19 AUGUST 1899, Page 16

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

STR,—The writer of the article on "Keeping up Appear- ances" in the Spectatorof August 12th, speak ing of Englishmen becoming "slatternly," says :—" Odd that there is no mas- culine equivalent for that word." Would not "slovenly" be the correct term to apply to a man ? Webster's English Dictionary gives as the meaning of " sloven," "a man or boy habitually negligent of neatness and order ; the correlative term to slattern or slat " ; and of "slat," "an untidy woman,

or slattern. Sluts are good enough to make a sloven's porridge,'—old proverb."—I am, Sir, &c., 18 Keeton Road, East Dulwich, S.E.

JESSICA RICHARDS.