22 JULY 1905, Page 14

SIR,—While laying before the public the misuse of the verbs

" to lie " and " to lay," can you do anything towards abating the use of such a phrase as "those sort of roads" or "these kind of fences " P This kind of blunder is by no means uncommon among people who would be greatly shocked if it were hinted that their education had been at all defective. I have known a man of considerable culture declare that he never beard the expression and never used it, and in a quarter of an hour it fell quite naturally from his lips.—I am, Sir, &c.,

M.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]