Clay Lane Blog

Manners Makyth Man

The Revd Edmund Saul Dixon urged young readers of Dickens’s Household Words to mind their manners.

September 21

Manners Makyth Man

I recently added this post, Manners Makyth Man.

The Revd Edmund Saul Dixon was a frequent contributor to Charles Dickens’s periodical Household Words. This extract comes from the start of what was really a review of several books on etiquette, from England, France, and French-colonial Algiers. Dixon was particularly impressed with those cultures in which class distinctions did not lessen the obligation to be courteous: he thought everyone should be polite to everyone else. The subject matter might have led to a rather preachy article but Dixon handled it with the kind of light touch that we would expect his editor to demand.

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Composition

Join each group of ideas together into one sentence, in at least two different ways.

1 He has bad manners. He won’t get on.

2 Sometimes we need advice. Sometimes friends can help. Sometimes books must be used.