I just have another question to post here today: The Beeb for some reason chose to base it’s coverage of the autumn statement in Gloucester this morning, so there were quite a few people on breakfast TV speaking with West Country accents. It automatically reminded me of the character Samwise in The Lord of the Rings. When he was reading the book to me and my brothers as children, my dad always gave Sam a West Country accent. I think it really suited the character. Interestingly, when Peter Jackson’s film adaptations were made about ten years later, the actor playing Sam, Sean Austin, also gave him a west Country accent, despite being from New York. Thus I can’t help wondering: did Tolkien ever state what sort of accent Sam had? We know he based the character on the down to earth men he met in the trenches of World War One, but did he ever note anything about his accent? As I say, the rural, down-to-earth inflexion seems to suit him; and the coincidence between my Dad’s childhood reading and the accent used by Austin, perhaps most memorably in this scene, is enough to arouse my curiosity.