16 MAY 1952, Page 16

Spenser

SIR,—Mr. Harold Nicolson has every right to disapprove of Spenser's Irish politics and to resent the boasts of those who claim to have read all the Faerie Queene in their childhood; but if he allowed these irrelevancies to prevent his reading the Epithalamion, the great hymns, and many stanzas of incomparable music he has assuredly much pleasure in store. Of course I don't believe he did, though I confess-that for a moment I was nearly taken in: but I should like to ask whether he really thinks that Henty wrote better boys' books than Ballantyne, in the distant days when we both were young.—Your obedient servant,