3 JULY 1897, Page 26

THE ILLITERATE UNDERGRADUATE.

[TO TER EDITOR Or THE " STRETATOR:]

SIE,—In connection with the article in the Spectator of June 26th on "The Illiterate Undergraduate," the charge is by no means new. In Boswell's " Life of Johnson" I find the following (aet. 19) :—" I had looked into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Uni- versities, where they seldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors, so that when I came to Oxford Dr. Adams, now Master of Pembroke College, told me I was the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there." This note may be interesting as showing that so long ago as 1728 the complaint was being made.—I am, Sir,