_Marriage in High Life_ (Vol. vi., p. 359.).--I have often heard a similar
story, from an old relation of mine with whom I lived when a girl; and she
had heard it from her father,--which would carry the time of its occurrence
back to the date 1740, named by your correspondent. My informant's father
knew the parties, and I have repeatedly heard the name of the bridegroom;
but whether Wilbraham or Swetenham, I do not now remember. Both Wilbrahams
and Swetenhams are old Cheshire families, and have intermarried. I am
almost certain a Wilbraham was the hero of the story. I have had the house
pointed out to me where he lived, and it was not above a couple of hours'
drive from Chester, whither we were going in the old-fashioned way of
carriage-conveyance. I am sure he was not a peer, though, if a Wilbraham,
he might be related to the late (first) Lord Skelmersdale.
There is one other little circumstance, which the reference to those former
times has reminded me of,--the pronunciation of the word _obliged_ (as in
the Prologue to the _Satires_, where Pope says:
"By flatterers besieged,
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged),
which the old lady that I have referred to, maintained was the proper
pronunciation for _obleege_, to confer a favour; whereas the harsher sound,
to _oblige_, was discriminatively reserved for the equivalent, to compel.
She was a well-educated woman, and had associated with the good society of
London in her youth; and she always complained of the want of taste and
judgment shown by the younger generation, in pronouncing the same word,
with two distinct meanings, alike in both cases.