19 DECEMBER 1891, Page 15

PRINCIPAL SHAIRP'S POEM ON BALLIOL SCHOLARS.

LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—There has been some discussion in the Spectator as to the lines on Matthew Arnold by my father, the late Principal Shairp, which were quoted by Lord Coleridge at the unveiling of the bust of Matthew Arnold in Westminster Abbey. Will you allow me to explain that Lord Coleridge quoted the lines as they appeared in an early copy of the poem, " Balliol Scholars," sent to him by my father several years before the poem was published

When published, the lines were somewhat different from those in the early copy, and must therefore have been altered in the interval by their author.—I am, Sir, &c.,

St. Catherine's, Inverary, December 141h. J. C. SHAIRP.