21 DECEMBER 1956, Page 13

GRANDFATHER'S LONDON

SIR,-Mr. Sitwell, in his charming review of Grandfather's London in your issue of Decem- ber 14, refers to the 'roar' of London in the old days.

I can never make the younger generation believe that this is true. My earliest memory —and not so long ago, about 1911—is of opening the window of our bedroom at my grandmother's at 45 Portland Place and the roar of the hooves of those hundred thousand horses coming at one like a wave, like the hum of a giant beehive.

And on a lucky morning the Life Guards would be slowly riding down the middle of that broad street on their way from Albany Street Barracks to Whitehall. But children can still see that thrilling sight elsewhere.—Yours faithfully,