COINCIDENCES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Stote's "Parochial Stories" in last week's Spectator, in which he described some curious coincidences, reminds me of a delicious coincidence which happened at Marlborough a good many years ago. W. G. Grace was playing cricket against the school, and to the frenzied delight of the spectators the great man was dismissed for a " duck." I wonder, by the way, whether that delight was quite justified, intelligible though it was. Delight of another kind and much more profit would have been obtained by watching " W. G." play. But to the coincidence—that evening in chapel the hymn contained the words, " The scanty triumphs grace hath won." A thrill of recognition ran through the congregation. One might fancy that some flippant authority had chosen the hymn on purpose. But this was not so. In accordance with the custom the hymn had been chosen two or three days before. The coincidence is vouched for in The History of Marlborough College, an admirably written book of which Mr. Murray has just published a new and improved edition.—
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