For years, the English and their colonial offspring resisted counting their populations in a census for fear of committing "the sin of David".
Beyond that, there lurks a nagging sense among some Britons that the cradle of the English language has nurtured offspring too powerful to be controlled.
In 1834, the historian George Bancroft devoted a dozen pages to it in his landmark "History of the United States," noting that the colony saw the birth of "the first offspring of English parents on the soil of the United States," White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare.
They know that their offspring will need English to get ahead.
Most do well in school, often beating the offspring of native English-speakers.
But if the Mother of Parliaments were finally to rejuvenate herself, the change would rejuvenate throughout her offspring in the English-speaking world.
Flora Mayor, her creator, had an uncanny sensitivity to the inner workings of that class of English women - so often the offspring of clergymen - who dwelt enclosed, and seemingly at peace, within the confines of upper-middle-class English life in the last century.
Honorificabilitudinitatibus, you see, is an anagram of hi ludi, F. Baconis nati, tuiti orbi, which translates into English as 'these plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world' (but of course...!)...
With their offspring, they spoke mainly English, although the children were required to speak Greek among themselves, and Prince Andrew refused to speak anything but Greek to his parents.
Set in the English Civil War, it tells how the orphaned offspring of a Cavalier officer adapt to forest life under the wing of a humble gamekeeper.
