11 NOVEMBER 1911, Page 18

MARTIAL AND " MERUM."

[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Surely the epigram "Callidus imposuit," &c., which you quote in your review of Mr. Paul Nixon's "Roman Wit" (Supp. Spectator, Nov. 4th) was best done into English by our own eighteenth-century poet, Gay, if I recollect rightly. Un- luckily I am unable to verify my quotation. The version ran thus :—

"A landlord at Bath put upon me a queer hum,

I asked him for punch and the dog gave me mere rum !"

Of course Martial knew no more of rum than of whisky, but Gay's pun was a good one.—I am, Sir, &c., AN OLD SCHOLAR.