THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN "
SIR,—Webster's Dictionary defines a siege as the sitting down of an army around or before a fortified place for the purpose of compelling its surrender or of reducing it by assault after systematic offences and approaches. The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives practically the same definition, omitting the word around. I would invite the atten tion of Archdeacon Fosbrooke and Mr. Geoffrey Bowles to the two words in italics. I conceive them to be entirely mistaken in supposing that a siege only begins when complete investment has taken place. As a matter of fact, there have been famous sieges from Troy onwards where a back door has remained open (sometimes the sea) for long after the siege began.—Yours faithfully, J. H. SHACKLETON BAILEY.
The Vicarage, St. Michaels-on-Wyre, Preston.
Previous page
