-- Dear Mr. Buckley: In the Notes & Asides section of your Dec. 17 issue, a reader wanted to know why The Bronx is the only borough of New York City to have the definite article in its name.

The reply expressed complete ignorance on the subject. Let me enlighten you, your correspondent, and your other readers.

The 42-square-mile area that is New York City's borough of The Bronx was originally part of Westchester County. In 1874 the section west of the Bronx River was taken over by New York City. In 1895 the portion east of the Bronx River was similarly annexed. In 1898 the city took over Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. At that time it was decided to create the five-borough city of Greater New York, with the two areas previously annexed erected as one of the boroughs.

As that territory had never had a name before, the City Fathers looked at a map and saw that the Bronx River ran through its center. Therefore, they named the borough after the river, the borough of The Bronx.

If your correspondent or anyone connected with National Review had taken time to call The Bronx County Historical Society at 718-881-8900, this elemental information could have been obtained in less than three minutes.

I would suggest that if anyone has any question about the heritage of The Bronx or its enormous, but underappreciated, contributions to the city and the nation, he or she should contact this institution.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Ultan

Bronx Borough Historian

Bronx, N.Y.

--Dear Mr. Buckley: After years of reading Notes & Asides, I finally have something to contribute.

I wish to shed light on Mr. Daly's etiological question that remained unanswered in the Dec. 17 NR, viz., why it is that The Bronx takes the definite article.

In colonial times, a large portion of the area in question was settled by Jakob Bronck and his family. Hence when plucky Nieu Amsterdamers would wend their way through the wilds of upper Manhattan and cross the Harlem River, they were said to be going to visit "the Broncks."

Apparently the appellation stuck, but the greater mystery to me is how the "cks" elided into "x."

Cordially,

Rev. David J. Born

Rego Park, The Queens, N.Y.

--Dear Rev. Born: To get an answer to your question, just call the Office of The Bronx Borough Historian. Three minutes. Telephone: 718- 881-8900.

Cordially,

WFB

"Nixon was proud of his capacity to memorize, but the exercise of that skill tripped him up now and again. The State Department's brief, duly committed to memory, was on the forthcoming visit of the prime minister of Mauritius, an unfriendly desert state in West Africa, but the dazed guest in the Oval Office was the prime minister of ever-so-friendly Mauritania, a lagoon of sorts in the Indian Ocean. Only after well into the president's hectoring of the policies of Mauritius did Henry Kissinger succeed in slipping him a note: 'wrong prime minister, wrong country.' "

-from a recent WFB column

--Dear Mr. Buckley: Just to let you know that folks read carefully out here in Utah: It is Mauritania that is "an unfriendly desert state in West Africa" and it is Mauritius that is "a lagoon of sorts in the Indian Ocean."

Given this confusion, I now am not clear as to whether Richard Nixon goofed, Henry Kissinger goofed, or William F. Buckley Jr. goofed.

With warmest regards,

Jeffrey R. Holland

Salt Lake City, Utah

--Dear Mr. Holland: How's Holland doing? Not lost in the Indian Ocean, I hope.

Cordially,

-WFB

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