12 MARCH 1904, Page 17

&a,—I can vouch for the following. At the Paris Exhibi-

tion of 1878 an English family paused in front of a marble group of a man standing in the bows of a boat, looking .eagerly forward, with, I think, a torch in his hand. Under- neath was inscribed "Canaria Is Scio." After a puzzled silence, paterfamilias exclaimed : "I have it. Scio, I know; Canaria, the Canary Islands. It's the discovery of the Canary Islands by Columbus !" Many years later at Penshurst, when the old housekeeper, pointing to a portrait above a doorway, informed a miscellaneous group of visitors that it represented

the famous Sir Philip Sidney," a gentleman who had already annoyed the company sufficiently added, quite seriously : ' Supposed by many to have been the author of Junius's letters ; but I have my doubts ! "—I am, Sir, &c.,

St. Petersburg. J. F. BADDELEY.