Morwenstow.
_The Letter "V"_ (Vol. iv., p. 164.).--If S. S. will turn again to my
remarks on this letter, he will see that I did not state that _Tiverton_
was ever pronounced _Terton_. I accede to what he has said of
_Twiverton_; Devonshire was inadvertently written for Somersetshire.
With regard to the observations of A. N. (p. 162.), he will find those
remarks were confined to the _v_ between two vowels, _i.e._ without any
other consonant intervening; and, therefore, other forms of contraction
did not fall within the scope of them. I refrained from adverting to any
such words as Elvedon and Kelvedon (pronounced respectively Eldon and
Keldon), because the abbreviation of these may be referable to another
cause. In passing I would mention that I think there can be no
reasonable doubt that the word _dool_, about which he inquires, is no
other than the Ang.-Sax. _d[=a]l_, a division, from _daelan_, to divide;
and whence our words _deal_ and _dole_. But to return to the letter _v_,
if MR. SINGER be correct as to _devenisch_ in the MS. of the _Hermit of
Hampole_ being written for Danish (p. 159.), it seems an example of the
peculiar use of this letter to which I have invited attention, for the
writer hardly intended it to be pronounced as three syllables if he
meant Danish. However, if that MS. be a transcript, may not the supposed
_v_ have been originally an _n_, which was first mis-read _u_, and then
copied as a _v_?