He spoke with a very strong Scotch accent, and is by no means a graceful orator, but he produced througout a most favourable impression upon all his hearers, and especially upon the students, one of whom shouted as the speaker closed, 'Long Live PRESIDENT M'COSH!' and then proposed three cheers, which were given with a will, followed by the usual tiger and ' rocket.'

Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by dirty words. It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.

And as many of us want the shaking now badly enough, I can thank him for it, although it is administered by an overrough and contemptuous hand.

His characters tend to be either laconic or torrentially talkative.