RICHARD FREDERICK LITTLEDALE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Edward Stanley Robertson, has been misinformed as to the circumstances of Dr. Little- dale's death, and the report he has heard does injustice to the love and care of the Doctor's many friends. He certainly lived alone, but it was by choice and not from necessity; and towards the end of his life his relatives in town were anxious that he should always have some one with him. Bnt to such an arrangement he would not consent. His housekeeping was not of the haphazard kind which is usually associated with living in chambers. A capable housekeeper and maid- servant resided on the premises and waited on him. He was subject to distressing attacks of unconsuioneness, and he passed away in one of these attacks. But it had been clear for some time previously that the end was near; his nephew, a medical man, was visiting him daily, and he was being nursed by a member of the religious community to which he was chaplain. The end came with unexpected suddenness, but he died in bed and his nurse was present at the time. Mr. Robertson says that he was told that Dr. Littledale's death was caused by his falling into a bath in a fainting fit, and thus being smothered. It is curious that Dr. Littledale some months before his death scalded his foot in his bath during a fainting fit, and that there was a resident in this square who fell into a bath and was suffocated. Can Mr. Robertson have heard a confused rumour, which combined these two incidents?
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