Mitigative
Sir: I stand corrected by your correspon- dent in the British Embassy Muscat (Let- ter, 22 August.) I make no bones about a somewhat carefree attitude towards papis- tical practices: but towards the practice of the English language . . . . Oh, No! I'm deeply ashamed of writing `thurifer' for thurible. The trouble is that at the time I really did think the object in question was called a thurifer. The only thing I can think of to mitigate (nowadays not infrequently written 'militate' by the Times et al.) my offence is to say that I do know, thanks to Oscar Wilde, that the priestly garment in question is not called a `chasufer'. Howev- er if correction is to come from some- where, what nicer source could there be than a representative of the Queen?
William Cooper
London
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