hand-writing in other papers, and saw it was one and the same.  Soon after, Mr. Arundell favoured me with some further information on the subject, which I here give, as it adds still more to the interest of the story:—­’Looking into Gilbert’s History of Cornwall, in the parish of South Petherwin, there is said to be in the old mansion of Botathan five portraits of the Bligh family; one of them is the likeness of the boy, whose intimacy with the ghost of Dorothy Durant has been spoken of in his first volume, where she is erroneously called Dingley.  If this be a fact, it is very interesting; for it is strange that both Mr. Ruddell, the narrator (whose manuscript I lent to Gilbert), and De Foe, should have called her Dingley.  I have no doubt it was a fictitious name, for I never heard of it Launceston or the neighbourhood; whereas Durant is the name of an ancient Cornish family:  and I remember a tall, respectable man of that name in Launceston, who died at a very advanced age; very probably a connexion of the Ghost Lady.  He must have been born about 1730.  Durant was probably too respectable a name to be published, and hence the fictitious one.’  Mr. Arundell likewise says, ’In Launceston Church is a monument to Charles Bligh and Judith his wife, who died, one in 1716, and the other in 1717.  He is said to have been sixty years old, and was probably the brother of Samuel, the hero of Dorothy Dingley.  Sarah, the wife of the Rev. John Ruddell, died in 1667.  Mr. Ruddell was Vicar of Aternon in 1684.  He was the minister of Launceston in 1665, when he saw the ghost who haunted the boy.’”

Such is Mrs. Bray’s account of these very curious circumstances.  The ghost story inserted in Gilbert, as mentioned above, is altogether so much in the style of De Foe, that a doubt remains whether, after all, he may not have been the author of it.  Can “D.S.,” or any of your readers, throw further light on the subject?

D.S.Y.

     [Footnote 1:  Of Landulph, Cornwall, the author of Discoveries in
     Asia Minor, and the well-known Visit to the Seven Churches of
     Asia.  Mr. Arundell is now dead.]

* * * * *

PET-NAMES.

“Mary” is informed that “Polly” is one of those “hypocorisms,” or pet-names, in which our language abounds.  Most are mere abbreviations, as Will, Nat, Pat, Bell, &c., taken usually from the beginning, sometimes from the end of the name.  The ending y or ie is often added, as a more endearing form:  as Annie, Willy, Amy, Charlie, &c.  Many have letter-changes, most of which imitate the pronunciation of infants. L is lisped for r.  A central consonant is doubled. O between m and l is more easily sounded than a.  An infant forms p with its lips sooner than m; papa before mamma.  The order of change is:  Mary, Maly, Mally, Molly, Polly.  Let me illustrate this; l for r