26 NOVEMBER 1948, Page 20

Log Literature

Some reader or other of The Spectator always knows the answer to a query: so it has proved with regard to the doggerel lines on "logs to burn." The best version appeared in Punch and was written by Mrs. H. Goodheart. Four lines refer to the smell of logs :—

"Pear logs and apple logs—

They will scent your room; Cherry_ logs across the dogs , Smell like flowers in bloom."

Now I once cut down a long line of very old lilacs and laburnums ; and burnt all the stout bits. They dispensed a cedar-like smell through the house. Incidentally, the lilac had streaks of lilac colour within the tissue.