23 APRIL 1965, Page 13

Stout Cortez

is time someone told that prince of political commentators, Alan Watkins, that Keats erred, that '-stout Cortez' never got within a thousand miles of the Pacific, that in dipping into Homer we should feel instead like stout Balboa or equally stoat Pizarro.

WILLIAM PHILLIPS

Lamb Building, Temple, EC4