346 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



stammer and blush over it because we are not perfect in Italian. 

 I once heard a clergyman call it " Venu-de-Medisy :" 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 word 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 pronounce 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 ourselves, 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 possible. 



Neither let us think it of great consequence whether we say 

 Rush-an or Ru-shan, for Russian ; trawf or truf (as usual in 

 England), for trough; defor deef, for deaf; or whether we spell 

 according to Johnson, or Walker, or Webster, (or Webster modi- 

 fied) ; the custom varies, not only between England and America, 

 but between elegant scholars of each country in itself. 



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

 tached, paltry shops, where our guide, having given us a very 

 simple direction, took leave of us. We followed up the broad 



* Station is the word now used in the laws of New York. 



