I READ with interest and amusement W. H. Attley's letter, with a compilation of nicknames of Ringstead's denizens in the heyday of his early youth. As a native of Higham Ferrers, being engaged in my spare time in writing an anecdotal history of the place in the earlier part of the century, a chapter of which deals with nicknames and their derivation, I can more than vie with Mr. Attley.

Here is a list of nicknames, in alphabetical order, of male characters who lived in the ancient borough in the good old days, dating from my boyhood in the 1920's:-

Ackie, Bagpipes, Bally, Banana, Bant, Batter, Beech, Billy the Blood-letter, Bish, Bloodnut, Blower, Bolsh, Bony, Boo, Boss, Bowes, Bubbles, Buck, Bullet, Bunk, Bunker, Bunyan, Buppy cheesey, Buster.

Cheddy, Chink, Chip, Cud, Curly (this one was bald), Deaf-and-Dumb, Dimmock, Dimpy, Dirty, Double, Doughnut, Dreamy Dumb, Dwent, Felix, Fidgets, Flapper, Flitch, Foghorn, Fubby, Gadget, Gas-tap, Ginger, Gorilla, Grumpy, Gudgeon, Gypsy, Happy.

Jacko, Jesse, Hong Kong, Lamp-post, Lelly, Mack, Mara, Masher, Mousey, Nap, Nelson, Newpart, Pecker, Peg-leg, Pincher, Pongo, Pont, Poop, Prince of Wales, Puffer, Pump, Punch, Pym, Quiffy.

Rocket, Sack, Scub, Scut, Shaggy, Skinny, Sloppy, Smut, Sonny, Spendthrift, Spratty, Streak, Sugar, Ten-foot, Tiny (a six-footer), Tired, Toey, Toot, Tot, Tramp, Tubby, Twiggy, Weary, Winkle, Yummy.

R. W. SUDBOROUGH,
of Wellingborough.