13 SEPTEMBER 1969, Page 25

To travel hopefully ...

Sir: One hesitates to contradict such an illustrious polymath as Sir Denis Brogan (6 September), but Sydney Smith did not say of the Scilly Islanders that they lived by taking in each other's washing. as a quick look at his Familiar Quotations would have revealed. Bartlett and The Oxford Diction- ary of Quotations credit 'Anon' with the remark, which appeared in 'The Common- weal' for 6 August 1887, but The Oxford Dictionary adds that William Morris ascribed it to Mark Twain.

So many remarks are attributed wrongly to Sydney Smith, and so many witticisms erroneously fathered upon him, that it is as well to heed Hayward's warning 'The old rules of evidence should be strictly enforced as regards Sydney Smith'.