Eheu cads .
Sir: It is handsome of Mr Mortimer to write about Harrow, as he did in his review of Sir John Betjeman's letters (Books, 7 Octo- ber), being an old Harrovian himself, and it is easy to understand Sir John's relish at Harrovian dreadfulness. But there has been a distinct falling off in the standards of cad- dishness over the past two or three decades. As long as I can remember, Harrow has been the best school for cads — it is almost as if caddishness had been taught as a spe- cial subject, at extra cost — but they are not what they were. When one thinks of Cap- tain Grimes in Decline and Fall, one can measure the decline. Evelyn Waugh was unerring in such matters, and yet now Grimes would hardly count as a cad at all. Mr Mortimer's reference to scuffed suede shoes and used car salesmen brings us a lit- tle more up to date, but even that is begin- ning to sound old-fashioned. One's thoughts turn inevitably to Mark Thatcher . . . Anyway, nobody should be surprised that Harrow boys, apparently, are being abused in the streets of the town and some- times attacked by locals.
C.A. Latimer
3 The Street, Melton, Woodbridge
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