CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."'] Sin,—You may think another instance worth having. One of our Heads of Houses, an old man, once told me that sixty years ago, "correct" people always pronounced " e," when it came before " r " and another consonant, as " a." His grand- father always spoke of his school (and mine) as " Marchant
Taylors." He himself spoke of " Lady Jersey." We have certain evidences of such a rule left. Every University man here calls one of our rivers the " Cherwell " almost every townsman pronounces the name as it is written. The more educated people always pronounce " clerk " as if it were written with an " a,"—not so those in the lower grades of that occu- pation. Oar venerable neighbour, Sir Henry Verney, has his name variously pronounced; but "Varney" is a common name about Oxford, which may tell something for the older method. " Derby " and " Hertford " are obvious instances to quote for the rule; and when our Magdalen Hall first became Hertford College, I often heard townsmen pronounce the new name as it is written. But were the " Vernons " ever " Varnons " P—I
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