6 JANUARY 1933, Page 19

SAYINGS THAT WERE NEVER UTTERED

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—To Mr. W. A. Hint's interesting account of "sayings

that were never uttered " might be added " The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton," so often

attributed to Wellington. According to Lyte's History of.

Eton College, the only record of any remark of this kind is contained in a contemporary account of the Duke's visit to,

his old house in January, 1818: "He looked into the garden, and asked what had become of the broad black ditch over which he used so often to leap. He said : I really believe! owe my spirit of enterprise to the tricks I used to play in the garden.' "—I am, Sir, &c.,

A. R. LESLIE-MELVILLE.

69 Westbourne Terrace, W.2.