_George_. That cannot have been very good for the cooking.
_Mrs. M_. The daughters of the family were seldom educated at home,
and when they returned to their father's roof their parents were only
admitted into the presence of their children during short and stated
periods.
_Mary_. And when did the English begin to grow kinder to their
parents?
_Mrs. M_. I really cannot say. Perhaps a climax was reached in the
Baby Suffrage Act; but after that matters began to improve, and the
Married Persons Amusements Act showed a more tolerant spirit towards
the elderly. But even so lately as when my mother was a child young
people were often exceedingly harsh with their parents, and she has
told me how on one occasion she locked up her mother for several hours
in the coal-cellar for playing a mouth-organ in the bathroom without
permission.
_Richard._ Pray, Mamma, did the English speak Irish then, as they do
now?
_Mrs. M_. Compulsory Irish was introduced under ALFRED as a concession
to Ireland for the services rendered by that kingdom to art and
literature and the neutrality which it observed during England's wars.
There was a certain amount of opposition, but it was soon overcome
by ALFRED'S wisely insisting on the newspapers being printed in both
languages. Since then the variations in dialect and pronunciation
which prevailed in different districts of England have largely
disappeared, and from Land's End to John o' Groat's the bilingual
system is now securely established, though my mother told me that as a
child she once met an old man in Northumberland who could only speak a
few words of Irish, and had been deprived of his vote in consequence.
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