1 MARCH 1940, Page 21

gg MEN WHO MARCH AWAY " SIR,—How comes it that

Mr. Harold Nicolson, in yotir issue of last week, so grievously misquotes some of the finest lines in the English language?

The opening words of the " Song of the Soldiers," as written by Thomas Hardy on September 5th, 1914, are these : " What of the faith and fire within us Men who march away Ere the barn-cocks say Night is growing gray . . .?"

Mr. Nicolson's version occurs nowhere in the poem.—Yours

Rolandsfield, Bude, N. Cornwall.