  We have obtained spectroscopic observations of the nebulae around seven
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, four in the Milky Way (WR 8, 16, 18 and 40) and three in
the LMC (BAT99-2, -11 and -38). They were observed using the ESO NTT with the
EFOSC-2 instrument, except for one nebula, NGC 3199, which was observed using
the UVES echelle spectrometer on the VLT. The aims of these observations were
to (a) quantify the degree of chemical enrichment in WR nebulae which had
previously been suggested to have abundances reflecting nucleosynthetic
processing; and (b) to attempt to detect the far-red lines of neutral carbon
(e.g. [C I] 9850A) in the nebulae around WC stars. Nebular densities,
temperatures and elemental abundances were derived using standard emission line
diagnostics. Our high spectral resolution UVES dataset for NGC 3199 allowed the
determination of line broadening temperatures using lines from several
different species. These showed consistent patterns and fair agreement with the
nebular temperatures derived from diagnostic line ratios. Amongst the Galactic
WR nebulae, the nebulae around WR 8, 16 and 40 were found to be strongly
nitrogen-enriched while NGC 3199 displayed abundances which were similar to
those of Galactic H II regions. Amongst the LMC WR nebulae, none displayed an
N/O ratio that significantly exceeded LMC H II region values. The far-red [C I]
lines were detected from NGC 3199, with the strength of the 8727A line
indicating that at least part of it was produced by C+ recombination rather
than collisional excitation. The line widths of the [C I] 9824 and 9850A lines
were however the same as those of collisionally excited nebular lines,
indicating that those lines originated largely from ionized regions within the
nebula.
