16 JULY 1994, Page 25

Earthy English

Sir: Carla Powell (`She's Italian, you know', 9 July) is perfectly right, of course. We English are a down-to-earth lot. But one is, perhaps, entitled to note that the abstract concepts, big ideas and dreams which are apparently in the bloodstream of mainland continents have now and again had some pretty nasty consequences, Napoleon, Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler among them.

Kenneth Hudson,

Long Batch, Ditcheat, Shepton Mallet, Somerset