THE PANEL SIR,—Doubtless Strix is right to associate panel with
saddlery, although my dictionary derives the word from pannus, a rag: pannu$ has its place in medicine as a pathological formation in rheumatoid arthritis.
In law, however, the word has almost oppo- site significances; in England, the jury 4 empanelled, in Scots law, the panel is the prisoner at the bar. An extract from the Kirk session records of the small town of Freuchie, in Fife, referring to the trial of a poor wench who was up for illegitimacy, runs, But the panel was contumacious, she said she kenned maist o' the elders as weel as they knew her, and that she did not care one flick of her finger '-1 bowdlerise here-- ' for what they said.'
She was condemned to stand at the Kirk door, clad only in her linings and a white sheet, every Sabbath day for six months. One can almost wish that a similar award could be imposed on certain members of a TV panel.—Yours faithfully,
W. GRANT WAUGH Holywell Manor Cottage, Croxdale, Durham
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