Sir: Mr. Edward Pearce's peevish article is unlikely to stop
anyone reading The Specta- tor but his continued presence as a contrib- utor might well do so. He is vulgar, not to say crapulent, and apparently unable to express himself clearly. For example he probably means 'obvious' rather than `immediate' in his first sentence and one can hardly be walled-up in a waistcoat. `Testicle-eroding' is coarse. And what North American Indians have to do with 18th-century European art is obscure.
The Anglo-Catholic faith is no more unreal than the Roman Catholic faith. The expression, if it means anything, 'snob- flecked malice' might be used to describe the author's own attitude. One could go on through the article but perhaps this will suf- fice.
For your part you say that you will try to act as an impresario, but The Spectator is not an opera buffa and one hopes that you will not trivialise it. P.J. Kavanagh comes to mind as a good example of the style you are looking for.
By the way, you are far too famous to need to sign your leaders and indeed I am sur- prised that you wanted to sign the last one.
John R.E. Sedgwick
Pasture House, Whitsbury, Fordingbridge, Hampshire
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