TCG Letter #260

Mr Britten asked some questions about the nomenclature of place names, and the map of the Shire. Tolkien discusses the names Pincup, Nobottle, and Oxford. He says that Christopher named many of the places on the map of the Shire on his own, following Tolkien's general principle that Shire-names should be actual English names. He also responds to a query about poetry in The Lord of the Rings (mentioning Oliphaunt in particular) and says that most reviewers ignored the poetry completely, except for Auden.