Jayne, reverting to the 'mistier-Gloucestershire' pairing, the COD gives two pronunciations, 'sher' and 'sheer' for the 'shire' element of such county names. I've only ever (consciously) heard one person use the 'sher' ending and myself pronounce it 'sheer', which I'd assumed was the standard RP version. So, for me, 'mistier' - Gloucestershire' is only an approximate rhyme. I wonder if there any recordings of Thomas's own pronunciation?
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