(TO THE THE EDITOR OF "SPECTATOR.") SIE, — Wellington is reported to
have said that Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton ; and yet a man, one Rudyard Kipling, ventures to reprove the nation for devoting itself heart and soul to the important business of winning Colensos and Magersfonteins in the cricket pavilion and on the grand stand of the football field. No wonder that all the best and brightest intellect of the country has cried out at such an idea. One is not surprised to find that the ex-captain of Surrey does " not read anything Mr. Kipling writes," and very much jobjects to that person. Nor need any one be surprised that a somewhat older, and therefore wiser," writer who signs himself "A. A." in the Times of Tuesday "greatly deplores the tone" of Mr. Kipling's verses. Can there be any excuse for the man who (even in hot blood) presumes to doubt the extreme value of our national birth-
right—the playing of games P-1 am, Sir, &c., J. F.
Previous page
