IF he asked his way to Saint James’s, his informants sent him to Mile End.* If he went into a shop, he was instantly discerned to be a fit purchaser of everything that nobody else would buy, of second-hand embroidery, copper rings, and watches that would not go. If he rambled into any fashionable coffee house, he became a mark for the insolent derision of fops* and the grave waggery of Templars.*
Enraged and mortified, he soon returned to his mansion, and there, in the homage of his tenants and the conversation of his boon companions,* found consolation for the vexations and humiliations which he had undergone. There he was once more a great man, and saw nothing above himself except when at the assizes he took his seat on the bench near the Judge,* or when at the muster of the militia he saluted the Lord Lieutenant.*
Thus sending him out of his way by a little over four miles, from St James’s near the Houses of Parliament to Mile End in the west, where Queen Mary University of London now stands.
A fop is a now dated term for a rather silly man with affectedly fine manners and dress. Sir Percy Blakeney, in Baroness Orczy’s ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’, took foppery as his cover. “In repose one might have admired so fine a specimen of English manhood, until the foppish ways, the affected movements, the perpetual inane laugh, brought one’s admiration of Sir Percy Blakeney to an abrupt close.”
‘Templars’ here means elite barristers occupying chambers in The Temple, an area of London named after an old church that once belonged to the Knights Templar.
One’s boon companions are one’s especial friends. ‘Boon’ as an adjective means favourable or convivial, and comes from French ‘bon’ (good). (The noun ‘a boon’, a timely benefit, comes from Old Norse ‘bon’, a prayer or request.)
The Courts of Assize, or Assizes, were assembled periodically in major towns to hear serious cases referred to them by the Quarter Sessions. Senior judges would travel from town to town to try the cases. The system was abolished in 1972, and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court.
The muster of the militia was a gathering of local defence forces in the days prior to the formation of a standing army and the establishment of police forces. The Lord-Lieutenant remains the British monarch’s personal representative in each county of the United Kingdom, though since 1921 he has no longer held the right to call on able-bodied men to form a militia.
Précis
Our squire’s discomfort grew wherever he went. Ordinary Londoners deliberately misdirected him; and having taken refuge in fashionable watering-holes, he had to endure the city’s elite mocking his rustic ways. He was altogether relieved to return home, where he was respected as a man of standing and fashion, eclipsed only occasionally by visiting judges or the Lord Lieutenant. (58 / 60 words)
Our squire’s discomfort grew wherever he went. Ordinary Londoners deliberately misdirected him; and having taken refuge in fashionable watering-holes, he had to endure the city’s elite mocking his rustic ways. He was altogether relieved to return home, where he was respected as a man of standing and fashion, eclipsed only occasionally by visiting judges or the Lord Lieutenant.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, besides, despite, may, not, unless, until.
About the Author
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), 1st Baron Macaulay, was educated at Cambridge University and having enjoyed success there as a writer began contributing to the Edinburgh Review, with essays on Milton and on Abolition. His father, Zachary, had been a vigorous anti-slavery campaigner and governor of Sierra Leone, the British colony specially for freed slaves. Macaulay became MP for Calne in 1830 — he used his maiden speech to call for an end to statutory discrimination against Jews — and for Leeds in 1833. He served on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838, and advised on both education and the penal code. He returned to England and to Westminster, becoming Secretary for War in 1839, and embarked on the History of England (published 1849-1861) that made him a household name. In 1857 he was raised to the peerage, but died just two years later, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Most. Not. Shop.
2 Cart. Saw. Which.
3 Distinguish. Fleet. Grave.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
cld (8)
clad. clod. cloud. clued. coiled. cold. cooled. could.
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