Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1893 — Royal "Triptolorgy." [ARTICLE]

Royal "Triptolorgy."

Horaee Walpole Humorously de> scribed as “triptology” George the Third’s habit of repeating three times any remark he might make. It was emphatic thinking aloud, and the author of “Gossip of the Century” gives this instance of the “triptological” habit: The King was very fond of the Weld family, and frequently stayed at Lulworth Castle, their country seat. One evening he attended a ball there, and the daughter of the house, a handsome woman, danced so gracefully that the King expressed aloud his admiration in the characteristic form: “Fine woman, fine woman, fine woman! Dances well, dances well, dances well!” The habit ran in the royal family, and his son, the Duke of Cambridge, inherited it. The Duke attended church on Sunday mornings, and would express in an audible tone and with threefold repetition his approbation of the service and opinion of the sermon.

On one occasion the officiating clergyman pronounced the exhortation, “Let us pray.” “Aye, to be sure; why not? Let us pray, let us pray, let us pray!” responded the Duke from his pew. On another occasion, while the ten commandments were being read, the Duke thus emphatically indorsed the eighth: “Steal! no, of course not! Mustn’t steal, mustn’t steal, mustn’t steal!” William IV. did not inherit his father’s “triptology;” but when any question was brought before him on which he was not prepared to express an opinion he would say, “That’s another matter.” On his death-bed, watching through an open window the sun sinking below the horizon, he said reflectively to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who stood near: “Ah, my friend, I shall not see another sunset ” “We don’t know that, sire,” answered the prelate, “and I pray heartily that your majesty may see many more. ” “That’s another matter* replied the King.