ENGLISH UNDEFILED " [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, — The
uneducated habit of inserting the letter R between the vowel A and any vowel following it—and, worse still,' after the.sound aw, e.g., drawring—is penetrating deeper and deeper into the.-speech of even the educated in England (not in Scotland). The alert ear hears it from the pulpit, in the lecture-rooin, on the stage, from the teacher's desk. Our children are taught about India r and, China, the Stage hero
declares " Olivia r love you " ; the lecturer 'discourses upon the phenomena r of Science, and not so long ago every clergyman. prayed for,Vietoria r. our Queen. . • .
If one presumes on intimacy • and. points out his mistake to a friend, he-stoutly denies it; assuring you that the .".idear is." quite foreign to ,him, and—stranger still—the few whose English. is above this reproach often do not. hear it in others and their children eat " vanilla r ices " and go to- see Lena R'Ashwell unreproved.. . - . . • _ •• .. • - -The Spectator Would do well to give publicity to this question, though it may be certain that not one of its -readers will take
the moral to- himself.—I am, Sir,. Are.; - -
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-FOR ENGLISH UNDEFILE%
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