21 MARCH 1874, Page 14

IN MEMORIAM.

[TO TUB EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1

SIR,—The following line from Virgil strikes me as a very appro- priate one, if placed over the principal entrance to the late Greenwich Hospital :— "Depronsis olim statio tutissima nantia" (G. IV. 421): "Formerly a very secure refuge for weather-beaten tars."

The happy (or unhappy) ambiguity in the meaning of olim may prove prophetic, should those who when the Liberals were in office were always declaring that the Navy was "going to the dogs," succeed hereafter in reverting the Hospital to the original purpose of a grateful country.—I am, Sir, &c., B. G. J. [Will the writer of this letter send us his address, as we have received a communication for him.—ED. Spectator.]