Sta,—Those among your readers who knew Norman Douglas will be
surprised to learn from Mr. Harold Nicolson that he had "a harsh contemptuous laugh" or that he was used to getting "noisily drunk." As for the latter, I have known Douglas intimately for forty years and have travelled, lunched and dined and drunk with him—Misce stultitianz consiliis brevem: Duke es t disipere in loco—I may say thousands of times. and I have never seen him as described. As to his "harsh and contemptuous laugh,"nothing could be more alien lo him. His whole attitude to life and to every manifestation of it was that described by Terence: "humani nil'a me alienum pub." Mr. Nicolson says he only met him twice. Few who met him for more than a quarter of an hour but loved him. For Norman Douglas was a charmeur, and there were few—man, woman or child—but fell under his spell. He had, however, a word for anyone or anything he considered artificial or precious, which all his friends will remember—Cinquecento.—Yours very -dub, 114 Clifton Hill, St. John's Wood, N.W.8. EDWARD HUTTON.
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