30 JULY 1954, Page 16

SMOKING, STATISTICS AND DEATH SIR,—One of your best readers calls

me tp account for maltreating Calverley's ' Ode tO Tobacco.' My humble request for pardo It was sacrilege. I did misplace Jones an Smith—I did write ' Here's to thee, Bacon instead of ' Here's to the bacon' or vice versa. But how could I be word-perfect after ft lapse of sixty years since my last perusal t And I couldn't jog (jog's the word in our 'bus) from Hampstead to Bloomsbury to verify

my reference,' which wasn't one but a quotas tion,from memory. I wonder if my censot castigatorque ' resides near the Bridal Museum ? If so, lucky Fido.—Yours faiths fully, C. B. FRY