30 JUNE 1950, Page 22

Poor Richard

SIR,—Can any ardent Janine annotate the italicised word in the follow- ing quotation from the first chapter of Northanger Abbey? " His father was a clergyman and a very respectable man although his name was Richard." My own casual research et ds up in the almanac issued by Benjamin Franklin under the name of " Ppor Richard" which, for smugnegs has never been beaten.—Yours faithfully, RICHARD WILSON.

Aldine Cottage, Upton, Bade, Cornwall.