OMENS.
[TO THE HONOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR.1
Sin,—In reference to your article on "Omens," and the mystic importance attached to the innocent juxtaposition of the letters
N.E.V.A.," did you ever happen to hear of a similar instance of a much similar kind in the diocese of Oxford, when the late gifted Samuel Wilberforce was its Bishop ? I give the story as it was told to me; if not true, it is at least ben trovato.
On the outer portion of Cuddesdon College, the late excellent Principal, the now Venerable Alfred Pott, had (or proposed to have), "in sempiternam memoriam," the initials of his Bishop's name and his own graven, one on one aide of the porch and the other on the other. "This will never do," said the acute and wary Bishop ; " don't you see what word the initials make up, and what use the world will make of the accidental coincidence 2 It will be a kind of omen to the disparagement of the College ?" The unsuspecting Principal looked, and sure enough, the Bishop was right Tho letters side by side made up the too-character.. istic word, " S.O.A.P." Report says they were withdrawn, and this ominous conjunction never appeared again in publio.—I am,
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