In the course of a somewhat long life I have resided in the North of
England, in the West, and in London, upwards of twenty years each, and my
experience is directly the reverse of that of MR. DAWSON. I have very
rarely heard the _h_ omitted in _humble_, and when I have heard it, always
considered a vulgarity. The _u_ at the beginning of a word is always
aspirated. I believe the only words in which the initial _h_ is not
pronounced are derived from the Latin. If that were the general rule,
which, however, it is not, as in _habit_, _herb_, &c., still, where _h_
precedes _u_, it would be pronounced according to the universal rule for
the aspiration of _u_.