26 OCTOBER 1907, Page 18

A LITERARY COINCIDENCE.

[To THE EDLTOri OP THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Surely a possible explanation of Mr. Rider Haggard's coincidence (Spectator, October 19th) is that he had in reality heard about the real Peter Bromes before he wrote "Fair Margaret," and had "forgotten " them,—in other words, that the history of the real Peter Bromes had become part of Mr. Haggard's subconscious mind. When in writing the novel he wanted an imaginary character to be killed at Bosworth, the idea of Bosworth caused associations of ideas to take place beneath the limes, of his consciousness which led his conscious mind to "invent" the Peter Brome incidents of