THE HALL OF FAME
SIR.—By J. I-1. Plumb's definition I write as a mem- ber of the bulk of the nation—'the anonymous.' I
never had a nannie, I didn't go to a prep-school, among my relations are neither captains nor curates, let alone colonels and bishops. And what's more, and I'm sorry if 'this shocks Mr. Plumb, I mix with a lot of other nonentities who also possess not one of the qualifications he lists which are necessary to be a member of the 'other. smaller nation.'
I must say, however, that I found it extremely hard to recognise in myself, or my friends, the insen-
sitive, apathetic, almost brutish quality which Mr. Plumb bestows so graciously upon us. It will sur- prise him to know that the last time I was at the Tower I did regard it as something essentially different lNrom a Kwakiutl totem, and even (I hope this doesn't look like I'm trying to rise above my station) experienced some excitement and much in- terest from the event.
How dare this precious individual coldly write off 99 per cent. of his fellow-countrymen as a group of benumbed morons? In so doing he displays a callousness, an indifference, a lack of imagination of the lives of those about (he would say 'beneath') him that is not untypical of the 'other, smaller nation' to which he so proudly belongs.
CHRISTOPHER SCARLES
28 Lee Terrace, Blackheath
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