To his horror Lord Dufferin found that he was expected to
make a speech, and his hosts asked him to speak either in Danish or in
Latin. Lord Dufferin, not knowing one word of Danish, hastily
reassembled his rusty remnants of Latin, and began, "Insolitus ut sum
ad publicum loquendum," and in proposing the Governor's health, begged
his audience, amidst enthusiastic cheers, to drink it with a "haustu
longo, haustu forti, simul atque haustu."
Such are the advantages of a classical education!
My younger relatives, who naturally look upon me as being of almost
antediluvian age, sometimes ask me to describe the discomforts of an
all-night coach journey in my youth, or inquire how many days we
occupied in travelling from, say, London to Edinburgh. They are
obviously sceptical when I assure them that my memory does not extend
to pre-railway days. I am surprised that they do not ask me for a few
interesting details of occasions when we were stopped by masked
highwaymen on Hounslow Heath in the course of our journeys.
My father told me that when he first went to Harrow in September,
1823, at the age of twelve, he rode all the way from London, followed
by a servant carrying his portmanteau on a second horse. My father's
dress sounds curious to modern ears.
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