6 NOVEMBER 1982, Page 21

Gore bore

Sir: On page 13 of the Spectator of 23 Oc- tober there was a cartoon of Mr Gore Vidal holding a cane. On page 16 there was another cartoon, of Mr Auberon Waugh with his trousers round his ankles. The ob- vious inference, supported by your cover headline, was that Mr Waugh had been chastised. But anyone who stuck at it and, eventually, reached the end of Mr Vidal's article knows that that is a false inference. In fact Mr Vidal had bored the pants off him.

Walter Taplin

Parson's Field, Long Bredy, Dorchester, Dorset