12 AUGUST 1916, Page 13

[To THE Eorros OD THE " 8rEcr.iros."1 8334 — It is not

difficult to identify the work which your contributor dis- cussed in his delightful article, " On Consulting the Dictionary." He has discovered in it, ho says, only a single instance of " the grim humour 'to which Dr. Johnson gave full rein in his dictionary." There are, however, at least two other specimens equally worth quoting. Under the word " Leal " we have " Land o' the Leal, the home of tho blessed after death—Paradise, not Scotland " ; while the " New Humour " is defined as " a so-called modern literary product in which there is even less humour than novelty." The first is, of course, an allusion to a famous error of Mr. GbAstone's.—I am, Sir, &c.,

W. ADDIS MILLER.

The Philosophical Institution, 4 Queen Street, Edinburgh.