29 JUNE 1918, Page 12

" HOWLERS."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Sit,—Mr. H. C. Irwin's story of the Skolekobrote seems to have been either a forerunner or else a relic of a verse current in Oxford half-a-century ago, which ran:- " A freshman of Balliol had an idea That Joseph was loved by his Arimathea; And, coining a word in the fashion of Grote, Said that Herod held office as Skolekobrote."