12 MARCH 1954, Page 16

SIR,- - Miss Laura Deane has surely answered her own unwary challenge.

There are many of us, admirers of all these good ladies, who would be prepared to place the poetical works of L. E. L. and Ella Wheeler Wilcox almost precisely upon a level with those of Miss Sitwell.—Yours faithfully,

JULIAN SYMONS

The Corner Cottager Badlesmere Lees, nr. Faversham, Kent