176 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



are not perfect in Italian. I onoe heard a clergyman call it 

 &quot;Venu-de-Medisy :&quot; two-thirds of his congregation understood 

 what he meant as well as if he had given it the true Italian 

 pronunciation ; but if he had read it with the sound they 

 would naturally attach in English reading to that connection 

 of letters, nearly all would have known what he meant, and 

 no one would have had a reasonable occasion to laugh at him. 

 But why is not our own language fit to speak of it in the 

 Medicean Venus? Why should the French \vord envelope 

 be used by us when we have the English envelop ? Why 

 the Italian chiaro-oscuro, when there is the English clare- 

 obscure expressing the same ? I am glad to see some of our 

 railroad companies accepting the word station, which is good 

 old English, in place of the word depot, which, as we pro 

 nounce it, is neither French nor English. In England, the 

 designation station is invariable. Depot is only used as a 

 military technicality, with the French pronunciation, dapo. 

 If we really want a foreign word or phrase to express our 

 selves, it shows a deficiency in our language. Supply this by 

 making your foreigner English : we in America must not be 

 chary of admitting strangers. Naturalize it as soon as pos 

 sible. 



Neither let us think it of great consequence whether we 

 say Rush-an or Ru-skan for Russian ; trawf or truf (as usual 

 in England) for trough ; def or deef for deaf ; or whether we 

 spell according to Johnson, or Walker, or Webster, (or Web 

 ster modified ;) the custom varies, not only between England 

 and America, but between elegant scholars of each country 

 in itself. The man is impudent who condemns me, let me 

 speak or write almost how I may, for I always have some 

 giant to back me. 



Half-a-mile s walk brought us to a village of plain, low, 



