7 SEPTEMBER 1895, Page 16

WELSH SERVANTS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

The " raw Welsh servant's " singular mode of announcing some visitors, reminds me of a Welsh parlour- maid I had at Beaumaris some years ago. She came into the drawing-room (there were visitors present), and said : " If you please, William Hughes is come; he says he has no head, and has sold hie tongue." This extraordinary information startled me for a moment, until I remembered that I had ordered a calf's-head and an ox-tongue of Hughes, the local butcher. Another Welsh maiden in South Wales sent in a singular message one evening by my English maid. She brought "Mrs. Griffith's love, and she hoped my strange people were well after their journey." Mrs. Griffith, a near neighbour, had called in the morning and been told by me that I expected some relatives, whom she had met, from Wandsworth that afternoon, so she had sent polite inquiries ; and as visitors are, in the Welsh language, designated strangers, the Welsh servant had, for the benefit of the English one, translated it into "strange people."—I am, Sir, &c.,