where is Granby, anyway?
Dr Wordsmith writes: I am not a cheap information service, I am a fount of knowledge about the English language. If you want cheap information, you should look it up yourself. However, an expert should never miss the chance to show off his knowledge, and as I happen to have a dictionary handy, I can tell you that marquis and marquess are different spellings of the same word. Granby, I believe, is a small village in Nottinghamshire, too small to warrant the presence of a marquis. But there you are – when did anyone last come across a noblemen who actually lived in the place whose name he bears in his title? The Duke of Devonshire skulks in Derbyshire, while the Duke of Norfolk hails from the Arundel area. There should be a word meaning “a person who lives where his title says he should”. Dear Dr Wordsmith, What about “Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare”? Dr Wordsmith writes: That is different. Archer was given one of these modern, cut-price, synthetic titles that the recipient always uses
