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Maurice Baring with his
pet budgerigar 'Dempsey' |
This private language, known as 'The Expressions,' was used by the writer
Maurice Baring (1874 -1945) and his family and friends. It was started by his mother and her sister, Lady Ponsonby, when they were very young and developed over two generations. It is mentioned in Emma Letley's biography of Baring and there are a few pages on it in Sir Edward Marsh's
A Number of People (London, 1939.) Marsh writes: '..in the course of two generations (they) had developed a vocabulary of surprising range and subtlety, putting everyday things in a new light, conveying in nutshells complex situations or states of feeling, cutting at the roots of circumlocution. Those who had mastered the idiom found it almost indispensable, and my stable-companion at the Colonial Office, Conrad Russell, when asked if he knew anyone who knew the Baring language, answered: 'I spend all my days with a Baring monoglot.' One or two words have already passed into the language: 'Pointful' (the opposite to 'pointless') which Desmond MacCarthy constantly uses in his critical writings, is of Baring origin…'
Some of the words are a little site-specific but could still have their uses (e.g. 'a Shelley Plain' for the sighting of a famous person*) others like 'loser' seem quite current, although M.B.'s 'loser' is more of a cad than a failure. Here is a glossary based on Letley/ Marsh:
Antrim Boat: 'To be in the Antrim Boat' meant to take a lot of trouble for nothing. Derived from a family incident.††
Arch Baker: a boring discourse.
Aunt Sister: the shirking of a social duty.
Bird: happy.
Block: to put someone or something on the block: to bring up a subject: to discuss.
Brain-Stoppage: 'explains itself.' (Marsh)
A Connaught-Clock: an unjustified inference.**
Culte: (French pronunciation):someone very nice and loveable; to have a culte = to have a crush on someone.
Curlingtoes: an attack of extreme shyness.
Dentist: a heart-to-heart talk.
Found in a book* of tributes to Sir Edward Marsh, these two pieces unknown to the web - the foreword by Winston Churchill and the 'Tailpiece' by Max Beerbohm. Wikipedia (who regard him as a polymath) has this on him. Very clever, amusing, retiring, gay, one of the 'great and the good' and a patron of the arts - it is hard to think of a modern equivalent. Churchill, whom he served as Private Secretary for many years, attended his memorial and here contributes a touching piece on 'Eddie.' Beerbohm, who regarded him as 'not unalarming' also recognised him as 'one of the ornaments of his time.'