24 MARCH 1923, Page 40

CRASHAW'S EPIGRAM.

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Though " Nostra culpa" may be appropriate, yet may it tend to assuage the pangs of guilt if one can point to another offender. The " Professor " has read his Crashaw in the same way as you and quotes, to the Bombazine female, at the Breakfast Table :- " The conscious water saw its Lord and blushed."

Dr. Sigerson, also, in his recent rendering of the "Easter Song of Sedulius," thus freely translates his author :-

"Generously on all the tables the sweet cups blushed with the best pure wine, though not vine-born."

In a footnote he says : "This does not quite anticipate, but it • may have suggested Crashaw's verse."—I ant, Sir, &c.,