2 JANUARY 1926, Page 23

A SUNDIAL INSCRIPTION

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR] Sta,—I note that you have awarded one of your prizes for a sundial inscription to Mrs. Brown for her poem. You say

that the poem has about it too much of a seventeenth century cadence to be original. May I inform you, if no one else

has already done so, that the poem is neither seventeenth century nor is it original ? It IV a S written by a cousin of my fathers, the late Canon Twells, the well-known hymn ;writer and author of At even, ere the sun was set, among other hymns. Correctly quoted it is as follows :—

- TIME'S PACES.

When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I thought and talked, Time walked.

When I became a full grown man.

Time ran.

When older still I daily grew, Time flew.

Soon I shall find in passing on, Time gone.

0 Christ, Wilt Thou have saved me then ? Amen.

The poem is published in Hymns and Other Stray Verses, by Henry Twells, M.A. (Wells Gardner, Dalton and Co.) The Rectory, Goadby Marwood, Melton Mowbray.

[We thank Mr. Mogridge and one or two other correspondents for this information. We made it clear, of course, that inscriptions entered for our competition need not be original, and we are sure that many of our readers will be glad to have recalled to them Canon Twells's remarkable

verses.—ED. Spectator.]