A STRANGE SAVANT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144826, 2 November 1915, Page 8

A STRANGE SAVANT.

<DR. MURRAY'S SURPRISE. The late Sir James Murray, the editor of the famous dictionary bearing his name, discovered somo years ago that one of his most valued contributors was an inmate of. Broadmoor Asylum, who bad stood his trial for murder! An article in the Strand Magazine tells the story of this remarkable individual _ under the title "The Strange Case of Dr. Minor.'' It begins thus: !'lt was Sir James Murray's custom, whenever he was ready to start on a neiv word (and the genesis of a single one mostly takes nri several pages in the New English Dictionary), to send it out to all of his ■ army of volunteer readers, who forthwith supplied the earliest possible quotation which they could discover in* which the word in question ivss used.

•“When this had been going on for a time, Sir James discovered that some of the most valuable quotations that reached him. together with some of the most scholarly comments thereupon, wore forwarded by a certain Dr. W. C. Minor, who wrote from Crowthorne, a small village in Berkshire. This contributor's identity puzzled Sir James more than a little, the more so as be soon came to realise that the latter’s knowledge of the subject, of philology could not be far behind his own. So much rlid Sir James esteem the mysterious Dr. Minor, in'fart, that whenever he had completely finished the analysis of the history of any one word, he was in the habit of sending the full notes connected therewith to his correspondent in Crowthorne for his final revision, which, more often than not. was productive of some important addition or exceedingly illuminating criticism or other comment.

“For many months this went on. Eventually, so much did Sir James feel himself and Oxford University in the debt of the mysterious savant (regarding whose social status the distinguished lexicographer could not make even a guess) that he on- 1 da£ approached the University heads and pointed out that it would, so he considered be a graceful and well-merited act on their part if an invitation were sent to the Berkshire savant asking him to. be the guest of the University for n week. “That could not be .arranged, so DrMurray was invited tir spend a day or two with his contributor, an invitation eagerly accepted. Arriving. Dr. Mnrrav was driven to a ‘huge brick building’ and was received by ‘a man of unmistnkeahly official*appearance.* who said: ‘This is Broadmoor'Criminal Lunatic Asylum, and I am the Governor. Dr. Minor, with whom you have been corresponding, is an inmate of thisinstitution. Ho is.-in fact, an inmate who has stood his trial for murder.’ ”