may be remembered that just before the Coronation, Reuter produced a sonnet by the Poet Laureate which was taken to be Mr, Mase= Add's poetical salute to the Corona. tion, In this thought, a line which read sacred erty of the lost sea-bird gave correspondents some difficulty and a suggestion was made in these columns that the reference was to Argos, the native city of Diomedes, Whose companions on the islands which now bear his name, were changed at the time of his death, Into herons. In putting forward this explanation it was diMdently noted that the poet himself might have a more authoritative and different explanation, Reference. was, in fact, made to Mr. Masefleld and he has been courteoiss enough {o reply th The sonnet on which you padresred. to Liverpool. the ira ihe extinct Mher or iver bird from Which the city Is said {0 be named.
Mr. Masefield does not develop the subject further in his letter and. perhaps he may not have been fully aware of the fact that Reuter had labelled his sonnet as "specially written for the Coronation."
on Liverpool, the Poet Laureate's meaning is exceedingly plain, Lancashire people, and even more benighted inhabitants of Eng-and, know all about the liver bird, but had not imagined that thet attractive creature had found its way into Coronation poem. Mr, Masefleld's reference to the bird is rather intrigue ing. The most usual derivation of the name of Liverpool is from the Norse Hlithar-pollr "the pool of the slopes" the pool or inlet at the mouth of which the village grew up being surrounded by gently rising. slopes. "An alternative derivation has been suggested from the Anglo-Ssxon word laeter, the yellow flag. or rush, There is, however, a bird the arms of Liverpool and by. some working of local tradition this bird has been called "the liver bird" although the dictionary says it was originally intended to be the eagle of St. John the Evangelist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.