25 Elgin Crescent, W.11, February 7th.
THE SONG OF THE MANDRAKE
(To the Editor of The London Mercury)
Sir,—Will you allow me to point out a curious slip in Mr. Walter de la Mare's most wonderful little story, The Creatures, in the current (January) number?
On page 281, eight lines from the bottom, he gives a list of birds—"Gull, mandrake, plover, wagtail, finch, robin." Does Mr. de la Mare really mean his readers to understand that the mandrake is a bird? If so, surely the root must cry aloud as it is dragged from the ground to be hurled into a different Natural Order.—Yours, etc.,
W. Walmesley White.
Ellergarth, Budleigh Salterton, January 28th.