10 MARCH 1990, Page 27

Toilet-training

Sir: At my school you disclosed the profes- sion of your father if he were a country clergyman, an admiral or a race-horse owner.

But I, traitorously, kept quiet, since my school fees seemed to derive in part from the output of a toilet-roll factory.

The important message in Simon Blow's article on the Tennants ('Tennants for a season', 13 January) is that families gradu- ate to the aristocracy by breeding out their origins and, in so doing, direct our youth away from trade and industry by reducing their prestige.

In Japan, I imagine, they honour their toilet-roll makers.

J. R. Boyden

Chebbard Farm, Cheselbourne, Dorchester, Dorset