I am curious but why the heck is a certain
Charles ffoulkes the only Englishman that ever set his foot on earth whose surname is spelled in lowercase? Everywhere I read about him he is religiously spelled in small letters (e.g.
here). What did he do to become the man who is treated different from all the rest?
Was he
[] from outer space?
[] an Englishman in New York?
[] a secret member of Monty Python?
[] clever enough to bribe Al Gore before the Internet even existed?
The double consonant at the beginning of a name was an old way of indicating upper case. Apparently, some members of the gentry, particularly (if not exclusively) those with names beginning with an 'f', retained it as an affectation, although I have not come across it for many years. Those of us not in the know were unsure whether the 'f's were to be sounded separately. Those in the UK with long memories may recall the comedian Tony Hancock, who occasionally referred to a former girlfriend named Fiona f-fortescue - f-french.
(04-03-2020, 10:35 AM)Renatus Wrote: [ -> ]The double consonant at the beginning of a name was an old way of indicating upper case.
It sounds like
a rum old business...
I like the Wodehouse quote at the end of the article though:
Quote:“Sir Jasper Finch-Farrowmere?” said Wilfred.
“ffinch-ffarrowmere,” corrected the visitor, his sensitive ear detecting the capitals.
(04-03-2020, 10:35 AM)Renatus Wrote: [ -> ]The double consonant at the beginning of a name was an old way of indicating upper case.
Aha. And I was skipping him for years in the footnote jungles not just because he was tangential to my research interest but also because, I believe, my brain did not even register him to be a real person, more like the name of some database, catalogue or some other eccentricity.
ffoulkes is a critical source when researching early armour scholars. He was one of the first to try and correct the faulty scholarship and Victorian armour myths.