30 AUGUST 1957, Page 14

TAPER

Sin,—I am loth to join in the Taper hunt, and he may be right in thinking that he was adapting Shelley when he wrote of the last Divisional Secre- tail/ being strangled in the entrails of the last Whip, though my impression is that he was confusing Shelley with Jean Messelier who, according to Vol- taire, declared in his will, as his last and most ardent wish, 'je vot«Irais clue le dernier des rois flit etrangle avec les boyaux du dernier pretre.'

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