21 JUNE 1969, Page 30

Table talk

Sir: As an old student of Italy, may I, through your columns, express my sincere appreciation for Sir Denis Brogan's erudite article 'Haec Est Italia Dis Sacra' (7 June).

I, too, feel that Browning's dramatic lyric 'Two in the Campagna' (which I have just re-read) is one of the poems most evocative of the Campagna de Roma until it was spoilt, by modern commercialism, in the first quarter of this century.

The champaign with its endless fleece Of feathery grasses everywhere! Silence and passion, joy and peace,

An everlasting wash of air— Rome's ghost since her decease.'

'Haec Est Italia Dis Sacra' is, to my mind, Sir Denis Brogan's (journalistic) masterpiece.

Dennis Ward