Unhealthy debate
Sir: Matthew Parris is absolutely right to say that the time has come for facing populists with honest argument (‘In defence of the liberal elite’, 9 November). This call would be all the more persuasive if it were not embedded within the rotten foundations of current lamentable public discourse. Honest argument presupposes the ability to engage with one’s opponents in terms that they would own and recognise: ‘steel-manning’ rather than erecting a flimsy straw man. What Mr Parris, and many others, fail to own is that the concerns of Trump voters, though unpalatably incarnated in Donald Trump himself, are in their essence not only legitimate but good. A desire to provide for family and pursue dignified work are wholly good things; to merely say with ‘chins up’ that it is as black and white as wrong and right runs the risk of that elevated chin not only looking arrogant but being presented as a target. I am all for having the confidence of one’s convictions, but not at the price of contempt for others.
The Revd Hamish Sneddon
St Andrews, Scotland
Save our Sanskrit
Sir: I have little to add to David Butterfield’s astute analysis of the problems ailing academia in general and Cambridge in particular (‘Decline and fall’, 26 October). I took special interest in his mention of Sanskrit, the serious study of which is certainly at risk. Yet the problem here is not just administrative unwillingness to allocate funds. University students increasingly want either a material return on time invested at university or a relatively easy time earning a degree. Learning Sanskrit provides many benefits, but neither lucrative employment nor ease of study are among them.
I would love for students to see value in Śivasvāmin’s ‘Kapphiṇābhyudaya’, which contains one of my favourite verses in all of Sanskrit literature. The poet describes the rays of the moon as they pass through the latticework windows of a pleasure house, where they ‘glitter on the floor like a scattered pearl necklace broken during raucous lovemaking’.
Yet I also see why, especially given the democratisation (if that is the right word) of university admissions, undergraduates are moving towards quantitative degrees. Hence the real problem for those of us who study and teach Sanskrit is how to make the language relevant for students ultimately focused on other things.
Guy St. Amant
New York, United States
Sparkling personality
Sir: Margaret Thatcher’s colleagues occasionally encouraged her to indulge in a glass of champagne (Drink, 9 November). In 1982, after Mark Thatcher emerged from his detour during the Paris-Dakar rally, Jack Page, Tory MP for Harrow West, sent the prime minister a bottle of Moët with a note that concluded: ‘So once again now calm and cool/ Let’s all apply the tried Page Rule/ Which after crises always is/ Just “say your prayers and pop the fizz”.’
Richard Ellis
London EC4
Safe as houses
Sir: A lot of publicity has been given to wealthy individuals allegedly buying farms to avoid inheritance tax (‘Land locked’, 9 November). However there will be other reasons that are probably more significant, including long-term financial safety. Wealthy men have often sought to place their money in land. Sir Edward Coke in the 17th century (Holkham), many industrialists and bankers in Victorian times and Jeremy Clarkson and James Dyson today are just a very small sample of this sound move. The matter was neatly set out in The Spectator no. 549 in November 1712, where the successful London merchant Sir Andrew Freeport decided that his money, instead of ‘being tossed on the seas or fluctuating in the funds’, would henceforth be invested in ‘a considerable purchase of substantial acres and tenements’. Trust The Spectator for relevant information.
Peter Clery
Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire
Recollections may vary
Sir: Juliet Nicolson’s review of In the Blood, a memoir written by my half-sister Julia Hamilton and her daughter Arabella Byrne, describes my father as ‘a penniless, alcoholic Scottish aristocrat’ (Books, 9 November). As his fourth child, I lived with him for 30 very happy years and can confirm, without the slightest shame or embarrassment, that he was indeed financially impoverished and without a doubt an aristocrat. He was not, however, an alcoholic – far from it, in fact. This might give any potential readers a sense of how much of this book, or indeed of any of the memoirs we read unquestioningly, is the ‘truth’ of its authors as opposed to the actual truth.
Olenka Hamilton
Usk, Monmouthshire
Seeing the light
Sir: With regard to William Finlator’s article about the selling-off of ancient and historically significant Church of Scotland churches (‘Beyond belief’, 26 October): while I agree it is a very sad state of affairs, and a tragedy to see it happen, there are a few pleasing spin-offs. The kirk in my small hamlet in Angus was sold off to become a private house about 20 years ago. It was converted with a (mostly) high degree of sympathy and most importantly the magnificent stained-glass window at one end was listed and had to be fully restored to its former glory. This was done to a very high standard and so now, even though we have lost the local church, the villagers after nightfall, when the occupants have the light on in their sitting room, can see a beautifully illuminated Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes, albeit in reverse, which could not be enjoyed if it had remained an empty and unused church.
J.R. Kelly
By Forfar, Angus
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