IN dealing with the various criticisms on my article, which appeared under the above title in your May number of last year, I trust those upon whose remarks I may have to comment in connection therewith will credit me with doing so in a spirit of friendship, free from any feeling of irritation or argument. Detraction has ever poured the "waters of bitterness." This is not my object, and if peradventure I have treated my subject unskilfully, and laid myself open to attack like Thucydides, I trust the modern reader will be more merciful to me than was Dionysius of Halicarnassus to the great Greek historian.

    Our mutual object, as far as I can understand, is to arrive, as approximately as circumstances will permit, at some definite conclusion as to the origin or derivation of a word concerning which there seems to be no inconsiderable amount of difference. My individual present desire is not to detract or comment adversely on those who have done me the honour of criticising my article, but rather to remove what in more than one case I venture to consider an impression engendered by immediate considerations, apart from those to which weight should be more directly attached.

    Briefly, my article was based on the argument advanced by "Franc Plume" (W. A., Vol. I., page 46), in effect, that the rock may have obtained its name from "some great but forgotten Saxon," and, as supporting this idea, I ventured to submit that the word "Eddy" was one which was, etymologically speaking, closely identified with the names of several places in the west of England, as well as with my own family name (dating from Anglo-Saxon times in the west) and its various forms of spelling. In making this submission, I did not in any way wish to assert any authority for the argument I advanced, or claim so much distinction for my kindred, but rather to pave the way for some of "your" more "learned contributors" to solve a difficulty which so many seemed anxious to arrive at.

    Time, however, has placed at my disposal such matter that, until more substantial proof can be advanced to the contrary, I am more than ever inclined to the idea that "Franc Plume's" suggestion is "in no wise improbable." In my first article I ventured to state that in the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries the word at issue was uniformly spelt with one d, viz., as Ide, Ede, Edy, Edie, or Edye. To this statement Mr. Woodhouse has taken exception as regards the 17th and 18th centuries. With reference to the 17th century, Mr. Woodhouse produces no evidence to substantiate his denial of the premises of my argument, other than that he is "informed, but cannot vouch for the statement, that this spelling occurs in a chart of about 1680."

    I can assure Mr. Woodhouse I have left no stone unturned to trace this chart, but only with the following result, (1) "Portolano, or coast map of the Atlantic Ocean, including the West Coast of Africa and Europe .... made by Nicholas Comberford, London, 1670." (2) "Portolano .... made by John Burston for Mr. Thomas Nash, London, 1660. (3) "Of the headlands of England as they lie one from another (with a MS. map of the same), London, Robert Barker, 1604." These maps are in the Bodleian, and in each case the word "Eddystone" is rendered "Edistone"; whilst in the British Museum we find the following of about the same date, (1) "De Nieuve Water Wevelt, ofte Zee-atlas door Jacob eu Carpadus, Lootsman t'Amsterdam" 1676. (2) "Canalis inter Anglice et Galliæ" 1640, in both of which the word is rendered as "Ideston."

    As regards the 18th century, Mr. Woodhouse certainly does bring forward substantial evidence of the word having been spelt with the two d's, most of which references I was also aware of, as well as many others.

    My object, however, was only to quote those authorities whom I ventured to consider the general public, and literateurs in particular, would in a measure actually rely on, i.e., Smeaton, Weston, Polwhele, Pentecost Barker, Rudyerd, Winstanley, and Camden. Whilst referring to these names, I am certainly at variance with Mr. Woodhouse when he says that all the authorities I have quoted "wrote as familiar with the local form of spelling as instanced in the Mayor's letter of 1636"; and here I would like (by permission of the Editor W. A.) to correct the spelling of the word as recorded in Mr. Crampporne's letter, on page 288, Vol. V., from "Edystone" to "Edyestone." Are we to infer from Mr. Woodhouse's argument that he propounds the astounding theory that the correct spelling of a local word is not to be found in the locality itself, and that, à fortiori, it is to be depreciated, discredited, and sought for elsewhere? Surely Mr. Woodhouse is speaking for the 19th century, and not for the 18th. From whence does Mr. Woodhouse propose to evolve the correct spelling of the word Eddystone in the first quarter of the 18th century; at an age when science, etc., was almost in its infancy, when locomotive propulsion had not even entered on its initial stage, when books were only accessible to the rich, and phonetic spelling was still in use? If from the archives of our libraries, those great storehouses of learning, they are still at our disposal; and yet what do we find bearing on the point? Practically little.

    Surely the documentary evidence of such men as I quoted in my first article are evidences of more "general use" than are those of John Pine, Donn, Halley, Lipscomb, or Cary.

    Following Mr. Woodhouse's remarks seriatim, I must also take exception to his statement that "when the spelling of 'Edystone' was current" it was always pronounced in three syllables, and with the short e at the commencement, viz., "Ed-y-stone." May I ask what evidence exists for this statement, seeing that Mr. Woodhouse takes upon himself to speak authoritatively for a period of upwards of three hundred years.

    I have made every possible study of the question inferentially raised by Mr. Woodhouse, viz., that the proper spelling of a place-name is not to be found locally, with the almost unanimous result that the decision is adverse to that gentleman; indeed, the local spelling of place-names is, and has been for years, a very popular study with officers of the Royal Engineers employed on the Ordnance Survey.

    My contention is not that the second d is the creation of the 19th century, but rather the outcome of the development of that education which arose during the middle and end of the last century, and which gave birth to the great desire, for the first time generally felt in the history of our country, of ascertaining the origin, etc., of place-names; thus, the fact of a strong eddy existing in the neighbourhood of the rock which was by name, locally and popularly, called Edi+stone, Ede+stone, Edy+stone, etc., etc., would have been sufficient in those days to have justified not only local, but all authorities foreign to the place, without further enquiry, in coming to the almost unanimous conclusion that it was so called in consequence of its tideway.

    To this assumption I offer no objection, seeing the very elementary condition to which our forefathers at that period had arrived at in the study of philology; but at the end of the 19th century Mr. Woodhouse must pardon me if I am somewhat sceptical in accepting, as final, the authority of Messrs. Pine, Bonn, Lipscomb, etc., as against such authorities and such evidence as I have ventured to place before your readers. The study of place-names and proper names had not then been taken in hand; registers were still carefully guarded from the public gaze; there was no Domesday, no Pipe, Compostus, or Close Rolls, no Inventories or Calendars, to connect the great stone with the great past. To the public these relics of a past age were a dead letter, to which they never anticipated obtaining access. The rock was then called Ideston, Edestone, Edystone, etc., etc.; phonetically, the prefix Ide, Ede, Edy, had an equivalent in the tideway word of "Eddy," coupled with the suffix "stone." Its meaning may or may not have been understood at that time; certain it is, we are not clear upon the point even towards the end of the 19th century, whilst the fishing people of Cawsand, Kingsand, and Rame (the three nearest villages to the rock) scarce know it at the present day by any other name than "The Stone."

    In the MS. instructions to Mr. Smeaton (1756) the word is also spelt Edystone, and in Robert Norman's Safeguard for sailers, or the Rutter of the Sea, London, 1584 (Bodleian Library), the following occurs: "lies a rocke which is called Edie-stone, and it lies south south west southerly from the Howe of Plimouth." I have also in my possession a voucher for duty paid (dated 18th January, 1721) to the Corporation of Trinity House on account of "Edystone" Lighthouse, by virtue of an Act of 4 and 5 Queen Anne (1705), and I find that in this Act the word is spelt as rendered on the voucher, viz., "Edystone."

    Mr. Woodhouse can now scarcely claim to have proved that the second d has not been added during the 19th century; on the contrary, I submit there is every evidence to show that prior to the dawn of the present century the second d was a practically unknown quantity.

    Mr. Woodhouse's reference to the inscription on the medal struck and given to the workmen employed on the rebuilding of the lighthouse is both interesting and instructive; but I cannot here, again, agree with him in the deduction he draws therefrom. Mr. Smeaton used the prefix "Edi" in his inscription, because, I submit, it would have been orthographically incorrect to have used "Edy," seeing the letter y does not exist in the Latin, whilst the letter i is its English equivalent, which no doubt was the cause of his using the form of spelling he did. Whether Mr. Smeaton was a classical scholar or not, I am unaware; if he was, the use of the prefix "Edi" is accounted for; and if he was not, the English text of the inscription was no doubt placed in the hand of some learned man for translation, who unquestionably rendered our disputed word orthographically correct by displacing the y by its Latin equivalent of i. Apart from this, it was not an uncommon practice in Early English to substitute an i for a y, as may be seen in the following curious example:—

    Again, "Edi" (Terra Ivhelli in Devenesira) as a surname appears in the Exon Domesday (Exeter Cathedral); later, in Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII. (1489), II., 500; and later still, in the St. Columb Major Parish Registers, as "Edii" (1585). Indeed, accepting Mr. Woodhouse's argument as laid down in the poems of Michael Drayton quoted by him, the name of Edy or Edi (i = y) may be considered to be one of the purest and least tampered with of our ancestral surnames.

    Mr. Woodhouse next proceeds to notice "the earlier forms of the names as given" by myself. To these I trust I may be allowed to supplement the following, showing that in earlier ages the actual surname of de Ediston, Edeston, Edestone, existed: (1) Release to Mathew, son of William de Edeston, and his wife Agneta (Wells Cath. MSS., 8 Edward III.). (2) Release of John Deye de Stokeland and Johanna his wife, widow of Michael de Ediston (Ibid., 12 Richard II.). (3) Bond, £20, given by William, son and heir of Michael Ediston, merchant, to John Trybet, Knight, for merchandize bought from him (Ibid., 7 Richard II.). (4) John Edestone, witness to a deed (Corporation of Rye, Sussex MSS., Appendix, 5th Report, 8 Richard II.).

    When I claimed to have disposed of " I.W.N.K.'s" (Vol. II., page 64) effort to build up the word "Eddy" out of the Saxon words ed (again) and ea (water), I did so on the clearly defined argument of " Devs., jun.," supported by Professor Skeat, with whom I had been previously in consultation. Mr. Skeat, who has favoured me with his opinion on the matter, considers that the spelling with "one d or two is a question of chronology, and that a spelling with one d is to be expected in documents of sufficient antiquity." He further remarks: "The spelling with i or e also decides nothing. The old spelling of 'eddy' was 'idy,' less correctly spelt 'ydy ' (with y for i) in Sir John Holland's Book of the Houlate, about A.D. 1453."

    He goes on to say: "It is difficult to show the phonological argument in a popular way, but the fact is that the very Norse words which Wedgwood cites from Aasen as being against the derivation from the A.-S. ed, back, really tell in its favour, and as good as prove it." Again: "The right etymology of 'eddy' is that which I have given, viz., from A.-S. ed, back, and nothing else. The suffix is not the word ea, water, at all, but is simply formative, and I have no hesitation in stating that Wedgwood's derivation is certainly wrong.

    "Edi-stone is no doubt correct: it may be either Eddy+stone or Edy+stone. The name Edy may easily be the A.-S. eadig, happy, lucky, blessed, spelt "edi" in the 13th century, and obsolete in the 14th.

    "I do not think the question as to whether the name of the rock is connected with the word 'eddy' or with a personal name can be definitely settled; at the same time, I take your view that a personal name is much more probable"

    Here we have Mr. Skeat's own personal opinion of the matter, an opinion which I will venture to submit justified me in considering that "Devs., jun." was correct in dealing with "I.W.N.K.'s" remarks quoted from Wedgwood's Dictionary of English Etymology.

    Mr. Skeat subsequently refers to the question of the personal name, and asks: "But what personal name? There seems to be three or four of them, and perhaps all different in origin. The Anglo-Saxon charters have words beginning with (1) Ide; (2) Iddes, gen. of Idd⁽¹⁾; (2) Eddes, gen. of Edd⁽³⁾; (4) Eád, as in Eadingham."

    In conclusion, I have to express my thanks to Mr. Woodhouse for the very courteous manner in which he has dealt with my article, as also for his reference to W. Sandy's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and other works, though hardly considering them as bearing on the point. I do not for one moment dispute the fact of there being "currents or eddies in the neighbourhood of the rock," as Mr. Woodhouse would seem to infer. I know the rock well, and the two great counties of which it may almost be called the sentinel. I have lived for years close to "fam'd Edyston's far shooting ray,''* whilst my ancestors have been Devonians for centuries.

    I am also deeply indebted to Mr. Webb for his friendly criticism. What he remarks may fitly form a portion of our controversy, and be added to the various details which some day may tend to throw more light on the subject. I trust, however, he will allow me to point out that the word "Edda" (Snorri Sturluson) is of purely literary construction, and bears but remotely on the point.

    The word Edelstein has also been suggested to me by one of your subscribers, but this word again is merely a modern German form of Athelstan, and hence can have no locus standi in our argument.

    At present, we cannot say we have made much progress in our controversy; let us, hope, however, that as time rolls on we may be in a position to show that "Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo."

    * Gay's Trivia.

Extracted from The Western Antiquary, or Notebook for Devon, Cornwall & Somerset, Volume VI, Part XII, May 1887, pp287-290.

[see The Eddystone Lighthouse by H B S Woodhouse, 1889]