28 SEPTEMBER 1956, Page 16

SIR,—How pleasant it is to come across the word `snurge'

in the review of new novels in the Spectator for September 14. It carries me back to the period from 1906 to 1909, when I was an undergraduate at Oxford. It meant `to do something with great vigour,' and was specially connected with Keble College. (This was not my College, but I had friends there.) In those days we all 'ran with the Boat' during Eights and Torpids weeks, and the whole of Keble College were said to rush along the towpath shouting 'SNURGE, KEBLE, SNURGE in their usual hearty manner.—Yours faith-