7 FEBRUARY 1958, Page 17

HOWLERS

SK—If I may say so, I think your competitor's 'howler' translation of Cicero's famous description of the departure of Catiline Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit') a little inadequate. The version current in my undergraduate days was : `He went out to dine; he had too much to eat; he blamed the lobster; he was violently sick.'

I take the opportunity to add an equally pleasant misunderstanding of Horace : 'Delicta inaiorum im- meritus lues—the delights of our ancestors were unmitigated filth.'—Yours faithfully,