28 JANUARY 1944, Page 14

SPILTH

Stk,—In regard to " spillage," pilloried last week by " Janus," it is pity that the word spilth is now labelled "archaic." All readers of The Spectator will appreciate the wisdom of " Janus " as a critic of English but he was too wise last week when, in his notes, he wrote " ecclesiast. and otherwise." Why change an adjective, demanded by the constructs into an ungrammatical adverb? Or is the mistake now so common to be called an idiom?—Yours, &c., B. T. Wheat hampstead, Herts.