found itself up against a momentous question: should an 
     a  or an an  precede hotel ? In favor of an  was Lord 
     Faringdon, who begged “your Lordships to join me in 
     making a demonstration in favor of elegance.” Lord 
     Conesford agreed, pointed out that h  words that are not 
     accented on the first syllable demand an . “I believe,” said 
     he, “that every one of your Lordships would say ‘a Harrow 
     boy,’ but would also speak of ‘an Harrovian’.” But what, 
     asked Lord Rea, would Lord Conesford do with one-
     syllable words? “In the case of an inn sign of a public 
     house, would he look at it as ‘A Horse and a Hound’ or 
     ‘An Orse and an Ound’?” Lord Merthyr fell back on no less 
     an authority than Fowler to prove that an hotel  would be 
     hopelessly old-fashioned—but to no avail. When the 
     debate was over, the ans  won out. Said a -man Lord 
     Merthyr of an -man Lord Faringdon, an Etonian like