r omwell's head r k ,I can support Simon Courtau . ld otebook, 11 August)
in thinking the WIi Ainson' head of Cromwell more likely to be genuine ia than the '1 ..1....t.:...' h Durnol ireead. L.820 years of friendship with Canon Wil. the son and his wife, I became familiar with th" Pathetic, shrunken Protector; the tiny pit ere the famous wart had been, the few stiff 'Iairs, the remains of the spike projecting "oln the shrivelled neck. 10 say that the Canon kept it under his bed _ give a false impression; it was in a velvet-lined carved wooden casket, avail i i able by day to many visitors, and he took t to Insbedroom at night for security. It had been in his family's keeping for five generations. The Royal Archaeological Society examined it in 1911 and most of those concerned were satisfied with its identity. It was the Canon's daughter Naomi, a radiologist at Guy's Hospital, who took it to the British Museum in the 1930s, where it stood up to more stringent tests. It was his son (not a nephew) whogave it in 1960 to the Master and Fellows of Sidney Sussex (not Pembroke) where it was buried. Most of these facts are confirmed by a leader in The Times of October 13, 1960.
Millicent, Mervyn Wright 27 West Street, Alrestord, Hants.
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