21 JUNE 1913, Page 17

SIR JOHN MOORE.

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The English custom of writing pompous and foolish inscriptions upon mural tablets and monuments is one of those things which tend to make us the laughing-stock of intelligent foreigners, and the sooner it is abolished the better. In this connexion the following quotation from George Borrow seems particularly appropriate, and I hope you may be able to find room for it in the Spectator :— "In the centre of the battery stands the tomb of Moore, built by the chivalrOus French, in commemoration of the fall of their heroic antagonist. It is oblong, and surmounted by a slab, and on either side bears one of the simple and sublime epitaphs for- which our rivals are celebrated, and which stand in such powerful • contrast with the bloated and bombastic inscriptions which deform, the walls of Westminster Abbey 'John Moore, Leader of the English Armies,

Slain in Battle.

Imo'"

Doi/miens Wilts.