23 MARCH 1996, Page 29

More to the point

Sir: Pedants have to get it right, especially a self-confessed pedant (Letters, 16 March) who dared to score a point off Dot. The true rhyme by A.D. Godley eschews the omnibus. It is, as all those over a certain age who suffered Latin will know:

What is this that roareth thus? Can it be a Motor Bus?

Yes, the smell and hideous hum Indicat Motorem Bum.

This is a side-splitting joke about the accusative singular of bos, a cow. Anyway, an omnibus, properly so called, being drawn by horses, would not have roared; nor do I know of a horse which hums; and the smell is different.

Patrick Ussher

36 Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland