Arabinaics
Sir: Her appetite whetted by reviewing the new Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Books, 31 October), Hilary Mantel wants to know what else was said by Serjeant Ara- bin, notorious for disparaging the teeth- stealing citizens of Uxbridge. To enjoy about a hundred similarly quirky dicta, she should procure a copy of Sir Robert Megar- ry's slim volume Arabinesque-at-Law (Wildy & Sons, 1969, pp 25 plus index). It includes a passage in R v. Heard (1832) about the weight to be attached to Irish evidence:
The witness is an Irishman, and people from that country, very generally, do not speak the truth when they are not on oath; but they may be believed when they are.
As in the Dictionary, there is also what Sir Robert called 'the apotheosis of clarity, perhaps the most famous Arabinaic of all', the learned serjeant's pronouncement in R v. Chilston and Chandler in the same year:
If ever there was a case of clearer evidence than this of persons acting together, this case is that case.
Anthony Rentoul,
25 Strawberry Hill Road, Twickenham
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