Dr. John Kells Ingram’s Poem

Dr. John Kells Ingram’s Poem

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES

Sir,—In your obituary notice of Dr. John Fells Ingram you remark that he never took the public into his confidence as to how far the sentiments of his poem "Who fears to speak of ninety-eight?" represented his later views. Perhaps, in this connexion, the following quotation from a letter which I received from Dr. Ingram in 1892, with reference to an anthology of "Songs of Freedom," may be of interest.

"I am quite willing," he wrote, "that you should print my stanzas in your volume. You will not suppose that the eflusion of the youth exactly represents the convictions of the man. But I have never been ashamed of having written the verses. They were the fruit of genuine feeling."

Yours faithfully,

Henry S. Salt
Crockham Hill, Kent

The Times, May 4, 1907, p. 10