As you are well aware by now I didn’t get where I am today by being a regular reader of the Telegraph but on the odd occasion that I do come across a copy I always go straight to the Readers Letters and the Obituaries.
Yesterday, however, I must confess to buying a copy.
The Telegraph started of its life as the Daily Telegraph and Courier and was first published on June 29th 1855.
Yesterday’s was their 50,000th edition.
The “Letters to the Editor” has always been a feature of the newspaper and to celebrate this landmark it included a four page supplement on readers' letters over the 160 years of its life.
The very first letter to appear was a short contribution signed E Harrisson.
As a “working man”, he explained that he could only afford sixpence a week. The Daily Telegraph cost two pence a day – and it was only that cheap because the Government had just taken the last remaining penny tax off newspapers. So Mr Harrisson planned to go in with a chum and pool their sixpences to buy a copy to share, six days a week.
In its first year the letters page was dominated by readers demanding the cleaning up of the Thames, that pubs should stay open longer on Sundays, that street muggers who garrotted pedestrians should be dealt with severely, that sea-bathers should emulate the ancient Greeks in unashamed nudity and a regular topic “Where are the police?”
In the summer of 1858 the hot topic was The Great Stink of London.
Here’s a further selection of topics that have featured over the years:
One of the most entertaining was the 1964 debate on Bertrand Russell’s use of the split infinitive which ran for a month.
It started with this:
13 May 1964
Sir – Is it not a little ironical that “attempts on the part of Western Powers to crudely dominate or surreptitiously undermine” should lead Earl Russell – of all people – to split the infinitive?
Yours faithfully,
SPW Corbett
Woking, Surrey
Russell then hit back:
15 May 1964
Sir – The aggressive military behaviour of the British Government in Southern Arabia has not lessened my admiration, ironical as it may seem, for the uses to which the English language was put by famous writers. For instance, Milton, who, apart from his concern for individual freedom, managed to admirably split infinitives. A reading of “Lycidas” might be expected to adequately teach this to Mr SPW Corbett. Even Fowler could be of help.
Yours faithfully,
Bertrand Russell
Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth
The debate hotted up:
18 May 1964
Sir – I fail to understand Lord Russell’s allusion to “Lycidas” in his justification of split infinitives. I have just read the poem again, and can find no trace of anything resembling a split infinitive.
Yours faithfully,
GM Douglas
Lancaster
The debate hotted up:
18 May 1964
Sir – I fail to understand Lord Russell’s allusion to “Lycidas” in his justification of split infinitives. I have just read the poem again, and can find no trace of anything resembling a split infinitive.
Yours faithfully,
GM Douglas
Lancaster
20 May 1964
Sir – Even Milton, Lord Russell and the excellent – but too lenient – Fowler cannot make right what is wrong. The infinitive, e.g. “to reply”, constitutes in effect one word – showing mood – and it should not be split any more than the present participle “replying”. One would not say “reply-kindly-ing,” but it is no worse than splitting the infinitive.
No one ever heard of a split infinitive in German, where the construction is the same, e.g. zu gehen, zu Machen, etc.
It is not a serious fault, but the fact remains that it is incorrect English.
Yours faithfully,
LG Crauford
London N6
22 May 1964
Sir – I regret Mr GM Douglas’s inability to discover the split infinitive in “Lycidas”. I suggest he read it again.
Yours faithfully,
Bertrand Russell
Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth
23 May 1964
Sir – Cannot Mr. G. M Douglas find any trace of anything resembling a split infinitive in Milton’s “Lycidas”? I have always thought that the following lines, which I take from the Oxford 1914 edition, might well rate as an example:
Alas! What boots it with uncessant care
To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade
And strictly meditate the thankles muse…
In case of comment the spelling is Milton’s, not mine.
Yours faithfully,
Kenneth P.D. Thomas
London W2
25 May 1964
Sir – Mr Kenneth PD Thomas quotes the lines from “Lycidas”:
Alas! what boots it with uncessant care
To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade
And strictly meditate the thankless muse…
To call this a split infinitive is absurd. There is no word between “to” and the verb it governs, which is “tend.” English usage does not require the repetition of “to”, but its presence is understood: why should it be supposed that Milton would have placed it before, not after, “strictly”?
I do not know if this is the passage to which Lord Russell refers, since he does not deign to specify. If it is, it is not too late for him to take a course in English.
Yours faithfully,
GM Douglas
Lancaster
On 30th May even T. S. Elliot joined in the debate which was eventually put to bed by this wonderful contribution:
13 June 1964
Sir – I quote below a legal opinion on the subject of split infinitives.
Mary, having shot in dozens
Sisters, Aunts and Second Cousins,
Told the judge with eager zest,
“I hope to soon bump off the rest.”
Reaching for his black cap, he
Cried, “Ye Gods, what infamy!
The liquidations I’d forgive
But not that split infinitive.”
Yours faithfully,
A Hazelwood Atkins
Hildenborough, Kent
Yesterday’s letters page was much less entertaining, being dominated, predictably, by Europe and Junior Doctors with a centre piece letter headed “Why TV producers are immune to mumbling” following viewers complaints about the sound quality in BBC’s “Happy Valley” – heaven forbid!
Far more interesting was the obituary of the Trinidadian batsmen Andy Ganteaume who died aged 95. In his debut test for the West Indies against England in 1947 he made 112 then was promptly dropped from the team and never played another test match, giving him a test average of 112, the highest in Test history beating Donald Bradman’s 99.94.
I’ll leave you with another Dire Straits contribution:
Hey Ho!
