6 JANUARY 1917, Page 25

A CORRECTION.

(To ras Enrros or rag "Srscuroir."1

Sra,—I am ever ready to hear, and benefit by if I can, sincere and unprejudiced criticism. "Happy are they that bear their detractions and can put them to mending." In your review of my book, An Evening in My Library, you blame me for asserting that Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" was inspired, while Gray's " Elegy " was not. - As I made no such assertion it is hard that I

should be thumped for it.—I am, Sir, Lc, STEM IN COLZEIDGI. The Ford, Chobham.

[Our reviewer writes as follows :-

" I am sorry that, through a slip of the pen, I misquoted Mr. Coleridge. He does in fact say that both the Deserted Village' and the ' Elegy' are uninspired, but that Goldsmith's poem is . . . entirely original . . . a quality conspicuously absent from Gray's " Elegy." '

—Ea. Spectator.]