23 AUGUST 1902, Page 16

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —In the days of

my youth—some fifty years since—we children were invited to write the following lines from dic- tation :—

" Whilst hewing yews Hugh lost his ewe

And put it in the hue-and-cry; To name its face's dusky hues Was all the effort he could use. You brought the ewe back by and by, And only begged the hewer's ewer Your hands to wash in water pure, Lest nice-nosed ladies; not a few, Should cry on coming near you, Ugh !"