—I have not seen the following motto noticed either in your pages or elsewhere. I quote it from memory, as I recollect reading it many years ago on the sun-dial in front of the Hospice on the summit of the Mont Cenis:
"Tempore nimboso securi sistile gradum—
Ut mihi sic vobis hora quietis erit."
J. E. T.
Mispronounced Names of Places (Vol. v., p. 196.).
—Allow me to add to P. M. M.'s list:
| Spelling. | Pronunciation. |
|---|---|
| North-brook-end (Cambridgeshire) | Nobacken. |
| Mountnessing (Essex) | Moneyseen. |
| Brookhampton (Glostershire) | Brockington. |
| Barnstaple | Barum. |
| Crediton | Kirton. |
| Penrith | Perith. |
| Brougham | Broome. |
| Birmingham | Brummagem. |
It is hardly worth while to mention the larger tribe of contractions, such as Alsford for Alresford, Wilsden for Willesden, Harfordwest for Haverfordwest; nor the class of derivations from the Roman Castrum, as Uxeter for Uttoxeter, Toster for Towcester, and the like.
The railroads are correcting these grosser errors wherever they fall in with them. I remember a few years ago, being at Gloster, and intending to take the train to Cisiter, as I had always called it. "Oh!" said the porter, with quite the air of a Lingo, "you mean Ci-ren-cester." But I believe the good folks of the neighbourhood still stick to Aberga'ny and Cisiter.
P. M. M.'s appeal to your Scotch and Irish correspondents will I think produce little. In Scotland, names are generally pronounced as written, with a few exceptions, such as Enbro' and Lithgow, and perhaps a few others: but in Ireland I do not remember a single instance of the corruption of a name; though certainly the Irish might be forgiven if they had contracted or mollified such names as Drumcullagher, Ballaghaddireen, Moatagreenoque, and Tamnaughtfinlaggan. The English are, I believe, the only people who habitually clip proper names of persons or places, but I think it is also the only language in which the spelling of words does not afford a general guide for their pronunciation. No other language that I know anything of can afford such anomalies as are to be found, for instance, in rough, cough, lough, plough, dough, through, &c. &c.