MR GLADSTONE'S PRIVATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9148, 22 June 1891, Page 4

MR GLADSTONE'S PRIVATE

SLANG.

The other day, while turning over the contents of an obscure and humble bookstall (writes a contributor to Pearson's Weekly) I found a little work entitled "Contributions Towards a Glossary of the Glynne Language " which bore an inscription to the effect that it nftlO?.. " PriDted for.Private circulation." On the title-page was written in a well-known hand the better known initials WEG while the name of William Ewart Gladstone and those of his relatives and intimate friends were frequently mentioned inside I immediately put myself in communication with Mr Gladstone. With his wellknown courtesy, ho replied promptly and at considerable length. Here is an extract from his letter:-"The author of the 'Glynne Glossary was the last Lord Lyttelton and anyone who reads it will trace in it the easy hand and precision of a consummate scholar. ... I should like to see the book. It has my initials, but I have no intention of claiming it. A few copies were printed by a httle subscription among us ■ . . . .It would be difficult to trace more than six It may be true that somo of the expressions in the-' Glynne Glossary' are, and even have been for many yeaTL common use. Lord Lyttelton may have BuTtWif re<M n SUpP°siDg ttem pecnli^ But there is another explanation. I arore hend that, since the form-iK-^ „«PVif material for the book^tends of he' principal creator became proud, I may almost say ambitious, of using tbe phS h-nt their point and apUtudf-the last Duke ol Devonshne to wit-so they oozed out into a wider circulation."

L^w/V^V'f c J book was mainly the | work of the late Lord Lyttelton, assistance _?™f °°M Pllan,°^ was rend<*ed by Mr Gladstone, Mrs Gladstone, her brother /sir IK* ? W. th. Deaß <*&£*£, L(ady X? «?d^ ady Lyttelt °a another sister of Mrs Gladstone. In f ac fc, Mr Gladstone Det ao rehL rel tat t cS' and barest frtnd. seem to have taken up, with the greatest r&L*! ~*"* of • slang phrases, following like true scholars thi recogn.sed rales for word-making and when thee rules were departed from in any particular, giving the most whimsical reasons for the departure. » Glynnese," as this sIZ language may be called, wis the joint work of all the distmguished personages namld nd rnarSfisSattrtheirpri^- « ThrZh^tb, 'r, * in Wo^erland''and select?™ of t ,fL^°klD(?- gla6s-" Her<- 1" a £r iltjl a _,dozen —Ciiersome, totteri,T y' P? utle> Spoils, trapes. The chief characteristic of Glynnese is its expressive terseness. A single word will ffi expression which in the ordinary way a whole sentence would be required tl adequate*

| "Bathing feel" is a significant description of the state of mind previous to some rather shivSw^fif6^ 1 se? sa«ons of a child _a thi H S£* tbe Bteps of a fcatb«-ff machine as he bathing woman advances to give it a ~,_.£., i, °? rv?us man about to make a Trcltt 3 b*thiD i feel" WheD- *» 1841, Glynnese "How do you feel in your new Pn OSIi 10-, n»°u Vlce-President of the Board of Trade? he laconically replied, "Bathing

High Gee is a colloquialism resembling the common phrase "in full swing," and is used in any pursuit in which the individual referred to is very earnestly engaged " Over the Moon" means in tremendously or excessively high spirits and, no doubt had its origin m the famous cow who jumped over the moon. J F "Up and Dressed" means pert,"over-for-ward, or unpleasantly precocious. The phrase, no doubt, had its origin in the surprise of a very early visitor, who to his amazement found the person whom he expected to discover in bed up and dressed. "Quite an Old Shoe" is a companion, usually- an inferior in social station, who needs no attention, but is on hand to advise or condole in any difficulty. ' -, ' "Than which" is an expression whioh leaves any amount to the imagination It was very frequently used by Lady Lyttelton when she meant to indicate a very extreme opinion. For instance, she might have said to an afternoon caller, " I have been all the morning teaching Alfred to write, than which ; leaving it to her visitor to fill in, according to her own -imagination, some such words as "nothing more tedious or bothersome can be imagined." - "To show one's ring "isa metaphor expressive of vulgarity and ostentatious display. The expression was no doubt founded upon the behaviour of the typical vulgar and silly bride who, in order to display to the world at large her promotion to the ranks of married ladies, loses no opportunity of flourishing about her left hand with its golden circlet.