POINTS FROM LETTERS ENGLISH UNDEFILED.

Not long ago I heard a lecture from a Bishop (not now Diocesan) whose name and fame, in scholarship and Church- leadership, are world-wide—a philosopher to whom Mea must be a household word. Not once or twice in the lecture, but I should think a score of times, he spoke of " the idea-r-of," " the idea-r-underlying . . ." and other combinations, but always with that alien " r " clearly marked. I thought

what hope for us lesser mortals, if such an one fell so far from grace ! "—H. E. W. what hope for us lesser mortals, if such an one fell so far from grace ! "—H. E. W.

THE SUPERFLUOUS " R."

I was much interested in the letter under the above heading in your issue of February 16th. For years I have been annoyed by hearing the superfluous ' r ' inserted. Here in Ireland it is still uncommon, but I fear it is, as your correspondent suggests, *` penetrating." I agree that the people who thus offend the ear are unconscious of their fault. I once remonstrated with an Englishman for saying " idea-r of." He asked me to say it my way, and then declared he could hear no difference I At a dinner, where by chance there were representatives of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, this question arose, and the custom was condemned by all but the Englishman, who, strange to say, was an authority on phonetics. He defended it, I have forgotten on what grounds, except that all languages are changed and modified by time. But he had no supporters. Personally, I think the superfluous r ' is hideous. One hears it on the stage and in the pulpit from people who are presumably trained speakers. In these days of compe- titions for verse-speaking, team reading, &c., surely an effort might be made by teachers to stamp out the ugly habit before it is too late-.--Uurraa.

KNOLE AND THE TUDORS.: : • The pretty little poem in your issue Of February Ifith, " Cardinal Wolsey and the Kingfisher," is evidently based on the gift of " Knole Manor " and its " turrets red " near Sevenoaks to King Henry VIII. by the Archbishop of Canter- bury, but it was Archbishop Craiuner -whopresented it to the King, not Cardinal Wilsey. " KnOle continued to be- in "the Gift" of the Crown, until Queen Elizabeth finallir bestowed it on her kinsman, Thontas Sackville, of Buckhurst, near Withybam in Sussex, in 1567, whom she created Baron Buckhurst, and he became Earl of Dorset in the reign of James I. He was descended from Sir William Boleyn, father of Queen Anne (Boleyn), Queen Elizabeth's mother. Knole still continues in the possession of the Sackville family.- HENRY J. R. DIGGES, 9 Eglinton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin.

THE FESTIVAL OF ST. JOHN.

With reference to the very interesting set of questions by Lady Clarke_ Jervoise in this week's Spectator may I point out that there is another Apostle, St. John the Evangelist, who Was no Vigil to his Festival, as the 26th of December, being the Festival of St. Stephen, cannot be a Vigil ?-J. G. PARSONS, Mill Lane, Copthorne, Sussex.

GREAT BarrAm's Visrroas.

The Association to attract visitors to Great Britain, in rationed in the Spectator of December 29, 1928, deserves the Wannest support that can be given to it. There is supposed to exist a certain ignorance of foreign countries on the part of the average Englishman, but this is nothing compared with the ignorance of Great Britain on the part of the average South American, few of whom ever get farther north than Paris in their holidays abroad. But those who have visited Great Britain come back enthusiastic thrall things British,and become the most sympathetic buyers of British goods in South America. Iii thus enticing visitors to Great Britain the Association -64114)e a means of increasing foreign trade, and it is to be hoped that the Association will pay special attention to South America, whose growing markets are still open to anyone with enough enterprise to capture them.-P. S. SCHOR, MOntevideo, South America.

Brims' DRINKING WATER. •

Can any of your readers help us with the problem of keeping the birds' drinking water from freezing ? Is there anything -not unwholesome, nor unpleasant-which one could add to the water to prevent ice forming rapidly, as at present ? Qiir birds, with many strangers, seem to require drink before folui, and as the water freezes in a few minutes, we are at our wits' ends.-M. G. D. T.

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

If France and England really want to trade-that is, to exchange goods more easily-let them start by removing, with a stroke of the pen, those artificial and un-tunnelled mountains called Customs Duties. Let them take down existing obstacles before calculating whether a tunnel costing 230,000,000 will carry goods for twenty-two miles cheaper than the surface of the sea which costs nothing.-Psasrr..x.

OLD ENGLISH SILVER.

A critical situation has arisen over one of our national heritages-English silver. There is no fine silver comparable with that of the seventeenth and eighteenth century silver workers being made anywhere in the world to-day. Yet we sit:phicidly by and watch it disappear in shiploads to America. Possibly there are few private collectors who can pay £5,000 for a silver dinner service-as was paid at Lord Lincolnshire's sale at Christie's the other day-but surely some of our museums and galleries could raise a hand to stem this wholesale export of our national treasures ? In none of them is the art of our silversmiths adequately represented. I read to-day that Lord Brownlow's magnificent plate is shortly to come under Christie's hammer. We make a fine fuss to see a Gainsborough go; but it will be a sad day if these priceless examples of a lost British art are shipped off to join-one might almost say- " the great majority."-W. HARFORD-HAINES,' Ghyll House, /4uthurst, Sussex.

THE PIRATES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

Referring to a letter in the Spectator of January 12th, may I point out that the first organized resistance to these Pirates was probably that of " La Ville Hen:A-clue de Saint Tropez." This little town maintained, for centuries, a small fleet and army against " La Terreur Maritime," which " per- pCtuellement empoisonnait la vie," (P. Foncin " Les Maures et Ptsterel ") - " et a dine neuf cent ans." From the time of Charles Martel to that of Admiral Duquesne (1685) anyone living near the sea was at any moment liable to death or &very • and it was not, if I remember, till 1830 that Admiral Cochrane finished off the pirates by bombarding Algiers.- Hs R. REYNOLDS 7 The Boltons4 S.W. 10.