27 DECEMBER 1913, Page 14

CAL VERLEY'S ELEGIACS.

[To THE EDITOR Or THS "SPECTATOR,21

Stn,—In your interesting review (Spectator, December 13th) of Sir E. Chandos Leigh's book of recollections, Bar, Bat, and Bit, a passage is quoted giving C. S. Calverley's brilliant rendering into Latin elegiacs of Macaulay's

"Raging beast and raging flood

Alike have spared their prey."

"Sospes uterque manet, talem qnia laedere proedam

Nil furor aequoreus, nil valet Ira ferae."

Sir Edward Leigh says: ' He sat on my table whistling and waiting for me, and in two minutes, without gradus or dictionary, produced the translation." In the Literary Remains of C. S. Calverley, by W. J. Sendai', it was the Rev. H. G. Southwell for whose benefit the identical trans- lation is said to have been made. He is quoted as follows: "Calverley asked me some ridiculous question, which I forget now, but just as I was leaving him, said, 'I think this will do.' The lines were produced in about three minutes." Possibly Calverley may have helped both of his friends with this passage, but, at any rate, it is a remarkable example of his skill in writing Latin verse even in his school days at Harrow. I possess a copy of the Greek Iambics and Hexa- meters that Calverley did in the Cambridge Classical Tripos of 1856, with the examiner's comments and corrections, but there were very few corrections to be made, and one could only comment on the ease and fluency of the verses.—I am, Sir,