THE EDDYSTONE : FACTS AND FICTIONS. 
215 
wrote to me [prior to my informing him of the existence of the 
forms /efestone and Edestone) as follows : 
" There may have been an 0. E. cognate to r3a, with form ide 
or ede not found in 0. E., but the direct ancestor of Edie, eddie, 
eddy." 
It is curious that while the modern form of spelling was 
introduced as long ago as 1664, what may be considered the 
purer form on etymological grounds — that with one d, I mean — 
remained largely in use until the present century, and was even 
used locally as late as 1842. It must be borne in mind that mere 
variations of spelling are of little account. Moreover, the change 
from the form with one d to that with two is found in the word 
"Eddy" itself, and is according to philological precedent. The 
significance of this change has also been much exaggerated. 
A writer in Notes and Queries (September 4th, 1886, page 191) 
says, " Teh, dg, ck, or kh, gh, nn, dd, 11, and all the doubled 
consonants, are no more than sound symbols and expedients 
to represent not two sounds, but one — that of the short consonant 
sound, of which ch, j, k, g, and the single consonants, are the 
complements." 
From acquaintance with one who wrote the name as "Edy- 
stone," I can vouch for the fact that even when so spelled it was 
pronounced " Ed-y-stone," just as now. Besides this, by the 
laws of philological change, involved in the alteration from 
i*8a to idy, ide and ede, we are led to conclude that these forms — 
Idyston, Idiston, and Edestone — were respectively pronounced 
"Id-y-ston," "Id-i-ston," and " Ed-e-stone." Consequently there 
is very little presumption in assuming that this was the character 
of the pronunciation all through. We find in several cases two 
or more forms of the name used in one book, and that not only in 
later, but in earlier times. In one part of B rice's Gazetteer (1750) 
the form with one d is used, and in another that with two d's. 
So in the Expeditions three forms are given in different charts. 
Surely this shows that the writers supposed that each spelling — 
Edestone, Ediestone, and Edystone — meant the same thing, and 
that that was the eddy which rendered the rock so dangerous. 
It is not a fresh idea that the rock is named from the eddies 
which are associated with it. On the contrary, I cannot find that 
any other explanation was even suggested, until a writer in the 
Western Antiquary started the proposition that it might have 
