16 JANUARY 1988, Page 25

Pilgerology

Sir: I salute Mr Speaght's scholarship (Letters, 19/26 December), but am sur- prised that he has not found the earlier reference to `waugh the pilger' in The Proude Cropure by the Gawain-Poet (c. 1380):

That is larges and lewte that longes to knyghtes.

When they tak weppen to waugh the pylger, which is thought to refer to knights joust- ing with broken lances.

Nicholas Hardyman

87 Victoria Road Oxford