G'day Michaelr,

I was going to ask that ... from the other side of the world, it's hard to get that sort of information!

I note that there is a "Holland" sitting in the middle of England's easy coast ... so a "Friezland" would be little more surprise.

I've always wondered at the little mention given to Friese in discussions of English language - while some linguists maintain that the closest related language to English is, indeed, Friese. We always heard that it was the "Angles, Jutes and Saxons" that streamed into Britain at the request of the Romano-Britons left when Rome withdrew her troops in the 5th century ... but it must have been the Friese who ferried them across ... and the linguistic view suggests that more than a few stayed! Of course, whenever the English set out to fish the North Sea ... the first people they would meet out there would be a lot of Friese, fron straight across the water, so it seems, to me at least, that there would be a common pool of language that served between the English and the Friese ... and a lot of cross-fertilisation - of one sort or anther.

Good butter and good cheese -
Are good English and good Friese! (As they say ... but in Friese.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton