16 MAY 1914, Page 17

[To TIM EDITOR OF TH. "SPECTATOR •• ] SIR,—In Sir Frederick Falkiner's

Foundation of the Hospital and Free School of King Charles n, the oak in the roof of "the great hall of William Rufus" is given a different origin. The author, referring to the wood of Salcuit, which used to reach from Ostmantown to the hamlet of Phibaborough, near Dublin, says: "There is a fine tradition of these woods . . . that from these came the oak of the glorious roof of West- minster Hall invincible by time or worm." Hanmer is quoted as saying that in it "no English spider webbeth or breedeth