To aggravate the inward grief
That makes her accents so forlorn."
Hood, Ode to Melancholy.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
The Article "An" (Vol. v., p. 297.).
—"Hospital" is to be found with the prefix "an" in Addison, and probably in the works of all other writers who need the word and the prefix; but, as to there being only six words beginning with h to which the case of the said prefix will apply, I cannot assent to the assertion. Witness the following words, which will form decided exceptions to a supposed rule of that kind:—Harangue, hereafter, historical, hour, hostler, hyperbole, hypothesis, hysteric. Can any one speak these words in succession with the prefix "a" to each without impediment? I trow not.
C. I. R.
The six words mentioned by NIL NEMINI, that begin with the letter h, and have the article "an" prefixed, are not quite the same as those I was taught at school. This is my list "Heir, honest, honour (including honourable), hour, herb, and hospital."
CUTHBERT BEDE.