ST. PETERSBURG, OR PETERSBURG ?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—I was scarcely prepared to find even the answers to my. query in the Spectator leaving me in just the same doubt as- before upon a point so simple. In private, I have asked the- question of grave authorities without any apparent chance of agreement; in public, I quite expected to be rebuked for what I feel to be ignorance. Petersburg, or St. Petersbourg ? Mr. A. L. Mayhew, in your number of this morning, answers the first- " A Russian " says the second, and rebukes me a little in a way which I might feel, but for Mr. Mayhew's more decisive (because- more reasoned) answer the other way. Privately, I have received a very interesting letter, from which I may quote the following —" The Russian name of the Russian capital is Sanktpeter- opol ;' the official French name (teste, Le Journal de St. Peters- bourg, • M6moires de l'Academie Imperiale de St. Petersbourg,'. vii. eerie, t. xxiii., pp., '279 11..409 ff.) is St. Petersbourg. The German official name is' Sanktpetersburg ' " (authorities quoted)..
Granting, then, that my correspondent and "A Russian" (what Russian ?) are likely to be correct, does not the initial. difficulty remain ? And does not it look like the truth that the- Russians' official name for their own city is a corruption ?' (Nobody calls the Roman Basilica, Peter's, "to save trouble.") in that case, the writer in the Times, Mr. Mayhew, and the young lady are borne out, and with them the curious scholar. ship of the Frenchman, unofficial. The city of Czar Peter was as much called after him as Washington after the famous American. As there was no St. Washing, the latter name survived. When and how was the saintly prefix first discovered for the Russian city ? An editorial answer would be persuasive. So far, I am no wiser than I was, but it certainly looks very much like a new version of an old question. Do not officials sometimes blunder ?—I am, Sir, &c., Eastbourne, June 16th. HERMAN MERIVALE.
[We fancy Mr. Merivale is right. The legal name is now un- doubtedly St. Petersburg, but the Rev. T. Milner in his " Russia" -quotes a letter from Peter calling his capital, still unb alit, Peters- burg (p. 204.)—ED. Spectator.]
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