16 SEPTEMBER 2000, Page 31

Hungarian wastrels

From Lady Belhaven and Stenton Sir: In answer to Petronella Wyatt's intem- perate rant about the Polish monks in Faw- ley Manor (Singular life, 9 September), the Polish side of the Belhaven family have always considered the Hungarians to be arrogant. They also believe that the Hungar- ians lost half of their country without a fight because they were cowardly collaborators. My great-aunt was married to a Hungarian baron who did nothing in his life except eat and drink to excess. After squandering his own and my great-aunt's patrimony, he had to be kept by her family in Poland where my grandfather supported him until he died.

Malgorzata Belhaven and Stenton

London SW1