Hardy annual .
Sir: I am surprised a 'sentimental' view (Letters, 9 August) can so sting Mr Seymour- Smith; that our viewpoints differ is obvious, and I still perceive inaccuracies. Mr Seymour- Smith's initial review states: 'The centre of the Hardy festival is the "Hardy Was Here" pavilion . . .' which is not Kingston Maurward Park and was, in fact, the art students' por- tion of the exhibition—enterprising, but one felt Hardy had left early. Miss Deacon's name is listed under 'The Festival Lecturers,' p. 7, and in the programme, p. 43, of the Official Handbook. My words in no way support his `blunderingly inept' verdict on the film, but rather make some allowance for a difference
between art-forms. Above all, I wished to point out, for those not able to attend the festival, not that Mr Seymour-Smith was a stranger to Dorset, but that he was a stranger to the enthusiasm, efforts, stimulation of interest in a great writer aroused by the occasion, and to the kindness extended by 'the good folk of that region'—a grateful term from a visiting York- shire-woman and surely preferable to 'the locals' favoured by Mr Seymour-Smith.
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