Is attributed to a certain D.D. of Exeter, who, having undertaken to
lionize one of the foreign princes of the many that accompanied the
late king and the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia to Oxford, in 1814,
a difficulty arose between them as to their medium of communication;
the prince being ignorant of the English language, and the doctor no
less so with respect to modern foreign languages. In this dilemma the
latter proposed an interchange of ideas by means of the fingers, in
the following unique address:--"Intelligisne colloquium _cum
digitalibus tuis?_"
It would be somewhat awkward for certain alumni if his Grace of
Wellington should issue an imperative decree, as Chancellor,