2 JUNE 1939, Page 22

WAS STERNE A SCOT ?

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Re article " Scotland's Contribution "—are you right in claiming Sterne as a Scotsman? H. D. Trail (Englishmen of Letters) says " The Sternes, originally of a Suffolk stock, had passed from that county to Nottinghamshire, and thence into Yorkshire, &c." Please confirm your authority ; it looks as

[It does; and we regret the error. The writer of the article, himself a Scotsman, was unwarrantably acquisa:ve.—En. The Spectator.]