Couldn't a smelling-bottle be painted in instead, with a crest and a gold top, or a cambric pockethandkerchief, in lieu of the horrid pig with a pink coronet in the corner?

It was not very wonderful that Catherine should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen to books, or at least books of information.

M. J. S. was charged with breaking two panes of glass at the house of her husband from whom she has been recently separated in the Cambridge Road.

Wolsey left at his death many buildings which he had begun in an unfinished state.

The applicant said that he had already put up notices prohibiting the use of words which had not previously been submitted to him under pain of instant dismissal.

M. Alphand is now negotiating for the preservation of the luminous fountains with the English company which has supplied the apparatus with every prospect of success.

Only a few years ago their lord and master held in bondage hundreds of men charged with the same offence upon the mere fiat of a magistrate. After the commencement of service it is requested that no one will enter the church but by the porch door on the north side.

162. Writers for newspapers misplace the Prepositional Phrase in such frequently recurring sentences as

The death is announced of Mr. Brown

...

163. Dean Alford calls this 'an odious form of speech,' and adds:

'Sometimes we have the sentence still further divaricated thus:

'The death is announced in the Liverpool journals at his seat in the North of Scotland of acute bronchitis of Mr. Blank.

66

'The source of this clumsy arrangement must, I suppose, be sought in the fact of our not being able to use the convenient impersonal form of the French and say, They announce." But there are many ways in which the thing might be better said, and among them the very simple one of keeping the plain order of the words :

"The death of Mr. Blank is announced in the Liverpool journals." The Queen's English, § 449.

Exercise 79.

Re-cast the following sentences:—

Its convex surface by raising the breast enabled the priest to perform his diabolical task more easily of removing the heart.

The death is announced from San Francisco under melancholy circumstances of Mr. A. H. C.

The death occurred on Wednesday at a very advanced age of the Rev. T. P. L. B.

The influence over our debates will not soon cease of his genial presence and moderating wisdom.

During the trials in 1826 of the persons connected with secret societies in Poland...

We have to record with deep regret the death which took place yesterday at his residence [why not home ?], Clewer Park, Windsor, of Sir Daniel Gooch. Beyond this the arts cannot be traced of civil life.

164. An Adjective Clause should come immediately after the word qualified; as

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows.

Look to the rock whence ye are hewn.

Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?

There was never yet philosopher

That could endure the toothache patiently.

165. This rule must be observed with particular care when there are two or more words that the phrase may qualify; thus :(1) My cousin caught a crab and took it home in a pail of water which we had for our tea.

It was not the pail of water that we had for our tea. The sentence may be amended thus :

My cousin caught and took home in a pail of water a crab, which we had for our tea.

(2) She bought household goods and wearing apparel in contemplation of the wedding which cost 30%.

The wedding did not cost 80%. Begin with 'In contemplation of the wedding.'

L

(3) It is folly to pretend to arm ourselves against the accidents of life by heaping up treasures which nothing can protect us against but the good providence of our heavenly Father.

The sentence would be better re-cast; it is improved by placing 'by heaping up treasures' after 'pretend.'

Exercise 80.

Re-arrange the following sentences :

Many act so directly contrary to this method that from a habit of saving time and paper which they acquired at the University they write in so diminutive a manner that they can hardly read what they have written.

We must bring back those who have felt it their duty to join other congregations whose presence and support we can ill afford to lose.

He then softly unloosed the bracelet from her arm which Posthumus had given her.

My life was absolutely in her power which I would lose for her sake. was summoned for sending four quarters of meat to the Central Meat Market which was unfit for human food.

Here a halt was made to take in coal and water which lasted half an hour.

It seems that there were wiseacres in America in those days and the breed still survives whose auri sacra fames induced them to neglect their business by day and spend their nights digging along the river sides and coasts for money.

Southey's favourite daughter, Edith May, a daughter by the first wife who became Mrs. Warter, is better evidence on such a subject than Carlyle. It was not right for a person to descant on Bacon who never seems to have read the Sylva Sylvarum [one of Bacon's books].

It is not easy to find any system of instruction except that followed by architectural students of the best class which at present may be relied on.

They affect an interest in some particular class of art which they are neither prepared to justify nor to transfer in any other direction.

Stepney wrote a poem on the University of Cambridge burning the Duke of Monmouth's picture who was their Chancellor.

He subsequently offered them to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette for a thousand pounds who declined to buy them.

It loves to break the chains from others' limbs, by which it disdains to have its own enfettered.

I want a fresh habit of a fashion never seen before to draw the gallants' eyes that sit upon the stage.

They talk very insipid stuff about the enemy which ends in Captain Manning being sent to reconnoitre who receives the commission with thanks. They knew little of Cortés who reasoned thus.

On Saturday night there was found in the Thames off Charing Cross a woman's jacket done up in some newspaper which on being examined was found to have blood stains especially at the back just below the neck.

Mr. Disraeli delivered a rambling and disjointed string of jocosities and abstractions, by no means equal to his last Irish speech which rather wearied the House.

She published a separate volume of poems, and contributed many beautiful short pieces of poetry to periodicals, which are marked by great vigour and originality.

He was arrested in bed, and attempted to commit suicide by firing a pistol at his head, which he had concealed amongst the bed-clothes.

Very tenderly does Arethusa appeal to her son not to deprive her of his protection, companionship, and help, who had devoted her life to him by retiring into a monastery.

The most interesting news from Italy is that of the trial of the thieves who robbed the Bank at Genoa in open daylight which commenced [why not began ?] at Genoa on the fifth..

I with my family reside in the parish of Stockton which consists of my wife and daughters.

166. When the Relative Pronoun introducing an Adjective Clause is governed by a Preposition, careless writers sometimes place the Preposition at the end of the sentence; thus:

That is the house which he lives in.

167. This fault is always committed when the Relative Pronoun is omitted; thus:—

This is the house he lives in.

And herein we have one argument against omitting the Relative.

Exercise 81.

(a) Place the Prepositions before the Relative Pronouns governed by them.

John is the friend whom I depended on.

It was my brother's carriage which you saw me in.
This is the field which I spoke of.

Mr. Brown is the teacher whom we sent our boy to.

He is a man whom we can depend on.

The girl brought in the tea which she was sent for.

That is the hole which the mouse went into.

(b) Insert the omitted Relatives, and place the Prepositions before them.

That is the very thing I was looking for.
Mr. Smith is the man we are waiting for.
Have you seen the house we live in now?
His was the statement I depended on.
She is one I rely on.

The road you met me in is newly paved.

Who owns the field we came through?

168. A Noun or Pronoun in the Possessive Case is placed before the name of the thing possessed; as

When the rock was hid by the surges' swell

The mariners heard the warning bell.

Down came the storm and smote amain

The vessel in its strength.

169. The sign of the Possessive is sometimes attached to the wrong word; as

I was forced to call at his Grace's house (the Archbishop of Canterbury).

His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury's house' would be better. 'The house of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury' would be better still.

The following sentence admits of the same two modes of amendment:

The list is carefully prepared in the Chamberlain's (Earl of Lathom) department.

170. The use of the Possessive sometimes causes ambiguity; as in