" WAVERL E Y."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The little poem " Waverley " in the Spectator of July 4th expresses in terse and well-chosen language the sub- conscious emotions of many an aged novel-reader who, like myself, reads and enjoys most modern novels, but
" Still reads Dickens upon the sly, And even Scott when nobody's by."
By a coincidence, only a few days ago, I expressed a similar idea in a coarser form. I personally appreciate and enjoy modern novels, but I was endeavouring to analyse and put in words the difference between a modern "problem novel" and, say, Waverley in its effect on the mind of the reader; and I decided that it might be compared to the difference between a Highland glen and a luxuriant sewage farm.—I am, Sir, &c., CLARENCE M. DOBELL. The Grove, Charlton Kings, sear Cheltenham.
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