Literary Blunders | Page 8

not much information here, and he was ignorant of
the fact that this building was in London and in Oxford Street, but he
was equal to the occasion. He elaborated a remarkable account of the
destruction by fire of the principal music hall of academic Oxford. He
told how it was situated in the midst of historic colleges which had
miraculously escaped destruction by the flames. These flames, fanned
into a fury by a favourable wind, lit up the academic spires and groves
as they ran along the rich cornices, lapped the gorgeous pillars,
shrivelled up the roof and grasped the mighty walls of the ancient
building in their destructive embraces.
In 1882 an announcement was made in a weekly paper that some
prehistoric remains had been found near the Church of San Francisco,
Florence. The note was reproduced in an evening paper and in an
antiquarian monthly with words in both cases implying that the locality
of the find was San Francisco, California. It is a common mistake of
those who

have heard of Grolier bindings to suppose that the
eminent book collector was a binder; but this is nothing to that of the
workman who told the writer of this that he had found out the secret of
making the famous Henri II. or Oiron ware. ``In fact,'' he added, ``I

could make it as well as Henry Deux himself.'' The idea of the king of
France working in the potteries is exceedingly fine.
Family pride is sometimes the cause of exceedingly foolish blunders.
The following amusing passage in Anderson's Genealogical History of
the House of Yvery (1742) illustrates a form of pride ridiculed by Lord
Chesterfield when he set up on his walls the portraits of Adam de
Stanhope and Eve de Stanhope. The having a stutterer in the family
will appear to most readers to be a strange cause of pride. The author
writes: ``It was usual in ancient times with the greatest families, and is
by all genealogists allowed to be a mighty evidence of dignity, to use
certain nicknames which the French call sobriquets . . . such as `the
Lame' or `the Black.'. . . The house of Yvery, not deficient in any

20>mark or proof of greatness and antiquity, abounds at different
periods in instances of this nature. Roger, a younger son of William
Youel de Perceval, was surnamed Balbus or the Stutterer.''
Sometimes a blunder has turned out fortunate in its consequences; and
a striking instance of this is recorded in the history of Prussia. Frederic
I. charged his ambassador Bartholdi with the mission of procuring from
the Emperor of Germany an acknowledgment of the regal dignity
which he had just assumed. It is said that instructions written in cypher
were sent to him, with particular directions that he should not apply on
this subject to Father Wolff, the Emperor's confessor. The person who
copied these instructions, however, happened to omit the word not in
the copy in cypher. Bartholdi was surprised at the order, but obeyed it
and made the matter known to Wolff; who, in the greatest astonishment,
declared that although he had always been hostile to the measure, he
could not resist this proof of the Elector's confidence, which had made
a deep impression upon him.

It was thought that the mediation
of the confessor had much to do with the accomplishment of the
Elector's wishes.
Misquotations form a branch of literary blunders which may be
mentioned here.
The text ``He may run that readeth it'' (Hab. ii. 2) is almost invariably
quoted as ``He who runs may read''; and the Divine condemnation ``In

the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' (Gen. iii. 19) is usually
quoted as ``sweat of thy brow.''
The manner in which Dr. Johnson selected the quotations for his
Dictionary is well known, and as a general rule these are tolerably
accurate; but under the thirteenth heading of the verb to sit will be
found a curious perversion of a text of Scripture. There we read,
``Asses are ye that sit in judgement-- Judges,'' but of course there is no
such passage in the Bible. The correct reading of the tenth verse of the
fifth chapter is: ``Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in
judgment, and walk by the way.''
From misquotations it is an easy step

to pass to
mispronunciations. These are mostly too common to be amusing, but
sometimes the blunderers manage to hit upon something which is rather
comic. Thus an ignorant reader coming upon a reference to an angle of
forty-five degrees was puzzled, and astonished his hearers by giving it
out as angel of forty-five degrees. This blunderer, however, was
outdone by the speaker who described a distinguished personage ``as a