WELLER ON CAMBERWELL
SIR,—The excellent articles by Mr. James Pope-Hennessy, on the ancient areas that still retain their individuality within the vast amalgam of London, appeal most poignantly to those of yoiir readers whose lot it is to dwell in exile from their native city. I there- fore venture to appeal to him to solve for me a problem that has bothered me for more than sixty years—ever' since, as a boy, I first devoured Pickwick. In this inestimable chronicle that profound philosopher Mr. Weller, senior, following his predecessor Plato, expresses his distrust of poets and poetry. Here are his immortal words: " I don't like it, Sam I never know'd , a respectable coachman as wrote poetry, 'cept one, as made an affectin' copy o' werses the night afore he wos hung for a highway robbery; and he wos only a Camberwell man, so even that's no rule."
As a native of Kennington who went to school in Camberwell, this disparagement of a once-beloved haunt by so highly revered an authority has always distressed me. If your learned contributor can say on what it was based, he will enormously oblige.—Yours faithfully,
HORACE J. BRIDGES 175 Central Avenue, Greenport, L.1., N.Y.
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