27 JUNE 1998, Page 22

Anglo-Saxon attitudes

WHO WOULD have thought that the laws of supply and demand would get through to Oxford University's Honour School of English Language and Literature? The dons now think of dropping Anglo-Saxon from the syllabus on the specious grounds that no one wants to read it. In my day the dons were driven by more direct economic incentives. The Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Alastair CalliP" bell — not to be confused with the Prime Minister's mouthpiece — spoke for then? all. 'Of course I am opposed to the aboli- tion of compulsory Anglo-Saxon,' he explained in his distinctive Middle English tones. 'That's what I'm paid to teach.'