ANECDOTE OF LORD KENYON. Soon after Lord Kenyon was appointed master of
the rolls he was listening very attentively to a young clerk, who was
reading to him, in the presence of a number of gentlemen of the long
robe, the conveyance of an estate, and on coming to the word “enough,”
he pronounced it “_enow_.” “Hold! hold!” said his honor, immediately
interrupting him, “you must _stand_ corrected. Enough is, according
to the vernacular custom, pronounced ‘_enuff_’ and so must all other
English words which terminate in ‘ough,’ as, for example, tough, rough,
&c.” The clerk bowed, blushed, and proceeded for some time; when coming
to the word “_plough_,” he, with a loud voice, and penetrating look at
his honor, called it “_pluff_.” The great lawyer stroked his chin, and
with a smile candidly said, “Young man, I _sit_ corrected.”
* * * * *
CARRIER PIGEONS, A. D. 1099. The secret of turning to account the
peculiar instinct of these birds would appear to have been known and
practised in the east at an early period. Maimbourg, in his history
of the crusades, relates a curious anecdote on this subject:――“As
the Christian army continued its march, by the narrow passage which
is between the sea and Mount Carmel, they saw a dove, which, having
escaped from the claws of a bird of prey, who had let go his hold at
the great noise made by the soldiers, fell half dead at their feet.
There was found, tied beneath his tail, a small scroll of paper, in
which the emir of Ptolemais wrote to the emir of Cæsarea, to do all the
harm in his power to the army of dogs who were about to pass through
his territories, as he, more easily than the former, could hinder their
passage.”
* * * * *
POWER OF MUSIC. Prince Cantimir, in his account of the transactions of
the Ottomans, relates that Sultan Amurath, having besieged Bagdad and
taken it, ordered 30,000 Persians to be put to death, though they had
yielded and laid down their arms. Amongst these unfortunate victims was
a musician, who besought the executioner to spare him one moment that
he might speak to the emperor. He appeared before the sultan and was
permitted to give a specimen of his art. He took up a kind of psaltery,
which resembles a lyre, and has six sides, and accompanied the sounds
of the instrument with his voice. He sung the taking of Bagdad and
the triumph of Amurath; its pathetic and exulting sounds melted even
Amurath, who suffered the musician to proceed, till, overpowered with
harmony, tears of pity gushed from his eyes, and he revoked his cruel
orders. Influenced by the musician’s powerful talent, he not only
ordered the lives of the prisoners to be spared, but restored them to
liberty.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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