17 SEPTEMBER 1994, Page 31

Whither wherefore?

Sir: Reading F.G. Miles's ingenious disqui- sition on `Why?' (from what cause?) and `Quhy?' (for what purpose?) (Letters, 27 August) and A. Ivereigh's learned Spanish reply (10 September), I was a little sur- prised that neither writer appears to be aware that there is a perfectly adequate, though unfashionable, word in the English language to clarify the `why' distinction namely, wherefore.

Thus Hamlet, demanding both the rea- son and the purpose of the visitation of his father's ghost, asks (I.iv.57): 'Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?'

Martin Woodhead

147 West End, Netherthong, Huddersfield, Yorkshire