230 WALES—ANECDOTE OF MR H.-FRUIT. to their own exertions, as in other countries, and particularly Scotland. We were shewn in the Vale of Clwydd the house of Mrs Piozzi, better known as the friend of Dr Johnson under the name of her first husband, Mr Thrale. She is a widow for the second time; and is represented as of a lively, agreeable society. Another house was pointed out to us, that of a Mr Hughes, who was a poor clergyman, and is now in the receipt of an income of L. 75,000 sterling a-year from the rich Anglesea copper-mines, discovered a few years ago on a barren piece of land, of which he was in part proprietor. Lord Uxbridge, who owns a part of the ground, was in treaty for his share a short time before the discovery of the mine, and they had agreed upon a sum (a very small one), when Lord U. neglecting to meet the parson on a day appointed, to finish the business, the latter, offended, would not give him another meeting, and the sale did not take place. Mr H. bought this estate in the Vale of Clwydd for L. 250,000 sterling, being upwards of 5000 acres of very rich land, at L. 48 an acre. Land in this place rents from L. 2 to L. 3, 10s. an acre. Labour is 25. a-day, and nothing found. Poor-rates have been lately 2s. in the pound. This climate is not favourable to fruit; with proper care some is produced at great expense; but this is not within reach of the bulk of the people. To make up for this deficiency, the English have raised to the rank of fruit that wild berry (gooseberry), known in France by the name of groseille à masquereau: they have in fact made it a fruit, having so improved it by cultivation as to bring it to a respectable size and taste. I measured some three inches and a quarter in circum ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 231 ference. Strawberries are better here than in America, and perhaps than in France. The sterility of the climate in point of fruits seems to have passed into their names: most of the smaller ones are composed of berry and some designative addition tacked to it. The names of birds partake of this sterility:-gold-finch,— bull-finch,chaff-finch,green-finch, and all the finches of the grove. -> Although poor in these respects, the English lan guage is one of the richest in Europe. Johnson's Dictionary contains nearly 37,000 words, while the French Dictionary of the Academy has not quite 30,000. Johnson* has many obsolete words, but there are full as many now in use which he has not. The Spanish language is said to have 30,000, and the Italian 33,000. The English adopt new words more readily than the French do; their best speak In both cases words with different meanings have been taken in the account for one only. Many words in Johnson's Dictionary have twenty or thirty distinct senses; some (to make) has fiftynine senses, (to run) sixty-six. In the Dictionary of the Academy, a most wretched performance every way, the differences and shades of sense of each word are so inaccurately and absurdly marked, that it is impossible to ascertain the number of senses which each word is capable of bearing. 232 ENGLISH LANGUAGE. ers in Parliament introduce them sometimes, and they are naturalized on their authority. The fanguage of the English court was half Norman French till Henry VIII. It did not acquire a ho mogeneous and regular form till Shakespeare and Bacon; and although it has been improved and enriched since that time, yet the style of Shakespeare is not old compared to other writers of the same period, much less so than Sully and Montaigne's. To the multitude of words ending in s the English owes that prevailing hissing sound which is remarked by foreigners. Opening Johnson's Dictionary at random, I have found generally three words in each page terminated in ess, making about 3000 words; and besides these, the third person singular of all verbs terminates in s; as also the plural and possessive case of all nouns. The general sound of the language is in other respects meagre and hard; it does not flow, but proceeds by jerks, and with a tone by no means harmonious and pleasing to the ear. The English themselves have no idea of that general effect; none can judge of it properly but those, who, not understanding the language, attend solely to the sounds; and I now speak of it from recollection of what I felt before the sense took up my attention, and before habit had familiarized my ear to the sound. The French language, under similar circumstances, appears, I understand, dull and inarticulate, wanting accent and elasticity,—and not sufficiently sonorous. Among the modern languages the Italian alone deserves to be called musical,-and perhaps the Spanish. The Russian and Swedish are said to have softness. The English, however, makes up for its poorness of sound by capacity and vigour; it is highly descriptive, and possesses a WALES LANGUAGE-FRUITS. 233 great range of expression. The French is eminently elegant, clear, and simple. The intricacy of our nicest feelings might be best described in the one, their depth and energy in the other; and the French has perhaps the advantage in treating didactic subjects. A comparative estimate of the two languages, word to word, and idiom to idiom, the summing up of their means, and an accurate return of their respective forces, would naturally produce a good dictionary of the two languages, which at present is not in existence. It would be a work to undertake in old age, when no livelier interest or pursuit remains; a daily occupation,a quiet and durable sort of amusement, which you may be sure not to survive; the only friend and companion, perhaps, to solace your last years. Returning to fruit, from which the above may possibly be considered as an unwarrantable digression, -apples are scarce, knotty, and stunted; people in America would not think it worth while to gather them. Cider, however, is good here, but dear, and in those parts of the country we have visited cannot be the common drink of the inhabitants; which is not to be regretted, beer being a more wholesome beverage. I am pleased to find that ardent spirits have not superseded malt liquors among the labouring class to the degree I had been led to expect. There are certainly many fewer rum drinkers here than in America. Working-people are not saturated with alcohol; and have not here that spirituous atmosphere constantly emanating from the pores of one half of the males, and a considerable portion of the females of that class in America, which assails your nose two or three steps off whenever you approach them. It is not uncommon for labourers to use in the course of the day a pint of 234 WALES WHEAT-SALMON. rum, and many of them a quart; a dose which would kill outright any person not accustomed to it by degrees. This daily dose of poison costs the American labourer from one to two shillings sterling a-day, that is, at least a fourth part of his earnings, and equalizes things between him and the European. The excise on distilled liquors is a species of salutary cepsure on public morals ;-but we are too nice on the article of liberty in America to bear with this device of despotism. The rains of the last fortnight have revived the hopes of farmers, and the crop of grain will not be so deficient as was expected. It is remarkable that this obstinate drought of the spring has been experienced, not only over a great part of Europe, but in North and South America. The appre hension of an extraordinary scarcity was the more serious, as England has very little surplus in its most fruitful years. From 1793 to 1804, the importations of foreign wheat have cost England thirty-three millions sterling, * and the government has paid in premiums on these importations the following enormous sums, In 1800 L. 44,836 sterling. 715,323- Salmon is extremely plenty along this coast, which abounds in rapid streams falling into the sea. It is our daily food. The heat of summer is so temperate, that we have a fire every evening; without necessity, but as a pleasure after the fatigue of a day's journey. Coal is cheap here. Jephson Oddy on inland navigation. |