2 NOVEMBER 1901, Page 15

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1

SIR,—I was interested in the paragraph closing your "News of the Week" in the Spectator of October 19th, and its refer- ence to the constant fear of invasion in the early years of last century. At that , time my wife's great-grandmother was resident near Birmingham, and so persuaded was she that the Napoleonic invasion would be attempted that she kept always at hand, in cash, a sum of fifty guineas that she might on the first intimation charter a coach to convey herself• and her children to her old home at Kendal. She was as equally sure of the safety of her Northern home as of the accomplishment of the invasion, and to this day my wife's father possesses one of the guineas set apart for the intended flight,—I am,