In private Adam Dumphy is frequently heard to say, “Who can account for the English.” Not that he accounts them ‘no-accounts’. On the contrary he admires them extravagantly. It is just that he feels that some of their beliefs and customs are, well.... unaccountable.
For example he feels that the British time honored belief that a rat in the cask makes for the best cider. Of course he admits that in the US we did once consider that it took rattlesnake heads in a barrel of cowboy whiskey to produce just the right ‘bouquet’. An up grade on the British belief surely but hardly one to boast about.
Then he might mention the British custom of hanging woodcock in the sun until the meat is ready to fall off the bones before cooking. Of course here we have college freshman who swallow gold fish and apparently otherwise normal persons who eat sushi.
Or he will quote the fact that to the Brit at home the domestic cat dozing before the fireplace is man’s second-best friend. While abroad he gobbles down his second-best friend voraciously when sautéed in wine and garlic.
He feels then that we really have no right to be critical of the Brits but still it is such fun to laugh at them. And after all they poke fun at themselves (Wodehouse and Waugh) and they did so first. So it must be, “jolly well cricket, old chap, doncher know” for us to do it too.
In this book he does it again and again
