‘Foxes’ tails are just like ladies,’ says Felix Graham, riding to a meet in Trollope’s Orley Farm. The spirited Miss Staveley replies, ‘Thank you, Mr Graham. I’ve heard you make some pretty compliments, and that is about the prettiest.’
‘A faint heart will never win either the one or the other, Miss Staveley.’
‘Oh, ah, yes. That will do very well. Under these circumstances I will accept the comparison.’
No doubt compliments to young women will soon be criminalised, but Trollope commits another crime in the eyes of some by writing ‘under the circumstances’. To object to the phrase was, in Henry Fowler’s eyes, ‘puerile’, but that didn’t stop its enemies. Under the circumstances has been used happily by English speakers since the 17th century or earlier. The Oxford English Dictionary says hopefully, ‘Mere situation is expressed by “in the circumstances”, action affected is performed “under the circumstances”.’
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