Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/358

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. XIL OCT. so, 1915.

they sed " daigh " an they spelt it doei ; fact ! King Elfred hee sed dceg, ee did. That there i is waut fonolergists calls i- consemant.

'Nuvver frendermuyn ee sez ter mee, " Enery," he sez, " wa'dcher call these figgers ? " I looks an I sees 1, 2, 333, an I sez "Won, too, an free underd an firty-free," an ee larfs. I tawked beck et eem an I sez, " If my mispernounciation of 3's is wraung aow erbaout your spellin, wiv yer o, n, e, won ! an yer t, w, o, too ! ! Garn ! ! ! Bsides, my hancesters sed ' free ' before the Conq-rer caighm." Aow do HI now ? Cans the plaighce daown in Essix waut the Venererble Bede called Ythancaster they called Effe- cester. See ? You'l find Effecester in Doomsdaybook, 'few look. London's in the H6astern Caounties, eet ees (vide Censer), an there aighn't now need ter be sow stuck up erbaout the Heast Midlan dyaleck like them Caighmbridge cowves is. Yew mer fink eet low wen a furough Cauckney sez f 'stead er th. Look et the Hemprer of Russia, naow, ee never sez nuffink else but Feodor, hee down't, an ee means Feodore all the tuym, saighm as mee.

Ivver ear tell er the " glottal stop " ? Yew d'now waut the glo"al staup ees ? Well, HI'll tell yer. 'Few truy ter saigh " lucky " wivaout the ck you'll git eet : lu"y, see ? They've gaut eet in Glasgow an we've gaut eet in London. Mos'ly we've gaut eet wiv aour t. F'rinstance, we saigh mu"on an bu"on 'stead er the litery " mut- ton " an " button," en such luyke.

'Nuvver fing as we gow in fer is mee- tafersis. F'rinstance, I sez interduction an pernounciaightion, HI do. Well, thet's meetafersis, see ?

Yus, I've eard erbaout it :

"Vite vine an winnygur Werry good wittles I wow,

but I fink it's silly. I knew a man once waut used to saigh "wan " for van, but ee duyed a very laung wuyle agow. . '

This aighn't arf, but So long !

ENERY.

[We think our readers will like to know for certain -what they perhaps have guessed in read- ing it that this ingenious exposition of Cockney speech is from the pen of our valued contributor MR. ALFRED ANSCOMBE.]

> . THE SPLIT INFINITIVE (US. xii. 198, 251, 310). SIB RICHARD TEMPLE refers to the so-called "split infinitive " as being "a .ease of the growth of English," but it has been used by English writers for the last $our hundred: years, and it is only the more

foolish and ignorant pedants that object to its use. As a matter of fact we all r including even the most fastidious purist,, continually use the " split infinitive," for no- one hesitates about writing " to re-consider,'* or " again consider " ; and if we say " to- case-hard en " we use the "split infinitive '* just the same as if we said " to gently blush " (Herrick, 1591-1674), or " to be truly touched " (Shakespeare, 1564-1616), or "to neither strive nor cry " (Matthew Arnold). " To consider " is one verb, " to re-consider " is another, and " to carefully consider " is a third, and it is only the dunderheads who imagine that there is something wrong about the last of these. OXFORD GRADUATE.

THE CUCKOO IN FOLK-LORE (11 S. xii. 182, 230, 250, 287). With regard to J. F. S.-J.'s communication at the last reference it may be noted that Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote in his ' British Birds ' (London, 1907), at p. 188, writes :

" Practically nothing' is known as to whether cuckoos pair, or if the female receives the atten* tions of several males, and the number of egg* laid by a single bird in the season is also doubtful, though about eight is said to be the number."

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT,

JOHN HOPKINS OF BRITTENS (11 S. xii. 279). I take the following from p. 47 of ' The History and Topography of Wye/ published 1842 :

"A very considerable portion of the lands and tenements in this parish belong to Mr. Sawbridge, his estate being increased by his father purchasing those of Bond Hopkins, Esq., which consisted of Wye Court, Harville, Cold Harbour, Wye Downs, and Nackholt. They are supposed to have belonged to Wye College, and afterwards to the Kempes; They were purchased in Chancery by John Hop- kins, Esq. from his rapacity commonly called Vulture Hopkins. He died immensely rich in 1732 y and devised these estates not to be inherited till after the second generation, then unborn ; but the Court of Chancery set his will aside, and gave his estates to his heirs-at-Iaw. from whom they de- scended to Bond Hopkins, Esq."

R. J. FYNMORE.

EDGAR ALLAN POE (11 S. xii. 302). The fullest and best biography of this eccentric poet is that prepared shortly after his death in 1849 by Dr. Griswold, and published in New York. The edition of his ' Poetical Works ' published by Sampson Low & Sons in London in 1858 is prefaced, however, by a very full original memoir. His father, Sa native of Maryland, married a beautiful actress named Elizabeth Arnold, but they died almost at the same time, leaving three