3 JUNE 2000, Page 33

Ogden on the English

From Dr Aubrey Wilson Sir: Surely your competition asking for poem in the style of Ogden Nash on Englishness (20 May) will never better Nash's own views.

Let us pause to consider the English,

Who when they pause to consider themselves they get all reticently thrilled and tinglish, Because every Englishman is convinced of

one thing, viz:

That to be an Englishman is to belong to the most exclusive club there is.

He concludes some 19 very long lines later: Anyhow, I think English people are sweet, And we might as well get used to them because

when they slip and fall they always land on their own or somebody else's feet.

Aubrey Wilson

6 Lombardy Place, London W2