Soane's anachronism
Sir: Gavin Stamp (Letters, 18 August) has misunderstood my perhaps over-concise statement of the changes in the status of the Soane Museum. I must emphasise that the Museum is still administered by Trus- tees — the self-perpetuating body which has governed the Museum since 1837 and which includes four Life Trustees and five `additional' Trustees, elected for five year periods by the Corporation of the City of London, the Royal Society of Arts. Thus, Soane's far-sighted plan survives intact and the Museum, enjoys the same freedom of action as does the Victoria and Albert under the new dispensation. What Dr Stamp calls 'the State', which means in effect Parliament, makes an annual grant to the Trustees through the Office of Arts and Libraries. As to the pensioned retirement of future curators, this removes a Soanean provision (or lack of provision) which, notwithstanding Dr Stamp's generous references to myself and my predecessor, must surely, under mod- ern conditions, be regarded as an anachronism.
John Summerson
Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2
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