POINTS FROM LETTERS COUNTRY LIFE.

I See in the article " Country Life," headed " Flower Colours," in the Spectator of July 19th, the following words : " Though blue roses and yellow sweet peas have not yet been produced by the selectors and hydridisers," etc. But I saw yesterday some lovely yellow sweet peas, and I have seen so-called blue roses at Hurstmonceux Castle.— ELEANOIC RICE, Arranmore, 54 Carew Road, Eastbourne.

ALBINISM.

Your correspondent saw what may be described as rarissima avis. Once I saw some years ago in the Happy Valley near Brighton three Avian Albinos—namely; a sparrow (passer domesticus), a hedge-sparrow and a "black"-bird. The hedge-sparrow was absolutely white and its plumage glistened in the sunshine. I have also seen an albino rook, but I have never beheld an albino thrush. I am, however, credibly informed that there is a pied specimen of this species at the present time in this neighbourhood. Nobody appears to have any idea of the scientific reason why of Albinism.—J. P. BACON PHILLIPS, Burgess Hill, Sussex.

.HAVER" OR "SWITRER."

Of late years I have several times heard English or Irish people use the word "Haver" as if it meant " hesitate " or ' vacillate," and the word used in some such sense has even found its way into a Spectator leading article. Haver is a Scots word meaning " talk nonsense," and the Scots for " vacillate " is " Swither." Is Haver also an English or Irish dialect word with a different meaning from that which it has in Scots ? Or does the use of it to mean " vacillate " arise from vague associations in which Haver and Swither are blended ?—bum-Scor.

THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN.

In your notice of the Greek play The Suppliant Women, the two causes assigned for their refusal to marry their cousins are the fear of incest or simply dislike. Might it not have been repulsion from " colour " of which this is perhaps the earliest instance in literature ?—C. B. E.

THE K1NGSHOUSE INN.

Your article of June 28th, on the Western Highlands, states that the Kingshouse Inn is now disused. The Kingshouse Inn has been under new management for some little time. I have not been in it, but in passing it at different times I could not help being impressed by the altered appearance of the place. It looks very smart and tidy. It has a most attractive old-fashioned signboard set up on a post. It is on the estate of a relative of mine. I think the trustees have spent a good deal of money in doing the Inn up, bu' am not sure. It may interest you to know that the new road through Glencoe from Tyndrum is making steady progress---The CAPTAIN OF DUNSTAFFNAGE, Dunstaffnage Castle, Connel, Argyllshire.

AN OPEN AIR SCHOOL.

About twelve months ago a most interesting correspondence on open-air schools appeared in your paper. I was greatly interested because ever since 1918 I have run one here in Hartfield, first of all entirely " on my own " for invalid chil- dren, but for the last three years for normal children, with help from a small Trust, because I so firmly believe that pre- vention is better, by far, than cure. If 1 remember rightly you asked, in a footnote to an article on open-air sleeping on the Continent, if there was any place in England where the experiment had been tried. Yes, here in Hartfield, where every child, even a baby of eighteen months, sleeps in an open shelter all the year round. Financial reasons have made it impossible for us any longer to take very low, or no fees. We must get a fairly large proportion of children able to pay £90 per annum. You will see by the prospectus that we are not out for any profit whatever.—K. HARVEY, Brackenhill, Upper Hartfield, near Tunbridge Wells.

A NEW SONG.

At the Independence Day assembly in the University of Georgia on July 4th, a speech on England was followed by the playing of "Britannia Rules the Waves."—W. H. Witiourox, 'University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

[We have long thought that a new national song is required to replace " Britannia Rules the Waves," which is out of date.—En. Spectator.]

RUDENESS.

In your issue of the 5th inst. Captain Donald Anderson, writing under the heading " Great Britain and India," says

The fault I find with our dealings with Indians is that of rudeness," and then goes on to illustrate his point as follows :- " This insolence rests on the assumption that every English- man from the Welsh miner to the Chancellor of Oxford

University is the superior of every Indian from the driver of an ox-cart to Jagadir Bose."

To elaborate a point by means of an illustration or a simile is, generally speaking, both effective and helpful, but, unfor- tunately, in this case, the rudeness condemned is reproduced in the act of condemning it. Your correspondent is con- demning the insolence of Englishmen in India, why should he then, having put the Chancellor of Oxford University at the top of the intellectual ladderan Englishman I presume, go out of his way in quest of a Welsh miner for the bottom end of it ? If a miner was absolutely necessary to imbed the base of the ladder in the ground—muscle and brawn minus brain being the only requisites—surely he could have found an English one eminently qualified for the job. Indeed, had he thought of it, a sapper from the army, with his nationality lost in his uniform, might have, at a push, answered his purpose very well, and that without lessening in the slightest degree the distance between the bottom and the top of the ladder. Had something of that kind been done a gross and uncalled for rudeness to Welsh miners in particular and the Welsh nation in general would have been avoided—a rudeness which I as a Welshman deeply resent.—W. J., Llansoy Rectory, Monmouth.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS.

If the answers to the weekly questions are not " sacro- sanct," is it within a reader's province to offer a comment ? If so, may I say that the answer to Question 3, in your issue of June 28th, makes odd reading: " 'Tenterhooks in the Middle Ages were . . . ." One need LA be even middle-

aged to have seen countless tenterhooks in H.. in WW1: finishing mills are situated ! Outside Rochdale 'and in the West Riding, until very recent years, and quite possibly even to-day, one of the most familiar sights was a field of tenters on which were stretched acres " of flannel and blankets drying in the open air. In regard to Question 4— " to go to the wall "—surely the significance of the expression is not the proximity or incidence of something external but a significance of a declension of one's physical or material condition. If a man is " going to the wall," he is " going- down the hill " into infirmity, or into bankruptcy. It has been suggested that the reference in the expression is the oncoming of a physical infirmity which would qualify a person to sit on the stone seats which were placed against the walls of parish churches before the seating on the floor of the nave came into use.—Rev. EDWARD HANSON, 90 Preston New Road, Blackburn.

PENSIONLESS WAR-WIDOWS.

Taxpayers are doubtless sick and tired of the question of pensions, doles, &c. ; but is it generally realized that, whereas our alleged financial stringency is largely due to the payment of War debts, both at home and abroad, the widows of many of the War-wounded and diseased ex-officers and Service-men are left without State-aid in any shape or form ? No de- pendant of any man who married subsequently to disablement is entitled to help from this country, although all the Dominions and other belligerent nations make some provision of this nature.. It is particularly hard, under our pensions regulations,. that a man who may have been pensioned after marriage, for a disease (e.g., tuberculosis) admittedly sown on service but not developed or diagnosed until after marriage, can look for no State-aid for his dependants should he die of his' disability. Many hard cases are now coming to light which indicate serious flaws and discrepancies in the Pensions Acts, and as a debt of honour which would not cost the country more than £1,000,000 per annum (and War Pensions com- mitments are decreasing annually by about £3,000,000) there can be no two opinions, in men with memories, that these cases deserve reconsideration, especially when it is remem- bered that such men are precluded, by their disability, from active and remunerative work, and can get no company to insure their lives, except under a very heavy " load ' which it is impossible to meet out of their pensions.—Duns Snit° SPERO.

EMPIRE TRADE.

A departure which brings all this talk about Empire Trade down to brass tacks will be made at the new headquarters of the Union of South Africa in the Strand. In addition to the display of overseas products, which is now a customary feature at these London outposts of the Dominions, South. Africa is devoting considerable space to showing goods made in this country for which a new market might he expected in South Africa. Two questions arise. Will British manufac- turers have the sense to make adequate use of their new opportunity ; and will. Australia, Canada and New Zealand follow South Africa's lead ? During these summer months when, for example, we are eating millions of South African oranges and apples from Australia in preference to those told in competition with them from outside the Empire, it seems just good business that a chance of reciprocity should be offered in this enterprising fashion and accepted by those whose duty it is to keep Britain at work.—HARRY FOSTER, J.P., D.L., 82 Victoria Street, S.W. 1,