344 ^V AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



TTe told him that we had supposed the cockney dialect was quite 

 distinct, but certainly neyer imagined it at all like our own. On 

 the contrary, he said, except among the vulgar classes, the Lon- 

 doner alone has no dialect, but, much more than the native of any 

 other part of England, speaks our language from infancy in its 

 purity, and with the accent generally approved by our most ele- 

 gant orators and generally-acknowledged authorities. 



" But a liberal education must remove provincialisms, both of 

 idiom and accent." 



" In a degree only. A boy will generally retain a good deal 

 of his provincial accent through the public school and university. 

 At least, I have paid considerable attention to the matter, and I 

 think I am always able to detect it, and say with confidence in 

 which quarter of the kingdom a man spent his youth. You 

 would yourself probably have no difficulty in detecting a Scotch- 

 man." 



" I have noticed that Scotchmen who have resided long in 

 England, and who had in a considerable degree lost their original 

 peculiarities, usually spoke in a disagreeably high key and with 

 great exactness and distinctness of utterance." 



" That is the result of the original effort which it was necessary 

 for them to use to speak correctly. They speak from the book, 

 as it were, and the same is more or less noticeable in all proviu- 

 cialists who do not habitually speak with the accent of their 

 youth." 



We then informed him that we were Americans, which sur- 

 prised him. I somewhat doubt myself the correctness of his 

 observation. I am aware of habitually using many Yankeeisms 

 myself, and have no desire to avoid them. The New England 

 accent of words, except such as are not very commonly used, I 

 should think might be generally agreeable to the most approved 

 standards in England. The educated English certainly speak 



