Byng wrong
Sir: My old ship-mate Mr Byng is wrong to dispute with me (Letters, 20 September). First, the Bishop of Durham more than once, on our voyage together, attributed Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark to Edward Lear. Secondly, I did not claim to know the exact site of the First Council of Nicaea. Many scholars believe that the Council fathers assembled on the site of the old Gymnasium, hard by the present ruin of Santa Sophia. We do not know where Constantine's palace stood. Euse- bius describes the Fathers, many of them parading wounds received during the days of persecution, attending a dinner there after the council was over.
Mr Byng avers that I am deficient in charity and good manners. True. It is perhaps fair to point out that I did write another article saying how much I had enjoyed my Swan Hellenic cruise, which you did not choose to print. I have received a number of letters from people who thought I was too kind to the bishop. Shouldn't a man with a name like Byng be able to see that one teases public figures less for reasons of malice than pour en- courager les autres?
A. N. Wilson
Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, London SW1
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