7 MAY 1937, Page 22

"NONE SO FAST AS STROKE"

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Miss Rose Macaulay's suspicion is correct : "None so fast as stroke" is not to be found in Ouida ; nor is the other howler about stroke rowing with his clear blue eyes stedfastly gazing at the winning-post. These apocrypha are of academic invention. I believe Andrew Lang gave currency to some. Ouicia's racecourse procedure is unsound ; but any novelist, male or female, not brought up to it, might go wrong in that particular. Actually, Ouida is very good—far better worth reading than the all-too-knowing ones, who, in anxiously avoiding ignorance, have merely lost innocence—that divinely receptive gift —Yours truly, GEORGE SAMPSON. 33 Walsingham Road, Hove, Sussex.