X 



ON 2nd March 1888 the following telegram was handed in 

 Names of ^ or Delivery at the post-office of Chepstow : 



' Going to Llanf airpwllgungwllgogerhwllclydiligo- 

 gogoch; shall be home by 4.30.' 



The postmaster, thinking that there was m'ore than a fair 

 penn'orth of consonants in the name, referred it to his 

 surveyor, who wrote back : 



' It is an attempt at the name [of a village in Anglesey], but 

 is evidently not written by a Welshman; the spelling is in- 

 correct, and, but for the joke of the thing, the ordinary 

 abbreviation Llanfairpwll l would have been better. The 

 full name correctly written I give below Llanfairpwllgwyn- 

 gyllgogerchwyrnydrobwillandisilliogogogoch.' 



Now it is easy to share with the surveyor of Chepstow 

 the humour of a name like this occurring in a modern 

 telegram, and to join in the chuckle of the sender, who 

 was within his rights in claiming it as a single word; 

 but originally it must have been framed, like all other 

 place-names, with sober indicative purpose. Distinct and 

 permanent natural features in a country are generally 

 distinguished by very simple titles. Thus, to take an 



1 It is often called Sillygogo by the natives. 



