In a letter in the Aug. 3 issue of the Manhasset Press, Michael T. Hinkemeyer commented on an earlier letter's misquotation. In one of his comments, Mr. Hinkemeyer said, "...the 'playing fields of Eton' remark is by a British general of World War I, Haig, I believe."

The "playing fields" remark dates back much earlier than World War I. The full quotation that one often encounters is, "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton," and the traditional attribution is to the Duke of Wellington. The latest edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations calls this attribution an "oral tradition, but probably apocryphal." My much older edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations says "attributed" to Wellington; the latest Bartlett's sources it to an 1889 book, Words on Wellington by Sir William Fraser.

Harry H. Hinkle