> week are looking at a story by Arthur Machen. We cannot > agree on how his last name should be pronounced.... > > The most recent opinion is from someone who > says he knew someone who knew Machen and he pronounced > his own name "mackin". Does that sound likely? > Stephen Davies Either pronunciation seems fairly likely. Arthur Llewelyn Jones-Machen (1863-1947) was born at Caerleon (Caerllion), and his father was a clergyman originally of Llanddewi Fach. There is a village called Machen in Gwent (prob. about 5-6 miles from Caerleon) which is pronounced with the guttural ch. According to the entry in _The Dictionary of National Biography: Missing Persons_ (OUP, 1993), however, Machen was Arthur's mother's maiden name and was adopted by the Jones' to please her Scottish relations. Perhaps they were well-off and worth the change of name. Machen worked mainly in London, and perhaps used the "Mackin" or "Maychen" pronunciation due to being mainly amongst Englishmen - although he was proud of his roots, and Monmouthshire (Gwent) was the background of some of his writings. The answer, therefore, is that either, or both, pronunciations may be right. Michael Morgan Heythrop College University of London