13 OCTOBER 1939, Page 21

BERIC THE BRITON SIR,—I have not read Mrs. Mitchison's book,

but your reviewer has ignored a parallel which may be as revealing as The Sign of the Cross. I refer to G. A. Henty's Beric the Briton, also (if my memory does not betray me after so many years) about a British prince who while in Rome fell among Christians. I can only remember one episode, a fight a la Tarzan with a lion in the circus, in which Beric, as one would expect of a Briton, had the better of it, tying the animal up with his old-school tie. From what common source Henty and Mrs. Mitchison got the name Beric I cannot think. Celtic scholars may be able to tell us.—Yours, &c., STUDENT OF LETTERS.