28 APRIL 1950, Page 20

SIR,—It was, I think, in the early 'nineties that a

very promising young Cambridge man, " dowered with the scorn of scorn," composed, and published in the ephemeral Press, under the title Oxide of Milton, some rather cruel translations from the poet into the alleged Oxford vernacular. I can recall one passage in which the "eye of Greece" was sufficiently veiled: " Agger, the igger of Gregger, mother of arts " And eloquagger."

While a little later the father of epic poetry appeared as: " Blind Melesigbags, thence Homuggins called."

As the author of these gems has, no doubt, long outgrown his youthful animosities, being now a distinguished' man of letters, I do not venture