The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 3, January 21, 2007, Article 14

ON EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SPELLING

Arthur Shippee noticed the phrase "Lyme Regis goal" in last week's
publication of an excerpt from Eric Leighton's book "NUmiS WORTHY".
He writes: "Does the original perhaps read "Lyme Regis gaol", the
British spelling of jail?"

[At first I was afraid I'd made a mistake in publishing the excerpt.
When I checked Eric's original email and my copy of the book, I thought
perhaps he'd made a mistake in transcribing the original text.  However,
the spelling seems to have come from the original newspaper, the
Nova-Scotia Gazette & Weekly Chronicle of August 29, 1786.  -Editor]

Eric Leighton writes: "There is no doubt in my mind that it should
properly have been 'gaol'.  However, as noted in my book's Introduction,
if the original spelling, right or wrong, did not detract from the
meaning, it appears in my copy the same way. There are literally hundreds
of these, and it became obvious to me very early that if I corrected
them all, I would detract from the genuine-ness of the whole thing.

"Also, if for every minor mis-spelling I added that ugly distraction:
[sic] afterwards, there would have been several pages more of typing.
That lead me to explain my method of non-alteration as found in the
introduction. I did often see this particular word spelled this way.
It did not seem particularly important to those good folks which way
it came. I saw certain words spelled in different ways so often, and
in fact this one in particular, that I always made doubly sure. I
took great care to make my copies as exactly as I could, so if it
appears in the book as goal, then I will stand by it."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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