"PARK LANE DRAWL."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 7

"PARK LANE DRAWL."

OXFORD ACCENT DISOWNED. LONDON, January 18. Sir Anthony Jenkinson, Bart., who is the editor of "Isis," the Oxford undergraduates' magazine, disowns the Oxford accent. "Let them call it the 'Park Lane Drawl' or the 'Balham Bleat'; in fact, by any other name than Oxford," lie writes. "That such an acccnt exists nobody will deny. It is used extensively by radio crooners, small-part actors, and all who consider it an essential rung in the social ladder. It may be heard everywhere but in Oxford, for during the past few years all traces of snobbery have been removed from the University. "No longer do undergraduates strive to live like gentlemen, to the exclusion of all other activities. False values have gone, and with tliem the last vestiges of the Oxford accent. We do not mind being called 'cads' or 'Communists.' We can tolerate the fun poked at our grey flannel trousers or our blue-stockinged undergraduettes. We scarcely murmur when called 'woozyminded.' But we refuse utterly to shoulder the responsibility of the Oxford accent." Sir Anthony Jenkinson is the 13th baronet, and is a descendant of the Earl of Liverpool, who was Prime Minister from 1812 till 1827. He is 21, and now at Balliol College. He succeeded his grandfather to the title ill 1915, his father having been killed in the retreat I from Mons.