Stuk 273 - Letter from Sir George Trevelyan to R. C. Trevelyan

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Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Has had a letter from G[eorge] Rusell asking whether Macaulay was the first English writer to use the word 'tact' 'in its usual sense of a moral quality', rather than to mean 'physical touch'. Asks whether Murray's dictionary [the OED] goes so far, or whether Robert can shed light on the question. Has checked Johnson's "Dictionary", which does not have the word, while Worcester's of 1849 gives no quotations. The hay has been 'piked within the fortnight', a record time, and they are now 'praying for rain'.