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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on August 30, 2016 at 23:58

Fire on Tottenham marfhes

Thank you, Alison, for showing fitting respect to Greater London's ancient wetlands by  your appropriate spelling of Marfhes. I have missed this correct usage of the long, medial or descending 's'('f') in close company with the terminal 's' for the better part of two centuries. Your more unlettered readers may have mistaken your medial f for an f typo, but Laus Deo, a few of us are still aware that the initial and medial f was always typographically correct while the final or terminal s was almost always de rigueur. Use of a terminal f , on the other hand, was never more than an affected archaism. The nub of the problem may be that the original long, medial or descending f never did have a central cross-nub, unlike the f which printers often substituted for the f .  I trust I make myself tolerably clear.

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Permalink Reply by Harringay Birder on August 31, 2016 at 7:46

I fear your trust may be misplaced my dear Age..

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on September 2, 2016 at 5:10

I've just been away for a few days but read about this while away. It's one of the places I take in on my long run :(

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