2110-6-9-22

From: Major O.A. Forsyth-Major

Connaught Club, Seymour Street, London, W.2.

Telephone: Ambassador 1041. Telegrams: "Aconnaclub, Edge, London"

Dec. 26th, 1934

Dear Mr. Buchan,

I am writing to point out to you that in your admirable new work: "Oliver Cromwell" you have mis=

[mis]spelled the name of an ancestor of mine: Richard MAJOR, who appears in your book as MAYOR.

This error has been committed before, and you are not altogether to blame.

It was the fault of that funny old man Thomas Carlyle, who could easily have avoided this mistake by going down to Hursley Hants, or consulting some of the documents in the British Museum.

In the 17th century the name

was sometimes spelt MAIJOR. Carlyle probably saw this and owing to defective eyesight overlooked the fact that there was a dot on the j of "Maijor", and so made a Y out of it.

It may seem a trifling matter

5.

to the ordinary man, but to me it is rather annoying that in the 20th century such errors should be perpetuated after the Encyclopaedia Britannica people & several publishers have been repeatedly warned of the mistake.

6.

I saw you last at the tercentenery of the Oxford Debating Society; but I was then unaware of your intentions, or I should have mentioned the matter to you.

As a matter of fact I am collecting material for a history of the Major family which ought to make interesting reading one of these days.

Yours truly, O.A. Forsythe - Major