31 AUGUST 1918, Page 13

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Sze,—The following may be worthy of mention. t` What were the Sicilian Vespers ?" an examiner asked in a history paper. And one of the answers was : "It was the Sicilian Vespers that Gibbon was listening to, when he conceived the idea of writing The Decline and Fall of the Boman Empire."—I am, Sir, &c.,

T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.