15 NOVEMBER 1963, Page 15

SIR, — In defending C. S Lewis, Miss Mary Holtby refers to

a character called 'the watcher.' No such character occurs in Spenser, or. to do him justice, in Lewis (though there is a passing reference to Cymochles). It is the 'bad Venus' herself who is credited with skeptophilia, and we are told—with no indication that the statement is restricted to one particular moment--'Acrasia herself does nothing.' Thus Miss Holtby's defence won't work, and Lewis's account is just as clever-silly, and unfaithful to the text, as Mr. Brien says it is.

University of Newcastle upon Tyne