12 SEPTEMBER 1947, Page 16

TOO MANY FEWS" SIR, —As the reviewer who used the expression

" quite a few," to which your correspondent took objection, I must protest against his interpretation of the meaning I attached to it. In my view, " quite a few " is not an example of meiosis in its classical sense, although I must plead ignorance of what meiosis means in Cockney circles. " Quite " is to me a simple qualification, and I intended " quite a few " to mean not " a great many" but " a few, rather more than one or two, but not enough to be described as many." If such a meaning can be conveyed in less words, I should be glad to know of it. The charge of facetiousness I do not understand ; perhaps I have a different sense of humour.—Yours sincerely, Clydesdale Hotel, Lanark, Lanarkshire. S. H. F. JOHNSTON.