**Isn't Wendy a derivative of Gwendoyn (Welsh)?? TC, /Steve Cameron, NJ David Ritchie wrote: > My father, who is visiting, confirms that Barrie invented the name "Wendy." > What further evidence could a person want? > > He explains, having visited the site of Barrie's pre-success hovel, that > Barrie composed in a wash house. Which is to say that the "Wendy house" I > remembered from the postcard, and that children used (possibly still do) to > imitate in their small playhouses in England (Americans won't know what I'm > talking about--Wendy houses are perhaps the female equivalent of forts or > tree houses), was a small hut in which, perhaps to escape the noise of > family life, Barrie would be charged with the fire underneath the boiler and > thus the process of doing laundry. While tending the fire, he was inspired > to write of pan et peter. > > Irony: I was describing one of my paintings to students today. I said that > I had gone from, early in my ambitions, hoping to "do" all of Scottish > history in one painting, to considering as suitable subject my father, my > brother, some laundry on a line and the Derbyshire hills. Except I called > the laundry "washing," and they hadn't a clue what I was talking about! > > David Ritchie > Portland, Oregon > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html