I've just posted a query on sam Hill, John Brown, swan, and Plum Nelly to this:

"Weekly World Wide Words newsletters that are written by Michael Quinion.

Newsletters discuss the vagaries of the English language, including word histories, new words, the background to words in the news, and some of the problems of English usage. World Wide Words also tries to answer your questions on English language and usage."

Will let you know what they say.