 It requires," he used to say, " a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of...  Reminiscences of Scottish life and character. [With] - Page 139by Edward Bannerman Ramsay - 1860 - 348 pagesFull view - About this book
 | Christianity - 1855 - 534 pages
...apprehended as readily as he ever afterwards found it to be ; but it was one of his sayings, that it required a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. He had already chosen hia side in politics, as we gather from his being attracted to Horner by a warning... | |
 | Francis Horner - 1843 - 570 pages
...difficult truth. He had no wit; nor did he condescend to that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the north, and which,...under the name of Wut, is so infinitely distressing to persons of good taste: he had no very ardent and poetical imagination, but he had that innate force,... | |
 | Criticism - 1861 - 1148 pages
...changed. Dean Ramsay endeavors to defend his countrymen from the sarcastic fling of Sidney Smith, that " it requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding." We still think, though there are of course brilliant exceptions among the literary celebrities of Scotland,... | |
 | Sydney Smith - English literature - 1845 - 496 pages
...difficult truth. He had no wit; nor did he condescend to that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which,...under the name of Wut, is so infinitely distressing to persons of good taste: he had no very ardent and poetical imagination, but he had that innate force,... | |
 | Robert Kemp Philp - 1855 - 936 pages
...Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather, that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally In the North, and which, under the name of WCT, is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.... | |
 | Questions and answers - 1898 - 664 pages
...stand a great deal of good-natured chaff about Sydney Smith's time- honoured (time-worn?) saying that "it requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotchman's understanding." Your correspondent with the perverted form of the good Scotch name Robertson... | |
 | 1855 - 534 pages
...laugh by his descriptions of things which struck his English eye. " It requires," he used to say, " a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in tin' North,... | |
 | Francis Horner - Great Britain - 1853 - 836 pages
...difficult truth. He had no wit ; nor did he condescend to that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the north, and which,...under the name of Wut, is so infinitely distressing to persons of good taste : he had no very ardent and poetical imagination, but he had that innate force,... | |
 | lady Saba Holland - 1855 - 482 pages
...laugh by his descriptions of things which struck his English eye. " It requires," he used to say, " a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and... | |
 | 1855 - 554 pages
...ridicule the foibles and peculiarities of the Scottish people. " ' It requires,' Sydney used to say, ' a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or * Preface, voL ii. p. 12. rather that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally... | |
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