On reading them as-printed I felt that there was something
out of gear, so I took down my Calverley and found that it was so and that the names of Jones and Smith were un- fortunately transposed, which Calverley would not have regarded as a compliment.
Not only this, hut the good wishes to the tobacconist immortalised by the poet in the last line fell rather flat, and if we read ' thee, Bacon,' according to the humorist, instead of the Bacon,' according to Mr. Fry, we find point and meaning in the ascription.
Mr. Fry will, I hope, forgive me for suggesting that failure to verify one's referen-
ces is liable to cause one to be stumped, an experience which on the field of operation has been so unusual in his case that one cannot resist the present temptation to score. —Yours faithfully, W. 3. mccokum 16 West bourne Street, W.2
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