The Adventures of Roderick Random

第四十八章

This chapter follows the narrator and his companions as they spend a day in London, covering a spelling dispute between Wagtail and Medlar at a coffeehouse, Wagtail recounting a disastrous mishap during his tinder-water distillation experiment, Banter publicly humiliating Medlar at a dinner ordinary, Medlar warning the narrator about Banter’s character, the narrator consulting Wagtail for a counter perspective on Banter, and an evening outing to the play with Wagtail and Banter ending in a cheerful supper at the narrator’s lodgings.

The Custard Spelling Dispute

The Custard Spelling Dispute At a coffeehouse, Wagtail and Medlar argue over the correct spelling of “custard.” Wagtail insists it should be spelled with a G, citing its derivation from the Latin verb gustare, meaning “to taste,” while Medlar pushes back by invoking common usage: he notes that following Wagtail’s logic would require changing “pudding” to “budding” per its French root boudin, and argues that wholesale adoption of foreign orthography and pronunciation would reduce English to a dissonant, unstandardized jargon. The narrator and his companion are asked to adjudicate the dispute; Banter rules in Wagtail’s favor despite personally disagreeing with his position, leading the annoyed Medlar to huff “pish!” with great emphasis and move to another table.

Wagtail’s Tinder-Water Experiment

Wagtail’s Tinder-Water Experiment When asked about his progress on distilling tinder-water, Wagtail explains he has visited every glasshouse in London but found none willing to blow a retort large enough for the full prescribed quantity. He plans to first distill enough to produce five drops to test the substance’s properties, then take the project to Parliament. He shares a recent mishap: while reducing rags to tinder, he piled them on his floor and lit them with a candle, assuming fire would not spread upward to the wood, but the floor caught fire violently. He lost his composure and failed to call for help, and the house would have burned down with him if neighbors had not seen the smoke pouring out of the windows and come to assist. He lost a pair of black velvet breeches and a tie-wig in the fire, the rags were ruined by firefighting water, and he had to pay for floor repairs. His landlord thought him mad and evicted him on the spot, but he has since found a more comfortable new lodging with a large paved yard for his tinder work, and hopes to see results from his experiment soon.