Agincourt ascribed to a mistaken scribe | Brief letters
by Letters from Environment | The Guardian on (#4Q49W)
Azincourt | Geoffrey Boycott | Strawberries | Steam trains | Coffee orders
I think Prof Valentine Cunningham might be wrong about Agincourt being a medieval trooper's mishearing of Azincourt (Letters, 7 September). I believe it was actually a spelling error; some medieval scribe mistook the letter Z for the letter yogh (a version of G). The opposite occurs in the name McKenzie, which is really McKengie, similar to Menzies, pronounced "Mingies".
Robert Craig
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
" Geoffrey Boycott famously scored a double century and yet was dropped for the next match. He did exactly what was asked of him but so slowly, so doggedly, and so regardless of anyone else, that he had to go. And we're surprised that Theresa May idolises him (Cricket heroes honoured, 10 September)?
Jonathan Myerson
London