25 JANUARY 1957, Page 17

SIR, Mr. Brookes and others may still be puzzled by

the fact that 'Mall' has two pronunciations. Alone, 'Mall' rhymes with 'shall'; with 'Pall' in front of it it becomes Well,' i.e., Pell Mell. King George V was quoted in the press recently as having replied, when asked to arbitrate on the correct pronunciation: 'I shall run down the Mall; but when I run, I shall run Pell-Mell.'

As the game which used to be played on the site was Pele-Mele, there would be historical backing for substituting 'c' for 'a,' and thus changing the spelling to 'Pell Mell,' which is a derivative of pele-mele.—