26 OCTOBER 1951, Page 19

Sm,—William Fowler (my great-great-grandfather) was born in 1696, and died

in 1804 in his 108th year. Thus this one life-span takes in three cen- turies and covers a period of over 107 years. He migrated from Yorkshire to the Midlands, and his tomb, bearing these dates, can be seen in the churchyard of Aston parish church, near Birmingham. Incidentally, he is reputed to have hunted until he was eighty and ridden a horse until