The Border Telgien: falahills. (To the Editor.) Sir,-It appears that the origin of the name of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, has not been settled; that the people of the place pronounce it Ruvle, or Ruvvel; and that that is the modern sound of the Kymric word Rhyfel, meaning war, as used in Wales. May it be then that the local modern pronunciation has conserved the history of the name, and that it, and the most interesting, and unhappily mutilated, cross, which has made that parish famous all round the planet, commemorate a medieval battle of great importance, the manuscript records of which have perished in some fire? "Battle" is the name of a place in Sussex, recording, since the year 1066, one of the turning points in English history. An old dialect of Kymric Keltic was in medieval times spoken in that Strathclydian part of the Scottish Border. Other places may be adduced from Great Britain as having an official written name differing from its ancient, local, popular, and modern pronunciation; for instance, Tintinhull, in Somerset. Mediæval inscriptions in its kirk shew that the people of the place are quite right in pronouncing it "Tinknell" to this day. I am, etc., EDWARD. S. DODGSON, M.A. Albert House, Bath, June 11, 1918. June 18. "In Memory of the Right Honourable Lady Charlotte madan, Second Daughter of Charles Earl Cornwallis and Sister of the Present In arquis. Hor Ladyship was married in 17.56 to the Revd Spencer ma dan D:D: now Bishop of Peterborough, by whom She had Two Sons and One Daughter. died (sic) 12th March 1794 Aged 68. She was, a Rare Example of Female Excellence, all the Duties of the Christian Character most Perfect in the most important" This inscription is seen on the left as one 4 enters, the South-West door of the Abbey. Church in Bath."died "ought "She died " It is not a synonym of des to be 6 Bookwords for Wordbooks. 64 : Hampstead. TO THE EDITOR OF THE Advertiser. SIR,-The Oxford Dictionary records the compound word "Heater-shaped," without quoting a sample of its use. In an Essay on Glouces tershire Fonts" by Alfred C. Fryer, published in the Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archæological Society," for 1917, we read Page 41-..., a half angel vested in an alb and holding a heater-shaped shield...43.... while the chamfer is ornamented with eight heater-shaped shields of arms. 44-...is a heater-shaped shield. In St. Swithuns Church, Bathford, there is an inscription containing the words, who decesed this Life the 23rd of Ivne, 1676. The O.D. quotes this use of decease,' as a transitive verb, from 1515 only. O.D. quotes not Brickmaker between 1875 and 1695. In An Experimental Enquiry concerning. Bagnigge Wells, near London; By John Bevis, M.D." (London: 1760) one finds page 3: "The neighbouring soil is various, as stiff blue clay, lime stone, brick-makers earth;...' O.D. under Beggary, as an adjective, quotes not a single ́ specimen of that spelling; but gives us four quotations containing Beggery. Can no author be quoted as having written this word with an a?. William Toldervy, in his Select Epitaphs (London: 1755), which serves as a supplement to The Dictionary of National Biography, records Vol. 2, one On Dr. Isaac Watts" (1748), con-: taining the verse : "An ardent Friend, and quickforgiving Foe": this compound epithet notTM being noted in the O.D. p. 105, in an inscription composed by Mr. Ambrose Phillips, Within this Burial-vault,..." O.D. quotes this combination from 1766 only. 66 46 It is not possible for a Wordbook of a great living Language to be complete. But it is a service of national importance to enrich and improve it. I am, Sir, yours truly, EDWARD S. DODGSON. House, Bath. Published June 20, 1918. EPITAPH S. COLLECTED BY W. TOLDERVY. VOL. I. Mors etiam faxis, nominabufque venit. AUSONIUS. Nor Man alone; his breathing Buft expires, His Tomb is Mortal; Empires die: where now Tho' half our Learning is their Epitaph. Dr. YOUNG, LOND ON: Printed for W. OWEN, Temple-Bar: And Sold by R. and J. DoDSLEY, A. MILLAR, J. JOLLIFFE, and T. WALLER. M,DCC, LV. |