[To TIM EDITOR OF TER " SPECTATOR."]
Sis,—Your correspondent (Spectator, September 5th), is, I fear, unfamiliar with Ireland when he ventures to say that the expression used is not "How well !" but "All, well!" I have heard it over and over again, and I have never known any one in Ireland pronounce the word "How" as if it were " Ah !" Moreover, your correspondent's explanation deprives the phrase of all its delicate and subtle innuendo, which really constitutes its charm. Let me give an illustration which came under niy notice within the last few days. A local character, known as Lord O'Neill, thus addressed me : "Your Reverence, the day after the tournament Mrs. Barker gave me a call. Jim,' says she, want you to find something for me.' 'All right, Mam,' says I, 'what is it?' ' It's an umbrella, Jim,' says she, that a lady lost." I'll find it for you, Mum,' says right enough.' "—Here in a side whisper: "It was aisy for me to find it, your Reverence, for I had it meself."—" Well, I goes off and finds the umbrella for the lady, and she hands me wan-an'-sixpence. But that's not at all the end of the story. In two or three days more Mrs. Barker calls me again. Jim,' says she, here's two-an'-sixpence that the owner of the umbrella sent me for the finder.' Look at that now, your Reverence, for honesty, look at that ! How well she didn't keep it for herself !" This story exactly illustrates the special and subtle sense of the Irish use of this phrase. If you substitute " Ah, well!" here for "How well," you deprive the remark of all meaning, for "Ah, well!" would express regret, but "How well" expresses approval and triumph.—I am, Sir, &c.,
THE WRITER OP THE ARTICLE, "ENGLISH AS SPOKEN IN IRELAND."
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