13 APRIL 1985, Page 23

Damned houses

Sir: Your profile of Sir John Summerson (6 April) omitted to mention one notorious example of his mischievous perversity. Twenty years ago, the distinguished author of Georgian London was invited over to Dublin by the Irish Georgian Society to help its campaign to save that elegant city from despoilation. Sir John, however, chose to be reported in the press as dismissing Dublin's Georgian glories as 'just one damned house after another'. This, of course, was just what many in business and politics longed to hear. Thanks, in part, to your 'Survivor', rather fewer of those damned houses survive today.

Feargus O'Halloran

Coolmore House, Co Kilkenny