24 NOVEMBER 2001, Page 40

Period phrases

From Mr Tony Inglis Sir: Simon Hoggart, writing on television (Arts, 17 November), condemns Andrew Davies's 'weird habit of using modern phrases and slang' in his period scripts. Of Mr Hoggart's two prime examples, the coarse jest about mantelpieces and fires is identified as late 19th century in Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases, and being 'a confounded quick study' consoles Mr Lenville in Nicholas Nickleby,1838.

Tony Inglis

Lewes, East Sussex