Too kind
Sir: I agree that Edinburgh is possibly the handsomest city in Europe and, yes, I am indeed English, but otherwise I am obliged to correct Paul Johnson's embarrassing encomium (And another thing, 17 May). Flattering as it may be to be sandwiched between such unlikely compatriots as Tim- othy Clifford and Julian Spalding and accused of being civilised, I have acquired enough of a Scottish respect for truth to point out that I am not a professor of archi- tecture, or of anything else, and that the school where I teach is part of the Glasgow School of Art. Paul is also wrong in assert- ing that Edinburgh does not feel like a cap- ital city and, surely, that the Scottish Enlightenment was a direct consequence of the Union. Scotland, after all, could boast four mediaeval universities when England had merely two.
After reading such an article, perhaps many of your readers will understand why even Englishmen who live in Scotland can be sympathetic to the SNP.
Gavin Stamp
One Moray Place, Strathbungo, Glasgow
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