21 OCTOBER 1949, Page 16

Robert Lynd

SIR,—Jantis's comments on Robert Lynd will very much please hosts of people, especially those in Belfast, his native place, where he was held in the highest esteem. Throngs of people in the city on Sunday mornings were accustomed to see the stripling, as he then was, pacing along the streets beside his father, than whom he was much taller, towards the church of which the Rev. Dr. R. J. Lynd was the minister—a cleric respected far and wide as not alone one of the most impressive preachers in the Presbyterian Church, but also an accomplished elocutionist and perhaps the most finished reader of Holy Writ to be heard in Ulster.

We all remember Robert Lynd as an essayist of a delicate touch, with a pervasive humour and a most tolerant outlook. Obviously he loved humanity in the mass and had an understanding of ordinary men and women. Have we anyone who can till his vacant place? It will interest Janus in particular to know that Lynd produced at least four books about Ireland. Like most Belfast men he was deeply interested in politics, and in the books referred to took the subject in his stride. The Queen's University, Belfast, honoured him with the degree of D.Litt. not long