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Chap. XX.] " Tick, Tick, Tick." |
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brought forth (tick) some thirty (tick) and some sixty (tick) and some an hundred (tick, tick, tick)."
This was too much for the Bishop, so he called a halt, and asked what it all meant. The explanation was simple and soon given. " Ticks " indicated stops; 1 tick a comma ; 2 ticks a colon or semi-colon ; 3 ticks a full stop ! The time required for pronouncing the magic words was the assumed proper length of pause corresponding to the stops in question.
A Waterloo Myth.
The mention in Chapter III. of Sir W. Domville,. suggests that I should enlarge the reference to him and bring in something else. Sir William's father was made a Baronet on the occasion of the visit to London of the Allied Sovereigns in 1814. That was an ordinary transaction, but I have something not unworthy of record to add to it. In the year 1895 I was staying with friends at Newent in Gloucestershire, and was told that there was then living no more than 5 miles away a lady who had been present at the Duchess of Richmond's celebrated Ball at Brussels the night before the battle of Waterloo. This was enough to set me agog, for venerate Waterloo and everything connected with it. I asked to be taken to see this lady, and my Newent hostess at once agreed. We went. The reputed Brussels danseuse was not well enough to see us. I was leaving the neighbourhood in a day or two and my chance of a personal interview vanished. But I got my hostess to-promise to take the first available opportunity of seeing the old lady, and obtaining for me some reminiscences of the famous Brussels Ball. She paid another visit, and what was the result ? The old lady had never been near Brussels in 1815, but had been in 1814 to a Portsmouth Ball given for the Allied Sovereigns ! The Brussels tradition was wide-spread, and if it had not been for my determined perseverance in getting the
rumour traced Mrs.--------would have died (as she soon
did) and the truth would have perished with her. This is how " history " is sometimes concocted. |
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