THE HORSE. 241 



and so on. These savour too strongly of Cheapside, 

 nor is it probable we shall ever find preferable sub- 

 stitutes for the old terms, 'a hunting mare, and a 

 mare poney.' But an overstrained and spurious deli- 

 cacy and refinement of language has long been creep- 

 ing in upon us. I remember, many years since, a 

 strong push was made by Col. , the first maca- 

 roni (dandy) of the day, to sport for general use, 

 waitcher, instead of the stale pronunciation, waiter. 

 In Mr. Pitt's days, in the House of Commons, when 

 I took great delight in attending the gallery (as pre- 

 viously, in the days of his father and of Lord North), 

 it was attempted to render the not then very long- 

 adopted word, police, more liquid, by pronouncing it 

 polyeece. It was then also said, that a certain mem- 

 ber of the Hackney College had decided on the pro- 

 priety of pronouncing the word cctf/i'-e-dral, instead 

 of ca-the-dral, according to established custom, out 

 of due complaisance to the Greek, from which it is a 

 derivative. A universal rule of this kind would in- 

 duce a real Babylonish confusion of tongues among 

 us. Then again we must reject, as vulgar and illite- 

 rate, the old abbreviations, and articulate preciselv 

 every syllable, a pleasant instance of which occurred 

 to me formerly. I dined at the Old Blue Posts, at 

 Witham, in Essex, and chancing to introduce the 

 name of the town of Cocksall, as we in the old time 

 pronounced it, the waiter, a young man of the improved 

 class, though the schoolmaster had not then been 

 abroad, drawing himself up with infinite self appro- 

 bation observed — " I presume, Sir, you mean Cog- 

 ges-hall." But in this case we fail to do things even 



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