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Document number: 6180
Date: 19 Oct 1848
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: LOWER Marc Antony
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 19th March 2010

Lewes, 19th. Oct.
1848

Sir,

I have had the honour of receiving, through Mr Russell Smith of Old Compton Street, a copy of your “English Etymologies”.<1>

I read the work with great pleasure within a week of its publication, & I shall again peruse it as I believe with increased interest since you have done paid me the handsome compliment of a presentation copy.

My own humble researches in etymological science do not extend far beyond the scope of my “English Surnames,”<2> though I have for many years read with great enjoyment every work that has fallen in my way bearing upon the sources & history of our language.

On a subject involving so many uncertainties it was natural that one should not have agreed in every instance with the views of the writer. So far, however, as my recollection goes, the points upon which I differed from your etymologies were very few and trivial; while on the other hand I was exceedingly pleased with the your derivations & often wondered in the perusal of your volume that the same etymons had not occurred to me before. This would seem like some evidence, however, feeble, of their Truth.

I hope that you have received sufficient proof, by a good sale of your work, that your labours have been well appreciated, & that you may be induced to proceed to a new edition or to a second series. There are many other words which I should like to see elucidated from your pen. One, which occurs to me as I write, is “days-man”, a term occurring in Scripture & elsewhere in the sense of mediator. I have searched in vain for its origin. ‘From day & man’ says Johnson, but this like many others in his dictionary is no etymology at all, & leaves the question where it was.

With many thanks, believe me Sir, Yours respectfully & faithfully
M: A: Lower.

H: Fox Talbot. Esq.


Notes:

1. WHFT, English Etymologies (London: John Murray, 1847).

1. Lower, English surnames : Essays on family nomenclature, historical, etymological and humorous : with chapters of rebuses and canting arms, the roll of Battel Abbey, a list of latinized surnames, &c., &c (London: J. R. Smith, 1842). Lower had published a smaller version of this in 1839 and continued with regular editions through a posthumous one in 1879.

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