On Everything
burne, and though he had not read Miss Fowler's works he had been advised to. But he said that Brill for wit and Ferguson for economic analysis were surely the glories of our England. Then he suddenly added, "Well, I'm not sure about 1909. The first Collected Brill is always thought to be 1911. But Ferguson! Why he knew a lot of people as early as 1907! He did the essay on Mediæval Economics which is the appendix to our school text of St. Thomas.
At this moment we were going down Whitehall. He jumped up excitedly, pointed at the Duke of Cambridge's statue and said, "That's Charles I." Then he pointed to the left and said, "That's the Duke of Buccleuigh's house." And then as he saw the Victoria Tower he shouted, "Oh, that's Big Ben, I know it. And oh, I say," he went on, "just look at the Abbey!" "Now," he said, with genuine bonhomie as the taxi drew up with a jerk, "are those statues symbolic?"
"No," I said, "they are real people."
At this he was immensely pleased, and said that he had always said so.
The taxi-man looked in again and asked with genuine pathos where we really wanted to go to.
But just as I was about to answer him two powerful men in billycock hats took my friend quietly but firmly out of the cab, linked their arms in his, and begged me to follow them. I paid the taxi and did so.
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