16 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 13

" PLAY THE GAME."

ITO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Site—If a second innings be allowable, and your columns are still open on this subject, I would venture to suggest " Ludum inso- lentem lude pertinax "—Constant play the haughty game—as an amended version, with perhaps a tinge of Horatian authority (see 3 Od. XXIX. 50). Doubtless the Romans knew not cricket or its spirit, and had they been more fortunate who shall say what Virgil might not have made of a conceivable addition to the Aeneid ? But the chance context of the ode, "Fortuna . . . Transmutat incertos honores, Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna," hits happily the glorious uncertainty of the game, and might well be writ up large, even on other places than cricket pavilions. May I add a confession of indebtedness for a reminder of the passage to your illustrious forbear Tatler, No. 170, May 11th,