the hatches/ 
 a naval phrase meaning to shut up closely, and e to 
 make, or to grow, fat/ The incredulous reader 
 shall judge of the chance of success in the above 
 attempt, when he is told that in Glynnese it is 
 applied to the eyes : e to batten with the eyes ; ' 
 and means to blink or wink or make faces with 
 them, like a child going to cry. The Author has 
 often heard it so used by Lady Lyttelton of her 
 son called the Doctor. 
 
 Other examples, * * * * * 
 
 Pntoetu 
 
 This word is applied to children, and means a 
 child brought up too delicately, with too little 
 roughing : and so one not ready enough for hard 
 games or the like. Lady Lyttelton formerly ex- 
 pressed a fear that her eldest daughter might be 
 1 a pintoed child :' and the Author has reason to 
 suspect that * * * * * is so designated. 
 
 This word is perhaps confined to little girls. 
 
 Its etymology is still disputed among the learned. 
 We do not see how any light is thrown upon it 
 either by a reference to the Italian pinto, or to 
 
 E 
 

 
 50 
 
 any such idea as that the child so described can 
 have pins instead of toes. 
 
 €o fiun ILifte a iLampIigftfer* 
 
 A phrase of cockney origin, and derived from an 
 attentive observation of the habits of London 
 lamplighters. It means simply to run as fast as 
 possible : and it is confidently said by Mrs. Glad- 
 stone and her sister that those ladder-and-light- 
 bearing persons do run quicker than almost any 
 one else, in their short and numerous transits 
 from gas to gas. The Author must guard himself 
 against being supposed to acquiesce in this view. 
 Whether indeed it is a serious one may be doubted 
 from the fact that the phrase seems generally used 
 facetiously, and of persons hardly capable of run- 
 ning at all : as ' I saw ***** running like a 
 lamplighter to drive out the pigs : ' or c Winny set 
 set off like a lamplighter to see the hounds : 
 sanguine.' 
 
 The articulation of French is not the strong 
 point of the Glynnese ladies. An instance of this 
 
51 
 
 is that the author had undoubtingly set down this 
 word for explanation, spelt cruer, which he has 
 always heard it pronounced : and it was only lately 
 that he had the advantage of hearing it authenti- 
 cally explained, as being neither more nor less than 
 the above French word. The origin of the term 
 was certainly much elucidated by this explanation. 
 For the word means cross, out of humour : and 
 according to the fearless confusion of substantives 
 and adjectives which the language delights in, it 
 is the French substantive meaning a cross, taken 
 to mean the English adjective cross. It may pro- 
 bably have been originally assumed as a hierogly- 
 phic disguise of the meaning in a letter, guarding 
 against its falling into some one's hands, thus, e The 
 old gentleman was rather X to day : 3 and Mrs. 
 Gladstone will say with a nod and a wink, 6 Eu pu 
 crua you know. 3 
 
 % €ocfeet^t)at $ott or later* 
 
 This means a formal, ceremonious, or pompous 
 note or letter, carefully written, and addressed to 
 some one who is a superior, or at least is to be 
 treated with deference and respect. See above, 
 Art. < Fire-away. 5 
 
52 
 
 The first derivation that presents itself to the 
 inquirer, that of a note folded in the shape of a 
 cocked-hat, is obviously untenable, inasmuch as 
 such a note is commonly more than usually familiar. 
 More extended research may perhaps suggest that 
 it is a kind of reminiscence of last century, with its 
 more ceremonious customs and costume : or per- 
 haps an aristocratic allusion to the Minuet de la 
 Cour. Mrs. Gladstone will say, with the compla- 
 cent retrospect of a good conscience, e I wrote 
 such a cocked-hat note to ***** declining 
 her dinner.' 
 
 Co ^sfot tf)e <£atc£ of a €pts or $er£otu 
 
 Frequently, in this language, the smaller the 
 apparent difference between an expression and 
 the similar English one, the greater is the real 
 diversity of sense. The phrase before us is totally 
 different in meaning from i having the care, or 
 charge, of anything. Indeed it may be said that he 
 who has the care of a thing, cannot properly have 
 the cares of it, at least in the most idiomatic 
 sense, which is, to be anxious and uneasy about 
 something which one is much interested in, and 
 which one fears may go wrong, but which is more 
 
53 
 
 or less beyond one's control at the time. See an 
 instance above, under the article ' Not human. 5 A 
 hen which has hatched ducklings, has the cares of 
 them when she sees them dabbling in the water, 
 and one of the sisters will say ****** 
 
 A word used in describing some of the lighter 
 evils and vexations of the world, such as are 
 found in the Miseries of Human Life. It means 
 an unexpected bore or evil ; one suddenly disco- 
 vered ; or the recollection of it after it had been 
 forgotten: and describes the first or instantaneous 
 effect thereof, being likened to a sudden thump on 
 the elbow or the like. An old unpaid bill coming 
 to light, after it had long been thought to have 
 been paid and was forgotten, is a genuine instance 
 of a blow : and the fastidious palate of Lady 
 Lyttelton, on finding a promising bit of mutton to 
 be decidedly magpie (see above), would prompt the 
 pathetic exclamation ' What a blow ! ' 
 
 A word quite unconnected with the foregoing in 
 
54 
 
 its sense, which has some sort of distant affinity 
 with that of ' twopenny/ which the reader may 
 refer to. It means some action which, if not over- 
 bold, at least requires considerable assurance and 
 self-possession in the person who does it. It 
 always means something done in public. Perhaps 
 it is chiefly applied to ladies : and the only possi- 
 ble etymology which the present commentator can 
 venture to conjecture, is that it is drawn from the 
 fearless walk of a lady in a high wind, with all 
 the inconvenient results of that atmospheric fact. 
 To walk up a long room lined with company, to a 
 pompous reception at the end of it, is decidedly 
 blowing : and the Rev. Henry Glynne, who has a 
 marked aversion to any performance of this kind, 
 would whisper with a wink to his sister that he 
 would avoid having to return thanks for the toast 
 of ' The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese,' as 
 e much too blowing.' 
 
 Circumstance* 
 
 A standing expression with the Dean of Wind- 
 sor ; of which the general bearing may be tolerably 
 conveyed by simply supposing an ellipse of the 
 epithet ( pleasant/ It would not be applied to any 
 
55 
 
 great and overpowering happiness, but is con- 
 stantly used of the slight refreshments and inci- 
 dental comforts of the journey of life. But the 
 anomaly of the language is carefully preserved, in 
 that while in English a circumstance means a 
 definite event if it means an event at all, in 
 Glynnese it always means a continuing state of 
 things. So the Dean would say, * It was a great 
 circumstance for Charlotte to have her sister to 
 troll with all the time : * and upon Lady Lyttel- 
 ton's sending her wicked daughter Winny to his 
 house at St. Leonard's, the patient great-uncle 
 amiably assured her that it would be ' quite a cir- 
 cumstance.' 
 
 €o €t\\ toitfj a &macfc» 
 
 A queer idiom, both as to what it means and 
 what it obviously would be supposed to mean but 
 does not. It is applied to one who communicates 
 something with much self-satisfaction and positive- 
 ness, indicated in the tone and accent with which 
 it is said : from which alone, as it seems, can a 
 rude and questionable sort of etymology for the 
 phrase be conjectured. But it also specifically if 
 
56 
 
 not invariably signifies that the communication 
 thus made is not very welcome to the hearer, and 
 accordingly that the feeling of self-satisfaction above 
 noted has a tinge of malice mixed up with it. 
 Mrs. Gladstone might say, ****** 
 and Lady Lyttelton would complain ' Why should 
 * * * * come and tell me with a smack that * * * * 
 would go away unless they had their wages rose ? ' 
 
 % Wiitty : 
 
 means half-dressed, en dishabille : for it is used in 
 an adjective manner, like the term Niobe, which 
 see. It is never ' I was like a witch/ but c I was 
 a witch' and similarly. So Mrs. Gladstone in a 
 letter from Naples, * Seymour Neville came up 
 and found me a witch.' 
 
 Why that poetical and extinct species of the 
 human race should be selected in this instance, 
 rather than nymphs, dryads, goddesses, or many 
 others, is a point which the Author cannot throw 
 light upon. Indeed he would timidly record a 
 suggestion that the idea is rather less applicable 
 to witches than to those fabulous individuals : for 
 witches as represented in Shakspeare, Walter 
 Scott, &c. appear as queerly indeed, but still very 
 completely dressed. 
 
 
57 
 
 <*Saunt 
 
 These words are put together as being decidedly 
 similar, if not cognate. They are not however 
 synonymous, but the Author fears that they are 
 distinguishable by more minute differences than 
 his present amount of knowledge will enable him 
 accurately to specify. 
 
 The word c gaunt' preserves some distant 
 affinity to its English meaning : not so the word 
 < blue/ 
 
 Gaunt means lugubrious; producing melancholy 
 thoughts : requiring some courage and coolness 
 to face or to endure for long. In English, it is 
 believed, it is used solely of the appearance of 
 persons, as of Dominie Sampson. Accordingly 
 such is not its Glynnese use. It is used spe- 
 cifically of places, or of things to be done. It 
 would be matter of pathetic complaint to Lady 
 Lyttelton or Mrs. Gladstone ' to be left alone in 
 that gaunt room :' and one of the first essays of 
 Mr. Gladstone in this language was, that in walking 
 in the twilight along the road between Saltney 
 and Broughton Church, he said that in fancy the 
 word ' gaunt ' was continually sounding in his ears. 
 
58 
 
 Blue seems associated more directly with ideas 
 of grief, or of death. A haunted room, or to sit 
 in one, would be blue : possibly the derivation of 
 the phrase may be from the idea of some such 
 room, with heavy blue tapestry or the like. The 
 conversation of ****** i s a pt to 
 be in this sense blue .•******** 
 
 (It has been suggested that the derivation may 
 be from ' lights burning blue/) 
 
 Cfje €ermhtation in Urnfr 
 
 A rude and inartificial idiom, for which the 
 authority is the Dean of Windsor. The affix urns 
 is tagged on to some substantive or adjective, and 
 the ugly compound is then dragged into some 
 sort of meaning by the aid of the auxiliary verb 
 to have, and the definite article the. Thus, to 
 have the churchums (a phrase signally and almost 
 exclusively applicable to Sir S. Glynne) means 
 to be much occupied in, and specially to devote 
 much of one's conversation to, the subject of 
 churches. To have the deadums would be simi- 
 larly applied to an undertaker, or to any one 
 who happens to have been much concerned about 
 such scenes, and is inclined to talk about them. 
 
59 
 
 In emphatic ellipse the Dean would say, when 
 asked about such an one ' Deadums, my dear, 
 deadums/ 
 
 It is perhaps an attempted analogy from some 
 illnesses, or bodily affections, as to have the measles, 
 c the fidgets/ &c. 
 
 €o iLet SDoton <©ne '£ 3Ltg. 
 
 The elucidation of this term alone would have 
 been stimulus sufficient to the writer, to gird 
 himself to the arduous task in which for many 
 months he has been engaged. For he holds it 
 for certain that no conceivable amount of inge- 
 nuity or research on the part of future generations 
 would ever have enabled them to arrive at the 
 remotest conjecture of its meaning, or, had a tra- 
 dition of its meaning survived, to make out what 
 its origin could have been. He is able, from 
 the best authority, to record that that origin is 
 the idea of a wounded bird. It is held by the 
 Glynnese that a bird in that state flies with one 
 of its legs dangling: from whence follows this 
 masterly generalization, that to let down one's leg 
 means to moan or make the worst of oneself in 
 illness: to be sorry for oneself: to coddle as a 
 
60 
 
 valetudinarian : to ask for sympathy. * * * * 
 is an example of a chronic letting down of the 
 leg: and on receiving a tolerably cheerful letter 
 from ****** w ho is rather given 
 that way, Lady Lyttelton said ' She only tries to 
 let down her leg in the middle of the letter once.' 
 
 €o 25enum& 
 
 is a word transplanted from among transitive 
 verbs to neuter ones : and means simply the cus- 
 tomary time of retirement from society in the 
 early days of mourning, as, e to sit benumbing.' 
 
 To suggest any exact etymology for this queer 
 expression is evidently impossible : but possibly 
 the origin of it is the idea of torpor and stillness, 
 and impassibility to outward things, such as that 
 of a dormouse in winter, which in a measure seems 
 to be appropriate to the time in question. 
 
 %bm t&e Motto* 
 <©toet tlje 0900m 
 
 These again are kindred but not identical ex- 
 pressions. Above the world means in a position 
 of security and advantage: out of the reach of 
 
61 
 
 adverse circumstances : with an unfailing and in- 
 dependent reserve at hand, &c. 
 
 A person well out of debt and living within his 
 income, is above the world: and in those rare 
 intervals of time when Lord and Lady Lyttelton 
 have carriage horses, that lady feels i so above 
 the world/ 
 
 Over the moon means in prodigiously high 
 spirits, boisterous. It is generally, but perhaps 
 not always, used in slight condemnation, as in- 
 dicating excess ; and the comparison seems taken 
 from the classical story of Pegasus, or the legen- 
 dary one of the cow that jumped over the moon : 
 A horse over-fresh from want of exercise, is over 
 the moon-, ' the dun poney was over the moon, 
 and went off with a wonderful kick ;' and Lady 
 Lyttelton will moderate exuberance of spirits in 
 her children thus, ( Now, Lucy, why you are quite 
 over the moon to-day. 5 
 
 €o Cubirte, ox to €\xtMt Cogetfjer* 
 
 A phrase, it is believed, restricted in its proper 
 application to the less noble sex : specially perhaps 
 to young ladies and servants. It means to asso- 
 ciate constantly together : to select one another 
 
out of many, as particular friends. As applied to 
 servants, it seems to imply some gentle censure, 
 as if the friendship in question involved some 
 unreasonable estrangement from other persons, or 
 was for the purpose of domestic gossip. 
 
 Miss Lyttelton is held to cuddle with Miss 
 Mackenzie, with Mrs. Percy, with most of the 
 Nevilles, most of the Carews, most of the Her- 
 berts, &c. &c. &c. &c. : and, among maids, 
 ********* 
 
 25ucftt£{j, 
 
 A word chiefly explicable by examples. That 
 a dandy should be called a buck is indeed not 
 unknown to colloquial English: but a buckish 
 person in Glynnese is not necessarily, perhaps 
 hardly ever is at all, a dandy. It refers to man- 
 ner, and signifies free and easy, over familiar, 
 with a special significance as to the corresponding 
 deportment and gesture. The neighbourhood of 
 * * * * supplies Lady Lyttelton with an inexhaus- 
 tible number of illustrations of this epithet, which 
 she deals out in a spirit of amiable criticism, not 
 unaccompanied with feeble and imperfect attempts 
 at mimicry. ****** is preeminently 
 
63 
 
 buckish : and for the honour of * * * * * 
 it should be noted that ******** 
 
 $omp0U& 
 CriumpljanL 
 
 These phrases, in a certain connexion, the 
 Author believes to be of Glynnese origin: but 
 he has chiefly observed them as adopted with 
 great enthusiasm, and applied with a strange de- 
 gree of latitude, beyond the Author's powers to 
 embrace in his present work, by the Rev. Wm. 
 Lyttelton. 
 
 In Glynnese, pomp and pompous are not much 
 varied from their English use, except that they 
 are always applied to something of which pomp 
 could only be ironically predicated. 
 
 Perpetual pomp is attributed to * * * * * 
 for whom indeed Lady Lyttelton and Mrs. Glad- 
 stone formerly, with much self-complacency, de- 
 vised the title of Pomposo, 
 
 But the reverend person above mentioned 
 appears to discern a fitness in these terms, espe- 
 cially in the word triumphant, in a manner pecu- 
 liar to himself. A dog cocking his tail would 
 
64 
 
 be so described : and some facetious verses, by 
 the eminent hand which writes these lines, on 
 ****** were eulogized by him with 
 the epithet ' triumphant. 5 ' 
 
 €o Come on 
 
 €o 4Bo <©ff 
 
 3fn <2Bmger^&eer* 
 
 Communicated by the Dean of Windsor. This 
 pleasant metaphor, suggestive of cricket-matches, 
 fairs, and races, has a very simple meaning : that 
 of suddenness. It is believed that soda-water 
 would convey the meaning equally well: best 
 of all probably the pithy monosyllable, known to 
 low shop-shutters, Pop. For the point of the 
 metaphor is not in the particular beverage or 
 bottle, but in the startling suddenness of the 
 gaseous explosion which accompanies its opening. 
 So interpreted, such an expression as c happening 
 lilce ginger-beer 5 might not have been beyond the 
 limits of vernacular propriety ; but the Glynnese 
 language takes care to avoid that, by substituting 
 c in ginger-beer : ' and whereas even so, anything 
 going off might not wholly unnaturally be likened 
 to the going off of the bottle in question, the 
 
65 
 
 patient student will not fail to remark the auda- 
 cious addition of coming, or coming on, in ginger- 
 beer : probably the more frequent idiom of the 
 two in Glynnese, and one which appears to defy 
 any reasonable analogy with the English language. 
 The effect is curious. Thus, upon Lady Lyttelton 
 mentioning the remarkable fact that the love of 
 poetry came to her in ginger-beer about the age 
 of 16, the ready waggery of her reverend brother- 
 in-law did not fail to suggest, that it sounded as 
 if that moral sense had somehow been materia- 
 lized, condensed, and seized, and consigned in a 
 hamper, or, like physic for children, conveyed in a 
 glass, of that 6 paltry and stomach-achy liquor/ as 
 the Author once heard it called at Eton. 
 
 €o Be a a^atfpr* 
 
 Lady Lyttelton is again the chief authority for 
 this expression in its Glynnese use : and her 
 application of it is a constant source of sonorous 
 laughter on the part of the reverend person so 
 often alluded to in this work. The Author con- 
 ceives it is nothing but an arbitrary substitution 
 of the word i martyr ' for ' slave' in colloquial 
 English : and signifies that overprecise and punc- 
 
66 
 
 tilious attention to anything which is so often 
 called ' being a slave to it/ So, to the great 
 glee of the Rector, Lady Lyttelton, on seeing him 
 go off somewhere in his usual hurry, upbraided 
 him in these terms e Why are you such a martyr 
 to your watch ?' evidently an emphatic metaphor 
 to indicate preposterous proneness to punctuality. 
 The lady in question is also fond of expressing 
 painful self-devotion by the strong French deriva- 
 tive l se martyriser:' wholly Anglified however 
 both in its grammar and its pronunciation, so as 
 to issue in such a paradoxical phrase as this, ' to 
 martyr easy oneself/ 
 
 <©rat 25atbg* 
 oBreat €ommantier& 
 
 These expressions seem very similar, and are 
 accordingly placed together. The Author may 
 perhaps be wrong in putting the former among 
 Glynnese words: it may possibly be a Welsh 
 phrase, and so derived to Lady Lyttelton and Mrs. 
 Gladstone through their semi- Welsh lineage. 
 The latter, he apprehends, is true Glynnese : c 
 and both of them, he believes, are mainly in- 
 
 c See however Walpole's Letters to Sir H. Mann, III. 80. 
 
67 
 
 herited from Lady Glynne. They mean great 
 people, leaders in their own line : but the peculi- 
 arity, especially of the phrase ' great commanders/ 
 seems to be that it is used in slight sarcasm, of 
 somewhat inferior people, something like speaking 
 of a cock of his own dunghill. It is specially 
 used of upper servants. ****** on 
 being seen together, suggested the remark, ' Look 
 at those two commanders : ' and a row between 
 * * * * # * was deemed serious, because 
 they were two e such great commanders.' 
 
 €0 €reat toitfj fctgpztb 
 
 This is a peculiar, though a slight, perversion 
 of the English sense of these words: and can 
 hardly be explained but by an example. Lady 
 Lyttelton one day, on resigning herself to the 
 mercies of a dentist, told him, with no idea that 
 she said anything strange, * not to treat her with 
 respect : ' to the slightly indignant perplexity of 
 the excellent tormentor in question, who seemed 
 not to perceive either why he should be thought 
 capable of treating her with disrespect, or why 
 so unexpected a course should be suggested to 
 him. The meaning simply was that she did not 
 
68 
 
 wish her teeth to be spared, or dealt with in any 
 unusually cautious or lenient manner, having 
 vigorous and independent teeth which did not 
 require it. 
 
 €o Cafee out of* 
 €0 Be €aften out of* 
 
 These are significant phrases, both in their 
 English and their Glynnese acceptation: which 
 are materially different. The Author conceives 
 that in English s such a thing takes a good deal 
 out of me 5 is a recognised expression: but he 
 doubts whether the passive form e to be taken out 
 of' is to be found in that language. Moreover in 
 English, 'to take out of/ means, according to its 
 derivation, to exhaust, to tire : to consume and 
 take from the bodily powers, which therefore need 
 to be replaced and recovered by rest and other 
 refreshments. This is not its correct meaning in 
 Glynnese, in which it is of perpetual occurrence. 
 In that obscure dialect, as the writer understands 
 it, it means the painful sensation, which most 
 persons must have felt, as if some part actually 
 was taken out of one's stomach : the slight faint- 
 ness or sickness produced by witnessing some- 
 
69 
 
 thing unpleasant and trying : and so is used, not 
 of great afflictions, nor again of mere trifles, but 
 of ordinary troubles. Often may it be heard, 
 amidst torrents of other Glynnese mysteries, in 
 the interminable domestic confabulations between 
 Mrs. Gladstone and Lady Lyttelton. The naughti- 
 ness of a child, or still more to punish or to see a 
 child punished, takes out of them grievously : as 
 also any inter-menial uproar, and to have to re- 
 primand any favoured or formidable servant, as 
 
 A very vulgar and sensual metaphor, for 
 which we appear to be indebted to the Dean 
 of Windsor. The Slang-Dictionary and Epsom 
 Downs meaning of this word is food, luncheon 
 carried in a basket ; from which service that Dig- 
 nitary has attempted to elevate it to mean food 
 for the mind, information, &c. : but it has not 
 reached a higher level than to mean c gossip/ f news/ 
 So, if one of his nieces had been on an amusing 
 visit, he might beseech her to come and sit close 
 to him on the sofa, and say, ( Now, my dear, grub, 
 grub/ 
 
70 
 
 fSefiounfc 
 
 This word means a particular species or class 
 of that of which the former word indicates the 
 genus. The metaphor is much more refined and 
 elegant, being apparently taken from the game of 
 fives or the like. Its use and derivation are also 
 very intelligible and appropriate. It always sig- 
 nifies the impression or opinion about A, com- 
 municated by B to C : A being any person or 
 place or thing, B and C being persons. Further 
 to particularize, it always means a pleasant im- 
 pression, or favourable opinion: and moreover 
 such as B imparts to C with perfect honesty and 
 fairness, and without any intention that it should 
 be repeated to A or the owner of A. An instance, 
 when analyzed, will shew the great felicity and 
 closeness of the image. A (Hagley and its in- 
 mates) is the wall of the fives-court. B (Mrs. 
 Phillimore) is the ball which impinges against 
 this wall, being flung by C (Mrs. Gladstone), and 
 rebounds or returns to the hand of the said C : 
 that is, she visits Hagley at the instance of the 
 said lady, and upon her return from it, according 
 to engagement, communicates to her in a letter 
 or in talk, the impressions the place gave her, as 
 
71 
 
 the impact impresses the ball: as, how graceful 
 Lord Lyttelton looked, how beautifully Lady 
 Lyttelton kept her papers, how noiseless the 
 children were, how methodical the Rector, how 
 horses and carriages abounded, &c. The language 
 is careful to distinguish this word in pronunciation 
 no less than in sense : for being in English an 
 Iambus, f rebound/ in Glynnese it is a Spondee, if 
 not a Trochee, rebound. 
 
 €rape£* d 
 
 These uncouth and barbarous monosyllables are 
 put together, not that they mean wholly the same, 
 but that there is a considerable analogy between 
 
 d The Author has found a curious entry bearing upon this 
 word in Johnson's Dictionary. The verb 'Trape' is there put 
 without examples: and it is added (but qu.?) that ' it is com- 
 monly written traipse.' The Author still inclines to think that 
 it is of Glynnese origin as now used. Johnson explains it ' to 
 run idly and sluttishly about. It is used only of women :' which 
 however seems hardly correct, as it occurs in Swift's Letters to 
 Stella, Dec. 13, 1710, Vol. III. Ed. D. Swift, p. 60; also ' traips- 
 ing,' ibid. p. 112, 2 March, 1711. 
 
 The Dowager Lady Lyttelton also deponeth, that it has been 
 used by herself and her ancestors, to her own certain knowledge. 
 
72 
 
 them. They describe forms of locomotion. c Sag * 
 (which is both a verb and a substantive) is said 
 of quadruped, e trapes ' (which is a verb only) of 
 biped motion. They might be reduced as it were 
 to a common denominator, by the application of 
 a classical figure familiar to the Wenlock family, 
 in which walking is called ' going upon Shanks's 
 poney.' In so far as they mean the same thing, 
 to sag might be called the trapesing of horses, to 
 trapes, the sagging of a human being. They 
 both mean somewhat painful and toilsome, and 
 mostly compulsory and unsatisfactory locomotion. 
 But both their resemblance and distinction may 
 perhaps be best learnt from the usual assistance of 
 examples. A sag means specially going up hill 
 in a carriage. Every expedition in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Hagley in the poney carriage with 
 Butcher, and indeed almost any performance any- 
 where with any of the ancient, skinny, legless, 
 and windless horses which have for many years 
 abounded in the Glynne, Gladstone and Lyttelton 
 families, is a sure and grievous sag. On the 
 other hand Mrs. Gladstone will inform her sister 
 from London, as an action of some merit, e I have 
 been trapesing through the mud to my court.' 
 
73 
 
 ffe^ft. 
 
 An exceedingly rare idiom, the use of which 
 is perhaps confined to Mrs. Gladstone, and of 
 which the very existence was denied by Sir S. 
 Glynne and other authorities in the language, 
 when the Author consulted them upon it. He 
 is however, sure of his word and its meaning, 
 and will maintain it against all comers. It refers 
 to money payments, and means actual payment 
 in hard money out of pocket : and is said to be 
 an allusion more poetical than precise, to the story 
 of Shylock. If you have to pay £20 down, it is 
 succinctly and completely described as ' flesh/ 
 But a deferred payment — a gradual payment in 
 very small and easy instalments — a payment in 
 kind — or by exchange of any kind, is not c flesh. 5 
 
 It is naturally held a grievance, and to be 
 avoided as much as possible, by the penurious 
 persons of whom this vocabulary treats. 
 
 €o Be 3Et>irteb. 
 
 A very apt instance of the perverting power 
 of this language over the words that come into it, 
 as into a mill or a crucible, out of the English 
 
74 
 
 vernacular. On signifying his intention of incor- 
 porating this word into his immortal work, the 
 Author has often been met with the allegation 
 that it was a word known already to the English 
 tongue. But this is a profound misapprehension 
 of the genius of Glynnese. Addled, in English, 
 is properly said of eggs, and means eggs which 
 contain nothing, or nothing good for anything : 
 an egg manque; and so of nuts or the like. And 
 by a very proper metaphor, an empty-headed 
 person is said to be addle-headed or addle-brained. 
 Far otherwise, and indeed just opposite, in 
 Glynnese. To be addled about a subject is not 
 to be in a vacant state about it, but to be con- 
 fused and perplexed about it, to have a crowd of 
 thought about it, and so to be in an irresolute 
 and undecided state of mind : the reverse of the 
 egg or nut of the comparison. 
 
 The Author believes that with respect to this 
 word he may congratulate Mr. Gladstone that 
 he is the first and hitherto the only person 
 who has succeeded in introducing a variation of 
 his own devising, into this jealous and mysterious 
 language. The substantive 
 
75 
 and, as a synonym to the above verb, 
 
 €o Be in an SUtttfe, 
 
 he believes to be an importation of that eminent 
 Ex-Minister : and it is frequently used by him as 
 descriptive of himself, in letters both on public 
 and domestic matters to his wife. For about two 
 days before the delivery of a great speech in 
 Parliament he is, or believes that he is, in an 
 universal addle on all possible subjects: and during 
 that time Mrs. Gladstone will, with a wink and 
 a nod, advise her friends to keep at a respectful 
 distance from that Right Hon. person; and 
 specially to eschew bringing dirt upon the carpet 
 from their boots, which in all such cases he will 
 straightway shovel up and fling into the fire, in 
 the very eye of the offender. 
 
 €tttb\p. 
 
 It is not without humiliation that the Lexico- 
 grapher inserts this word. For he is obliged to con- 
 fess that it is one of which he has no original ex- 
 planation to offer : and on being told that it was 
 
76 
 
 part of his literary duty to give it a place in his 
 work, he had no resource but to ask for a definition 
 from one of the proper authorities in the language. 
 For this purpose he betook himself to Lady Lyt- 
 telton : who condescended so far as to inform him 
 that to walk on a Turkey carpet, or the passing 
 of carriage-wheels on crisp grass, was creebly. 
 
 With this answer of the oracle, the Author and 
 his generous readers must be content. 
 
 jjtomatit 
 
 is always used by Lady Lyttelton for stomachic* 
 The learned reader need not be told that this 
 would mean what relates not to the stomach, but 
 the mouth. 
 
 This word again suggests an humbled and peni- 
 tent feeling to the candid writer of these pages. 
 He engages in this part of his memorable labour 
 with the sort of feeling that a school-boy has, 
 whose exercise has been torn up, and who is sent 
 back to do it over again. For he had composed 
 what he conceived to be an accurate article on this 
 head a considerable time ago : of which he will 
 
77 
 
 say nothing except that on being produced it was 
 loudly and somewhat scornfully disowned and de- 
 nied by judges to whom he is bound to defer. 
 Having therefore taken care to fortify himself by 
 a personal reference to some of the more dis- 
 tinguished authorities, he is now able to record 
 that the word maukin, which is in English an ab- 
 breviation of the word mannikin, and is often to 
 be met with in familiar compositions like letters, 
 meaning a small figure or effigy, such as Guy 
 Fawkes on the 5th of November, means in Glyn- 
 nese always a living person : and signifies an un- 
 known individual, one discovered somewhere where 
 his business is questionable, an unexpected appa- 
 rition : and so sometimes, though rarely, applied 
 even to known persons in similar situations. 
 Lady Lyttelton will often disturb her reluctant 
 husband, when looking from the window of his 
 den at Hagley on the backyard, with this request 
 for information, ' Who is that maukin coming up 
 to the backdoor ? ' and a sick person much ex- 
 posed to the unexpected visits of friends and of 
 strangers, was pitied as being liable to a succes- 
 sion of maukins coming into his room. 
 
78 
 
 The Author has to acknowledge with due 
 gratitude his obligation, both in being reminded of 
 this characteristic term and in being furnished 
 with a felicitous illustration of it, to the communi- 
 cation from the Dowager Lady Lyttelton of an 
 important interview on the stairs at Hagley, be- 
 tween herself and Mrs. Gladstone. The younger 
 of these ladies met the elder, who was suffering 
 under a recent very tedious visit, with the condo- 
 ling question, e Ain't you quite pawmpy ? s 
 
 The well stored mind of the ex-governess of 
 England, allowing for a Glynnese modification of 
 pronunciation, suggested to her, first, from its 
 knowledge of ancient history, the Roman general 
 of that name : next, from its familiarity with the 
 manners of modern nations, the West Indian race 
 frequently so called :- lastly, from her tolerant but 
 unsympathising recognition of the love of dogs in 
 this country, the mastiff, or Newfoundland, to 
 which that name has often been given. Deriving 
 no light from any of these recollections, she 
 sought earnestly for an authentic elucidation from 
 the great Queen of Glynnese herself. In due time 
 it came, and was this : that the mysterious word 
 
79 
 
 was meant to be the French participle, pompe, 
 which signifies properly pumped or pumped out, 
 and so in Glynnese is figuratively applied to mean 
 ' jaded ' or e exhausted/ 
 
 The toilworn author of these pages has derived 
 a singular satisfaction and refreshment from learn- 
 ing this term, because of the brilliant light it 
 throws on two preceding passages in them: the 
 one, the notice of the astonishing manner in which 
 the Glynnese women pronounce French : the 
 other, the article on the phrase ' take out of. 3 
 Pompe appears to mean precisely the same as 
 ' taken out of/ but not in the Glynnese use of 
 this latter word, but in the obvious English one, 
 above set down, of 6 exhausted,' which is indeed 
 almost synonymous with it : and so furnishes an 
 illustration of the anomalous caprice which the 
 dialect delights in. 
 
 €lje U$t of ti)e Btth to 25e 
 
 In a peculiar and very emphatic ellipse, should 
 have been noted above, in near connection with the 
 phrases ' than which,' and i beyond,' to which it 
 much resembles. It particularly belongs to Lady 
 Lyttelton, who uses it for the same sort of purpose 
 
80 
 
 as the above phrase c than which ; * as thus. On 
 entering into a room at Hagley or at Hawarden 
 during one of those great confluences of families 
 which occur among the Glynnese, and finding 17 
 children there under the age of 12, and conse- 
 quently all inkstands, books, carpets, furniture and 
 ornaments in intimate intermixture and in every 
 form of fracture and confusion, the experienced 
 e Mother of Millions 5 will find relief in the aphorism 
 c Well, children are/ It is evident that there is 
 some notable incompleteness in this saying to be 
 supplied, as c something too intolerable for the 
 power of the English language to express.' But it 
 is always uttered as if it was not only a complete, 
 but a singularly full and perfect statement, to 
 which nothing could possibly be added. 
 
 €o €utt$zp. 
 
 The Author has been reminded of this expres- 
 sion by Mr. Gladstone. It means what is in 
 some other dialect signified by the ungainly col- 
 loquialism 'To squiggle:' namely to refuse to 
 take precedence, to endeavour, probably with sham 
 politeness, to give the pas to some one, to get him 
 to take some good thing rather than oneself. 
 
81 
 
 Even if applied to ladies, who do curtsey, it 
 would be a strongly abridged form of speech : but 
 the chief peculiarity is to be found in the fact, that 
 it is as often or oftener applied to men, who do not ; 
 so that the two old lame men whom Swift saw 
 stopping some time at the door of a brandy-shop, 
 each of them wishing the other to go in first, 
 would have been said in Glynnese to be * curtsey- 
 ing :' not properly 'curtseying to each other 5 or to 
 any one, but simply ' curtseying. ' 
 
 This in Glynnese indicates a giving up the 
 point, a hopeless hitch or despairing prostration of 
 energy in the conduct of anything : and is remark- 
 able, like so many other expressions in the lan- 
 guage, for the fearless manner in which it stands 
 alone in a sentence, independent of all grammar 
 and sense. Of a child suddenly seized with a 
 fit of impervious obstinacy, and refusing to make 
 any answer in a lesson, it would be said, i I mean, 
 it was good bye : ' and similarly of a horse coming 
 to a stand-still on a hill, or of a dead pause at 
 dinner. 
 
82 
 
 The etymology, though somewhat remote, is 
 too plain to need elucidation. 
 
 €ftar& 
 
 The essential meaning of this phrase in English 
 (see the Dictionaries) is, occasional work done for 
 others for hire : as a ' charwoman 5 is called in on 
 domestic emergencies for this purpose. The 
 Glynnese language adopts one part of this mean- 
 ing, and carefully discards the other. It still 
 means odd jobs done for others, but not for hire : 
 always gratuitously, and usually by gentlemen 
 and ladies for each other : as for example, small 
 commissions done by some one in London for a 
 friend in the country. It is mostly used to indi- 
 cate a slight degree of wearisomeness, a mild com- 
 plaint. So one day Mrs. Gladstone wrote in no 
 small dudgeon, about her reverend brother having 
 required some little i char' of no less a person than 
 her husband, in the middle of the Session of 
 Parliament. 
 
 The Author recently heard, and carefully trea- 
 
83 
 
 sured up, a happy application of this term : illus- 
 trating both itself and another Glynnese idiom, 
 already commented on in this work. Lady Lyt- 
 telton was benignly conversing with Miss Cathe- 
 rine Pole Carew, concerning a certain memorable 
 house in York Street : (see 6 The Doubting Dowa- 
 ger, 5 an Epic Poem in one canto, by the present wri- 
 ter :) and took occasion to remark that * she too had 
 the churchy ardums as much as most people :' (see 
 above, f The termination in urns. 3 ) The countenance 
 of the bewildered cousin-in-law indicated inquiry. 
 With the ready mastery over the form of this lan- 
 guage which none but its great primary authorities 
 possess, the gracious lady immediately substituted, 
 as at least a sufficient synonym, the powerful term 
 ' the churchyard megrim/ Whether the young 
 person so addressed was fully enlightened by this 
 interpretation, the Author has no evidence to 
 show : but he apprehends that the two phrases 
 are not, and probably were not meant, as complete 
 equivalents. Megrim is capable of a more precise 
 and limited construction than the peculiarly rude 
 affix urns. It is wholly removed from its English 
 use, in which it is found in classical writers, and 
 signifies simply a bad headache. In Glynnese it 
 
84 
 
 has a mental more than a physical meaning. It 
 is nearly the same as nightmare, but that it re- 
 fers to a waking condition. Any unreasonable, 
 nervous apprehension, morbid and painful half 
 delusion or the like, is a c megrim/ The reader will 
 at once see how well applied it is in the above in- 
 stance, by the junior, but scarcely inferior, of the 
 female Glynnese authorities. 
 
 ffiSJant of %mxm. 
 
 *In this expression there is but a slight, yet 
 characteristic peculiarity, in reference to the En- 
 glish usage. It is more perhaps, as in many other 
 idioms of the language, in the brevity with which 
 it is introduced, than in anything actually unpar- 
 alleled when the sense is fully developed. In a 
 case of such minuteness and nicety, the Author, 
 as often before, places his chief reliance on an 
 example : and thankfully avails himself of one 
 which has been suggested to him. It is a supposed 
 case, of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone at dinner, on two 
 days separated by a short interval. On the first 
 day the Member for the University is powerfully 
 attracted, as is well known to be his weakness, by 
 
85 
 
 something in the second course with a great deal 
 of sugar in it. The exemplary wife takes due note 
 of this, and after a reasonable interval reproduces 
 the same. Alas ! the absent-minded statesman 
 now c takes it like pork ' (see above.) The unre- 
 sentful grief of the partner of his cares exhales 
 itself in the brief remark, f Now that I call want of 
 interest.' 
 
 The thoughtful reader has caught a glimpse of 
 the sense. It refers to small domestic matters, and 
 conveys a mild censure of such a want of appreci- 
 ation of provident and benevolent arrangement in 
 such things, as has been specified : and by the 
 skilful scholar may easily be extended to any 
 similar case, and the etymological process evolved 
 with sufficient accuracy and clearness. 
 
 This means behaviour, as in English : but yet 
 with a difference. In English it is not used with 
 reference to particular moments of time, or con- 
 junctures of events, but generally : as tf the manners 
 of a people/ 'manners of society, 5 ' of the upper 
 classes,' &c. and more frequently in this manner 
 
86 
 
 of classes than of individuals. In Glynnese it 
 always means the habit of, or things done by, 
 particular people, with reference to particular sea- 
 sons and circumstances. So,, on arriving on a 
 visit anywhere, with a proper desire to conform to 
 the arrangements of the house, a Glynnese would 
 enquire, ' What are your manners before luncheon 
 here ? Do you go out, or what ? ' 
 
 In English, notes upon a place, means what one 
 has observed there that is worthy of record. So it is 
 in Glynnese : but the difference is this, that in 
 English, according to etymology, such notes are 
 always what has been actually noted down in some 
 kind of writing : whereas in Glynnese, contrary to 
 etymology, it means simply what was observed ; 
 and indeed it probably cannot be found used as 
 indicating what was written down at the time. So, 
 similarly to the last explained word, a Glynnese 
 would say after a visit to a disagreeable place, ' My 
 note was, that everybody quarrelled with everybody 
 else/ 
 
 This word may be profitably compared with 
 rebound, which see above. A rebound necessarily 
 
87 
 
 supposes a third party, as before explained : not 
 so a note. A rebound is a note passed on, become 
 current or exchangeable : according to the former 
 illustration, it is what A thinks of B, which is 
 the note, imparted by A to C, which is the re- 
 bound : as it were a secondary formation in geo- 
 logy, or a higher power in mathematics. 
 
 This is of course either a sporting or a military 
 metaphor ; and besides its peculiarity of meaning, it 
 has the additional singularity that its most im- 
 portant authorities are the two members of the 
 tribe whose habits are the furthest removed from 
 either of those occupations : the Dean of Windsor 
 and Sir Stephen Glynne. It means, rapidly and 
 suddenly to discover or hit upon, especially per- 
 haps something at a little distance ; from which 
 definition a remote clue to its derivation may no 
 doubt be gathered by the perspicacious reader. 
 
 Sir Stephen Glynne said in a letter from Eaton, 
 ■ Just now I shot a likeness between * * 
 
 * * * % * * # * * . 
 
 and the Dean of Windsor, as an agreeable piece of 
 intelligence, e Last night I shot the Bishop of 
 London in a corner at the Queen's party.' 
 
88 
 Nearly synonymous with this phrase is 
 
 €o Catct) t$t <£pt of, 
 
 which is of course applied to things that neither 
 have, nor could have, an eye. The Dean would 
 say, ' Oh twin, twin, what's that vulgar thing on 
 your nose? I just caught its eye for the first 
 time/ 
 
 The specialty of this, in its Glynnese use, is 
 that it is properly applied to persons and not to 
 things, and that it always refers to something 
 about such persons which is more satisfactory or 
 favourable than could have been expected in the 
 circumstances. Handsome children of ugly parents, 
 as ***** * are an e ex- 
 traordinary result :' and if a child turned out well 
 under a stupid or scampish governess, not that fact, 
 but the child itself, would be similarly described, 
 sometimes with a very characteristic ellipsis, as 
 6 rather a result.' 
 
89 
 
 Hoofting Slnjutefc, ot an "Jnjureii Hook 
 
 The difference of this phrase from English is 
 rather minute and delicate, but will be admitted 
 to exist by all who are at all conversant with the 
 language. On the one hand it is a more extensive 
 phrase than it would be in English : for it is 
 applied simply to a look, and does not necessarily 
 imply that any injury of any kind has really been 
 received. Moreover in English it would properly 
 mean that such persons felt that they had been 
 injuriously treated : whereas the Author has fre- 
 quently heard it used not only of children, to whom 
 it is specially applied, but of little babies, who can 
 have no sense of the kind. 
 
 On the other hand it is less extensive than in 
 English, in this respect, that in English we speak 
 of being injured by things as well as persons : in 
 Glynnese it always refers to the act of some 
 person. It seems properly to indicate a feeling 
 of unexpected disappointment of something which 
 one had a right to look for, and that through the 
 neglect or carelessness of some other person. 
 
 A child disappointed of a promised plaything, 
 comes to complain with an injured look : and also, 
 according to what has been said, if a child comes 
 
90 
 
 looking out of humour, as if some such breach of 
 promise had occurred, but not at all implying that 
 it actually had, Lady Lyttelton will endeavour to 
 set it right by a semi-jocose inquiry, * well, dear, 
 what are you looking so injured about ?' 
 
 fragment 
 
 A curious expression, used with extreme brevity 
 by the Dean of Windsor, and also occasionally by 
 the other Glynnese. In its special sense it means 
 not merely, as in English, something unfinished, 
 but unintelligible, and of which no account can be 
 given. One Glynnese asking another the meaning 
 of some short allusion, in a third person's letter, 
 to a subject well understood by the correspon- 
 dents, the answer would be e I don't know: 
 fragment.' 
 
 When a certain Bishop was expected from 
 abroad, and his arrival was long delayed, no one 
 knowing anything about him, Lady Lyttelton said 
 f So the Bishop is a fragment : ' which the Author 
 leaves to explain itself. 
 
91 
 
 31 3ftesf> f intu 
 
 This means, simply enough, a new discovery : 
 but the peculiarities are these. First the verb 
 find is turned into a substantive, which, as is 
 believed, is never done in English, but in the one 
 case of finding the fox or the hare out hunting. 
 Next, it is properly used, perhaps with an allu- 
 sion to this hunting expression, of a discovery 
 which reanimates the spirits and incites to some 
 active pursuit. Lastly, a very idiomatic use of the 
 phrase is the ironical one, of some one who ima- 
 gines he has made a discovery, whereas the thing 
 has long been known to others. 
 
 Examples : ' Henry is gone off upon a fresh find 
 to Buckley : something about the schools. 3 
 
 c George out of his basket is so pleased at the 
 idea of the Phillimores' coming to-morrow : quite 
 a fresh find/ 
 
 ^tancmjjv 
 
 This, which, it is needless to observe, is in 
 English only used of horses, is in Glynnese 
 applied to bipeds. It does not mean caracoling 
 or dancing about, or anything exactly like what a 
 
92 
 
 prancing horse does : but a bold and jolly way of 
 coming into a room or the like. A buckish person, 
 (see above) often comes in f prancing :' and it would 
 be fairly used of an unexpected visitor who never- 
 theless has reason to suppose himself welcome, as, 
 ( who should come prancing in but old Caro ?' 
 
 €0 SoaEu 
 
 This is another instance of what is, or might be 
 an expressive metaphor in English, appropriated 
 to Glynnese purposes, but with a slight gram- 
 matical variation that gives it both a peculiar and 
 a facetious character. A piece of news might in 
 English be figuratively said to soak into a person's 
 mind : and it would generally be used when cer- 
 tain practical results eventually followed from 
 such a communication. So it is in Glynnese : but 
 that it is not the news, but the recipient of it, 
 who is said simply e to soak :' with a curious 
 effect. 
 
 Mrs. Gladstone, on hearing that Lord Lyttelton 
 had done a kind action founded on something he 
 had known for some time, wrote to her sister e I 
 am enchanted at George's soaking:' which, ac- 
 cording to colloquial English, would indicate a 
 
93 
 
 highly improper feeling of delight at hearing that 
 that nobleman was assiduously tippling. Still 
 more notably she added f It strongly reminds me 
 of Henry :' as if it was ordinary with that Ordi- 
 nary, to indulge in that questionable practice. 
 
 frantic. 
 
 This should be compared with rave, which see 
 above, and with the use of which it has a strong 
 analogy. It is used of a different state of mind, 
 signifying anxiety, as about something lost, as the 
 other term relates to pleasure or admiration. As 
 in the former case, the peculiarity is, that what 
 in English would only be used to denote some 
 really extreme condition, is in Glynnese applied 
 to very moderate emotion, and to very quiet 
 people. So Mrs. Gladstone might say, ' Jem 
 came over frantic, wanting a letter back which he 
 had lent me to read/ 
 
 $oto&er of f o£t- 
 
 The Author believes that this designation means 
 some twaddling little compound, of domestic use, 
 known to ladies, housekeepers, and the like, 
 but beneath his knowledge as a votary of philolo- 
 
94 
 
 gical science. But lie apprehends that its me- 
 taphorical use, which is perpetual among the 
 Glynn ese, is peculiar to them. It is applied to 
 an inadequate medical prescription, which how- 
 ever possibly refers to its original meaning. But 
 its most significant and frequent use is of a letter. 
 ' A powder -of -post letter' means a letter full of 
 words but with small sense, and especially one 
 which is so written intentionally r , so that it is 
 described rather as a successful effort. e I sat 
 down and wrote a powder-of-post letter to a tire- 
 some woman who wanted to know all about Wil- 
 liam's vote on Maynooth/ (Mrs. Gladstone.) 
 
 % face. 
 
 This is a precise rendering of the Latin umbra, 
 in the sense of an uninvited or self-invited guest 
 at a dinner. It is frequent with the Rev. Henry 
 Glynne, who would say e I went and dined at 
 Hugh Cholmondeley's as a face :' ' HI take you as 
 a face if you do not mind, ' &c. It has the sin- 
 gular appearance as if such a person was really 
 nothing but a face, which no doubt would be an 
 advantage with reference to the amount of accom- 
 modation he would require at a table. 
 
95 
 
 €aftc 3[n* 
 
 This, the last, is also one of the most frequently- 
 used of all the words in this memorable work. 
 It is indeed used similarly in English : but, the 
 Author apprehends, always of something great or 
 deep, as to take in the reality of a great calamity , 
 to take in the full bearings of a complex subject, 
 &c. In Glynnese it is used colloquially of the 
 smallest matters, and indeed specially of such, 
 and which it is supposed that the person who is 
 concerned in them will not take the trouble to 
 attend to. Lady Lyttelton will come and poke 
 her husband and say, i Old basket, will you take 
 in that you are to be turned out of your dressing- 
 room to-night for a maukin who is to sleep there ?* 
 and Mrs. Gladstone in a coaxing manner, to her 
 ditto when bothered between Burnett and a big 
 blue book, f I want you just to take in that I have 
 asked * * * -* * * to dine here to- 
 morrow: rather an odd couple.' 
 
96 
 
 The goal is won — the Great Work is finished. 
 The Author will be excused, if he cannot dismiss 
 it without a word of congratulation to himself, to 
 the learned, to the world, to posterity. The 
 retrospect of his own achievement astounds him. 
 He recalls the hours of meditation through which 
 dawned upon him the precise meaning of poor, 
 of up and dressed, of who's ivho and whafs what, 
 of local, of passing pigman : the mental throes 
 which were needed to the detection and analysis 
 of the minute differences of offal, groutle, hydra, 
 and rotgut • of sitting tight, sitting cross-legged, 
 sitting like a hen : of quaky and meaty : of 
 gaunt and blue : of above the moon and over the 
 world : of great bards and great commanders : 
 the rapid intuition with which he singled out, 
 amid the mass of spurious English similarities, 
 the idiomatic specialties of rave, result, manners, 
 take in, take out of, having the cares, sanguine; 
 the sympathetic humour with which he recog- 
 nized the grotesque inversions of idiotic, un- 
 earthly, ebb of life, voucher, addled : the careful 
 observation with which, in the absence of the 
 slightest light from any known language what- 
 
97 
 
 ever, he mastered the comprehensive force of ph, 
 magpie, grubous, cuddle, batten, pintoed, let down 
 the leg : and he feels on a new level among men. 
 He is possessed with an involuntary self- com- 
 parison to Montesquieu, and to Gibbon. It 
 was on the steps of Hawarden Castle, — the air 
 around him charged with Glynnese — after reading 
 a letter from Mrs. Gladstone to the Dean of 
 Windsor, and hearing a conversation between 
 Lady Lyttelton and Sir S. Glynne, both equally, 
 and totally, unintelligible to common mortals — 
 in a fit of learned zeal and etymological enthu- 
 siasm, that the thought of this Glossary, in its 
 complex and harmonious grandeur, arose before 
 his mind. He sends it forth, to an unworthy 
 and unenlightened world: he sends it forth, in 
 the sufficient strength of a self-approving mind ; 
 yet not without some hope of the additional re- 
 ward of Fame — some hope that his name too 
 may find no subordinate place in the bright list 
 of the scatterers of intellectual darkness, and the 
 permanent benefactors of mankind. 
 
98 
 
 
 Fragment of a Speech in the House of Com- 
 mons, by The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in 
 which the whole Glynnese vocabulary is aired/ 
 
 Sir, the noble Lord opposite is such a ph, and 
 the hon. gentleman next him such a daundering 
 and wizzy old totterton, that my take must be to 
 make an idiotic speech, if they are at all to take it 
 in: (a faint ironical cheer from a very young 
 member in the gallery.) What's that unearthly 
 little sound ? I shoot the buckish young maukin 
 who fired away that cheer ! I could throw my shoe 
 at him! Up and dressed indeed! Who's who 
 and whatfs what? What sort of a result is he? 
 M was a member! What was his speech just 
 now? Fragment! Here have I been sitting tight 
 all day, pompeissimus, for the chance of showing 
 my ring on a subject I understand, and am I to 
 be sat upon by a dandy-major like him, who 
 caddies with all the twopenny people in town, 
 
 f The exceptions are too trifling to sign : fy. 
 
99 
 
 and can do nothing but sit in the gallery like a 
 grasshopper's uncle ? 
 
 Sir, I am sorry to see you looking so grubous 
 and taken out of by the moral sag of this long 
 debate. I fear that is one of ours. This house 
 is in the chair for rotgut and offal and false 
 flash : and some of the debates are beyond. Look 
 at the hydra on the table: than which — Sir, I 
 fear that while sitting there like a hen you must 
 have the housums terribly, and that no speech 
 can be any break to you. 
 
 Sir, when I was just now high-gee introduction 
 to the powder- of-post motion I am about to 
 make — (A voice : 6 you need not conclude with any 
 motion/) But that would be so poor ! Sir, I am 
 addled with these interruptions, and shall tangle 
 my tongue. If I have any more of them, good-bye. 
 Really, young members are. 
 
 Sir, I hold in my hand quite a circumstance: 
 a voucher full of grub from an hon. member, who 
 is absent on account of bowdler : (Mr. Speaker 
 do you die ?) which I have been soaking for some 
 time; and though it is rather local, yet as a re- 
 bound from the place we all rave of, g I am sure 
 S The Crystal Palace. 
 
100 
 
 you will not look injured if I read it as a fresh 
 find. The hon. member near me, with the little 
 antic on his nose, need not sit battening with 
 his eyes as if he was going to be niobe ! (A voice : 
 i he is gone to sleep/) What a blow ! But as I 
 am a martyr to the rules of the house, though 
 I am not human from the manners of hon. gentle- 
 men around me who are bursting every moment, 
 I will not let down my leg, but will try to read 
 (sanguine) the cocked-hat letter which I have 
 mentioned. 
 
 The hon. member was great audience to an old 
 Dolly with whom he was an old shoe, who was 
 frantic at having lost her shawl, making her 
 rather a witch ; and she kept telling it to every 
 passing pigman in the Palace. He had very good 
 heart, and took great rank on his wisdom in telling 
 the old lady to sit crosslegged in a corner, while 
 he went and curtseyed with a policeman which of 
 them should trapes about and find it : and though 
 at first she thought it gaunt, and was eu pu 
 crua, like one of her twarly grand-children, yet 
 that went off in ginger-beer. Viewing that the 
 old lady had been washing her hands, he ran off 
 like a lamplighter, and found it squashed among 
 
101 
 
 the towels : what an ebb ! Having the cares 
 of its appearance, he got a pintoed little girl to 
 make it tidy, (three cheers !) and pranced back 
 triumphant with it to the Mum,: and said, ' Now 
 you are above the world again !' But the Dolly 
 having got rid of all her megrims, was over the 
 moon with a magpie sandwich and some groutle 
 brandy-cherries, and took it like pork. His note 
 was, 'That I call want of interest P 'Catch me again' 
 he said with a smack ' doing such a blowing thing 
 for you ! A commander like me having the kind- 
 ness as to do chars for an old moth ! You may 
 lose your skin next, but you shall benumb for it 
 by yourself!' 
 
 Now, Sir, to consider the bearing of this on the 
 question before us, of retaining the Crystal Palace 
 
 Caetera desunt. 
 
THE DOUBTING DOWAGER, 
 
 OR 
 
 A TALE OF A HOUSE. 
 
 1851. 
 
 Releas'd from Court, from toil and teaching free, 
 The Doubting Dowager desired to see 
 Some fitting house for single ladies three. 
 
 e Find me a house \ 3 she said : ' not over dear, 
 Stinkless and smokeless, roomy too, and near 
 To Carlton Gardens and St. James's Place, 
 Where live those loved ones of our famous race. 
 My faithful Appleyard Fll forthwith ask, 
 Who'll bend assiduous to congenial task/ 
 
103 
 
 O Doubting Dowager ! what chance of peace ? 
 Beset by brother, daughter, sons, and niece ! 
 
 c Belgravia ho !' the fast Henrietta cries, 
 * To walk alone, uncheek'd by prudent eyes V 
 
 ' Out on thee !' Mary shouts, the peeress poor, 
 Mother of millions : ( how from door to door, 
 Shall I then, carriageless and weary, walk, 
 To elder sister for an endless talk ? ' 
 
 Henpeck'd (unconscious) in his wedded life, 
 The Marshal of the Court supports his wife. 
 
 The tyrant Caroline has many a care, 
 Districts and duties, friends in every square, 
 One drags her east, another pleads for west : 
 One thing alone is sure : ( Whate'er is best, 
 'Tis / shall govern, I" shall fix the place :' 
 And shakes her conqu'ring fist in passive mother's 
 
 face. 
 
 The crafty Kitty would appear resign'd 
 To choice of others : but in inmost mind 
 Counts up that squad compact of western cousins, 
 Estcourts and Carews, Bullers too by dozens, 
 
104 
 
 And votes for Pimlico : the gentle lungs 
 Sound hardly heeded, in the war of tongues. 
 
 Sneers at the strife the Lord-Lieutenant easy, 
 And says i Live where you like ! or clean or greasy, 
 Noisy or still, provided Fve a den 
 Where ink and paper, books and golden pen, 
 Shall fill securely their appointed place, 
 Models of order to an erring race. ' 
 
 A Pussy to the rescue ! ' Dare ye go 
 Beyond the limits of St. James's ? No ! 
 Dare, Doubting Dowager ! But dread the wrath 
 Of her who never fails ! Before whose path 
 Quails he, the leopard-eyed ! Just 'cross the road> 
 Yonder in York Street, is a sweet abode, 
 Lovely look-out, rooms fitted for a Queen, 
 Capacious, fragrant, fashionable, clean.' 
 
 Warns the wise Earl, in sad and boding tones : 
 ( I speak from knowledge. From the dead men's 
 
 bones 
 Distil dank drippings through the cellar'd caves 
 Of ghastly York Street, from the neighb'ring 
 
 graves.' 
 
105 
 
 Distracted Dowager ! can'st thou decide ? 
 The despot daughter shall the knot divide. 
 To distant Hawarden, far from others* pow'r, 
 She drags the victim down, and marks her hour : 
 8 Produce the parchment ! that will / unroll/ 
 (So brought Queen Eleanor the knife and bowl) 
 ( The contract sure as death ! sign, subject slave ! 
 Sign, Doubting Dowager! The House we'll 
 
 have!* 
 
 Still for a while, with hesitating care, 
 On high the pen she brandished in the air : 
 HoverM around the Hawarden brothers mild, 
 Prepar'd to witness, and advis'd, and smil'd ; 
 Yield, Doubting Dowager, to filial pow'r ! h 
 Thy tyrant know, and feel the fated hour! 
 
 The deed is done ! the House is thine at length ! 
 Grim grins the Despot in her conscious strength ! 
 Loud peals of laughter from the holy halls 
 Of Hagley Parsonage have rent the walls ! 
 (Whate'er betide, that Rector spies a jest, 
 Wide-openM jaws and shouts the fun attest :) 
 
 h * Filial' is said in the Dictionaries to mean ' belonging to a son * 
 only. But it is used of daughters in King Lear, Act. III. Sc. 4. 
 
106 
 
 York Street for ever ! York Street bears the bell ! 
 And bards a long futurity foretel 
 Of peaceful home and hospitable days, 
 To earn for painful choice th 5 acclaim of tardy 
 praise. 
 

 INDEX. 
 
 
 A was an admiral, &c. . 
 
 20 
 
 Addle 
 
 . 
 
 . 74 
 
 Addled, to be 
 
 . 
 
 73 
 
 Antic 
 
 . 
 
 . 40 
 
 As 
 
 • . . 
 
 35 
 
 Audience . 
 
 • 
 
 26 
 
 Bards, great 
 
 . . 
 
 66 
 
 Bathing-feel 
 
 • 
 
 34 
 
 Batten 
 
 . 
 
 48 
 
 To be, the use 
 
 of the verb 
 
 . 79 
 
 Benumb 
 
 « 
 
 60 
 
 Beyond 
 
 . 
 
 41 
 
 Blow 
 
 . 
 
 53 
 
 Blowing 
 
 . 
 
 53 
 
 Blue . 
 
 . 
 
 57 
 
 Bowdler 
 
 . 
 
 7 
 
 Break 
 
 • 
 
 42 
 
 Buckish 
 
 . 
 
 62 
 
 Burst 
 
 . . 
 
 26 
 
10S 
 
 Cares, to have the 
 
 
 52 
 
 Chair, in the 
 
 . 
 
 29 
 
 Chars 
 
 
 82 
 
 Cheers, three 
 
 . 
 
 30 
 
 Circumstance 
 
 
 54 
 
 Commanders, great, 
 
 . 
 
 66 
 
 Creebly 
 
 
 73 
 
 Criersome 
 
 . 
 
 9 
 
 Croix 
 
 
 50 
 
 Cross-legged, sitting, 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 Cuddle 
 
 
 61 
 
 Curtsey 
 
 • 
 
 80 
 
 Dandy 
 
 , 
 
 3S 
 
 Daundering 
 
 
 5 
 
 Die, do you, &c. 
 
 . 
 
 14 
 
 Dolly . 
 
 • 
 
 7 
 
 Ebb, &c. . 
 
 
 24 
 
 Eye, to catch the 
 
 • 
 
 88 
 
 Face 
 
 
 94 
 
 Find, a fresh 
 
 . 
 
 91 
 
 Fire-away . 
 
 . , 
 
 46 
 
 Flash, false 
 
 . 
 
 46 
 
109 
 
 Flesh 
 
 . 73 
 
 Fragment 
 
 90 
 
 Frantic 
 
 93 
 
 Gaunt 
 
 57 
 
 Gingerbeer, to come on in, &c. . 
 
 64 
 
 Good-bye 
 
 81 
 
 Grasshopper's uncle, like a 
 
 32 
 
 Groutle 
 
 17 
 
 Grub 
 
 69 
 
 Grubous 
 
 9 
 
 Heart, no. Heart, bad 
 
 33 
 
 Hen, sitting like a 
 
 43 
 
 High Gee . 
 
 39 
 
 Human, not 
 
 23 
 
 Hydra 
 
 18 
 
 Idiotic 
 
 22 
 
 Injured, looking, &c. . 
 
 89 
 
 Interest, want of 
 
 84 
 
 Killing 
 
 14 
 
 Lamplighter, to run like a 
 
 50 
 
110 
 
 Leg, to let down one's 
 Local . 
 
 Magpie 
 Major 
 Manners 
 
 Martyr, to be a . 
 Maukin 
 Meaty- 
 Megrim 
 
 Moon, over the . 
 Moth 
 Mum . 
 
 Niobe 
 
 Note . 
 
 Note, cocked-hat, &c. 
 
 Offal . 
 
 Old Maid Old-Maidish 
 
 One of mine, &c. 
 
 Phantod 
 
 Pigman, to tell it to a passing 
 
 Pintoed 
 
 Pomp. Pompous, &c. 
 
Ill 
 
 Pompe* 
 
 68 
 
 Pork, to take like 
 
 10 
 
 Poor 
 
 5 
 
 Post, powder of 
 
 93 
 
 Prancing 
 
 91 
 
 Quaky 
 
 4 
 
 Rank, taking, upon a thing 
 
 48 
 
 Rave 
 
 24 
 
 Rebound 
 
 70 
 
 Respect, to treat with 
 
 . 67 
 
 Result 
 
 88 
 
 Ring, to show one's . 
 
 . 47 
 
 Rotgut 
 
 33 
 
 Sag 
 
 71 
 
 Sanguine 
 
 21 
 
 Shoe, I could throw my 
 
 28 
 
 Shoe, quite an old 
 
 29 
 
 Shoot 
 
 87 
 
 Sit upon, &c. 
 
 15 
 
 Smack, to tell with a 
 
 55 
 
 Soak 
 
 92 
 
 Stomatic 
 
 . 76 
 
 Superlative, use of the Latin 
 
 27 
 
112 
 
 Take 
 
 14 
 
 Take in 
 
 95 
 
 Take out of, &c. 
 
 68 
 
 Than which 
 
 34 
 
 Tight, sitting 
 
 2 
 
 Tongue, to tangle one's 
 
 31 
 
 Totterton . 
 
 3 
 
 Trapes 
 
 71 
 
 Triumphant 
 
 63 
 
 Twarly 
 
 9 
 
 Twopenny . 
 
 44 
 
 Urns, the termination in 
 
 58 
 
 Unearthly . 
 
 13 
 
 Up and dressed . 
 
 37 
 
 View, viewing 
 
 38 
 
 Voucher 
 
 16 
 
 Who's who & What's what 
 
 31 
 
 Witch 
 
 56 
 
 Wizzy 
 
 3 
 
 World, above the 
 
 60 
 

 
 

 ^ 
 
wmmmmm 
 
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