Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes | Page 7

the EXMOUTH JOURNAL, _Sept. 6th_, 1902
A NOTEWORTHY SWIM.
A long swim from Exmouth to half-a-mile beyond the pier of Starcross, was on Thursday evening undertaken and accomplished by Mr. J. ATWOOD.SLATER, an Exmouth visitor. Starting from opposite the pier head, the swimmer, piloted by Mr. H. Tupman, in the _Ernest_, swam round the Bight on the west side of the Warren, passing the ships anchored therein, and hugging the west shore of the Exe, paused finally under the lodge at the further end of Starcross at 5.45 p.m., having, in logic swum the distance of two-and-a-quarter miles in twenty-three minutes. The aid the swimmer derived from choosing the flood tide he admitted was considerable, and served him for nearly half the distance; when out of the influence of this, the water suddenly became very choppy, the waves being too small for the swimmer to time, yet with annoying frequency throwing their crests above the surface of the water. Subsequently a great stillness was encountered, until Starcross was neared and passed; the boat, swimmer and pilot lying finally becalmed at the point aforesaid.--J.A.S.

From the WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Sept. 15th_, 1903.
A SWIM ROUND MONT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY.
Sir,--On August 22nd, at 5 p.m., on August 28th, at 9 a.m., and on August 29th, at 10 a.m., I achieved in a more successful measure than had hitherto been accomplished the problem of swimming round Mont St. Michael, Normandy, at high water. Previously acquainted with the certainty that an adverse current would at one point or another be met, I pre-arranged, and made three bold attempts, and by going in a certain direction, met with the greatest success at the first essay. The tides that rise and flow against the base of the mount are more insidious and taxing to strike against than those which encircle the Mount of St. Michael, in Cornwall; but then the quality of the sea must be more pure and far more buoyant off the Cornish coast, and freshens to a greater extent the elastic movements of the swimmer. The sea, speaking from experience, does not harass one, swimming in the bay of St. Michael, Normandy, until the "retirage" is met; when all the force that can be exerted is necessarily called forth to prevent being seaward swept.
Yours faithfully,
J. ATWOOD.SLATER
Albi, Tarn, France,
_September 7th_, 1903.

_ARCHITECTURE._
From the PATRIOTE ALBIGEOIS, _Sept. 29th,_ 1903.
Albigeois, vous qui passez fréquemment dans les rues adjacentes à votre cathédrale, n'avez-vous pas remarqué la figure d'un artiste récemment installé, avec son chevalet, auprès du gigantesque monument et mettant toute la science technique de son art à le reproduire exactement.
C'est M. John ATWOOD.SLATER qui avait visité notre cité, il y a quelques années, il avait alors dessiné une belle perspective de Sainte-Cécile qu'il a exposée à l'Académie Royale de Londres. Il a admiré la plupart des cathédrales gothiques de notre pays et, en fin connaisseur, il nous informe que nous possédons un des plus recherchés specimens d'architecture qui existent en France. Quelques-unes de ces cathédrales sont à peine plus merveilleuses, mais il n'en est guère qui se prêtent favorablement comme elle à l'esprit tranquille de dévotion.
Maintenant pour le profit de ceux a qui cela pourrait faire plaisir M. John ATWOOD.SLATER, cet artist nous communique bénévolement ce renseignegnement très spécial: Il est encore fort nageur! C'est lui qui aux dates de 22, 28 et 29 ao?t a été signalé par la Normandie pour avoir fait à la nage le tour du Mont St. Michel: ce que personne jusqu'ici n'avait osé prétendre faire à cause des marées qui sont toujours très contraires.--J.A.S.

UNPUBLISHED LETTERS.
_MUSIC._
_To the Editor of The Times, London._
Sir,--Whilst admitting the all-importance and the austere role of circumstance weighted with interest, and fused to an all-volatile point sufficient to write to you concerning, and always entering, freed from _schism_, the moot point, I beg leave to advance the suggestion that (with correct apposition of sentiment, already said) the moment has arrived for an improvement to be effected in the Hymnal, in the public offices of St. Paul's Cathedral employed.
For the furtherance of this important item of diocesan and divine service, "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," be it well known, has stood the crucial test of a number of years; while its mechanical characteristics have been demonstrated all the way along the metronome number of decades it has served to mollify and assuage the griefs and passions, and inspire the consciences of congregations using it habitually as a vade mecum.
While believing in the sedate grandeur of its stereotyped orthodoxy, I powerfully plead, and in a tone of restraint, this prerogative: that the edition of hymns known as "The Hymnary," should upon examination be found to contain more agreeable, versatile value and fecundity of literary nutrition: honourably and scholastically capable of out-classing the rival for whose displacement I plead; and competent at once to put yet