17 JUNE 1995, Page 37

Distressed in Bath

Sir: I am very much startled and grieved to read in The Spectator that dear Giles Auty is leaving us to go so far away. His coura- geous gales of good sense have delighted me through his 11 years as your art critic and indeed I have been collecting his arti- cles for some time in a file to cheer myself up in face of the dead sheep and other art rubbish.

To find such a man literally driven out of England by the monsters of hypocrisy and foolishness who rule our present art world is a deep disgrace.

Monica Dewey

Warders Lodge, Old Newbridge Hill, Bath, Avon