Thread: St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
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Old June 24th 06, 12:24 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Richard J. Richard J. is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
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Default St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
wrote:

In her amusing book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" Lynn Truss (mistakenly,
I think) states the rule as being that one omits the "s" where the
proper noun is of "ancient" origin, whatever that may mean. But she
then goes on to disprove this rule by quoting "St. Thomas' Hospital"
as being an exception to the rule!

IIRC (I don't have the book to hand at present), she said that if people
invent a brand name, one should reluctantly accept it as it stands, and
quoted "St Thomas' Hospital" as an example. The webmaster at their site
once tried to persuade me that the spelling reflected the fact that
there were two saints called Thomas connected with the hospital, but of
course that would make it "St Thomases' Hospital".

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

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