Every reader of "N. & Q." must be acquainted with places throughout the country pronounced very differently to their spelling. It has occurred to me that a collection of them would be interesting, both as a topographical curiosity, and as an illustration of our provincial dialects. No paper is fitter for such a collection than the "N. & Q.;" its correspondents would doubtless communicate any within their notice, and you, Mr. Editor, would from time to time give up a little space to them.
The following are what I remember just now:—
| Spelling. | Pronunciation. |
| Wednesbury (near Birmingham) | Wedgbury |
| Smethwick (near Birmingham) | Smerrick |
| Cirencester | Cisiter |
| Bothal (Northumberland) | Botal |
| Merstham (Surrey) | Maestrum |
| Carshalton (Surrey) | Casehorton |
| Shepton (Somersetshire) | Shepun |
| Ratlinghope (Salop) | Ratchup |
| Chantlingbury (Sussex) | Shankbury |
| Hove (Sussex) | Hoove |
| Wavertree (near Liverpool) | Wartree |
| St. Neots | St. Nouts |
| Beauchamp | Beechem |
| Belvoir | Beever |
| Saubridgeworth | { Sapsworth |
| { or Sapsey |
Some of your correspondents may send Scotch, Irish, and Welsh specimens; I would suggest such be kept separate from the English. My own experience bids me carefully abstain from sending Welsh ones. When on a walking tour in Wales three years ago, I asked a peasant "if that road led to Aberga'ny" (with conscious pride in my pronunciation); "Nay, nay, sir, that road takes to Abergavenny."
P. M. M.
Minor Notes.
The Banking Company in Aberdeen, and the Bank of England.
—The Banking Company in Aberdeen was established in the year 1767; and the following Note respecting it may be new to many of the readers of "N. & Q." This Company adopted the plan of using paper bearing in watermark a waved line, and the amount of the note expressed in words, along with the designation of the Company; but about the year 1805 a gentleman connected with Aberdeenshire brought this paper under the notice of the Bank of England, in consequence of which they adopted it, and procured an act of parliament to be passed prohibiting the use of paper so marked by any provincial bank.
PETRAPROMONTORIENSIS.