Ask a question of a London policeman - he tells you fully and
then he thanks you.
Go into an English shop and buy something - the
clerk who serves you thanks you with enthusiasm. Go in and fail
to buy something - he still thanks you, but without the
enthusiasm.
One kind of Englishman says Thank you, sir; and one kind - the
Cockney who has been educated - says Thenks; but the majority brief
it into a short but expressive expletive and merely say: Kew. Kew
is the commonest word in the British Isles. Stroidinary runs it
a close second, but Kew comes first. You hear it everywhere.
Hence Kew Gardens; they are named for it.
All the types that travel on a big English-owned ship were on ours.
I take it that there is a requirement in the maritime regulations
to the effect that the set must be complete before a ship may put
to sea. To begin with, there was a member of a British legation
from somewhere going home on leave, for a holiday, or a funeral.
At least I heard it was a holiday, but I should have said he was
going home for the other occasion. He wore an Honorable attached
to the front of his name and carried several extra initials behind
in the rumble; and he was filled up with that true British reserve
which a certain sort of Britisher always develops while traveling
in foreign lands.
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