Wondering in Winchester

Yes, I DO mean wondering not wandering.


I used my bus pass for the first time this morning, to go to Winchester.  


The stop is just seconds away from my house, so very convenient, though the journey takes about an hour.  

Winchester Guildhall

Winchester has lots of historic buildings, well-preserved or restored, and is a very pretty city, - and those two words are what set me wondering.


I am always fascinated by English words - their spelling and/or pronunciation - and fascinated by their origins.  For example, pretty and city both sound exactly the same, but are spelled differently.  I think it is their origins that have influenced the spellings.  Pretty seems to have come from the Saxon (praettig) or the Mercian (prettig), whereas city is almost certainly from the French word cité or the Latin origins of that word.  That Norman Invasion again!


Goodbye Mr Chips


On my way home on the bus, we stopped to let someone off at a bus stop in the little village of Twyford.  Beside the bus stop was a grassy bank, very pretty with clumps of native primroses and a plaque that dedicated the bank to the memory of Mr Pumfrett.  PUMFRETT?  Surely an anglicisation of the French Pommes frites...