Sir: The inexpressible vulgarity of Tony Palmer's article on Princess
Anne is certainly not beyond belief but will be incredible to many when read in the columns of a paper of the quality of The Spectator. Facile descensus averni You have sunk; and will find it hard to rise again. Till then perhaps one may be permitted to botanize with you in the Freudian swamp of your choice.
First the current use of the expression 'to have sex ' is at best descriptive of the farm yard; but possible, with a little charity, evocative of the doctor's consulting room. Its use really makes Mr Palmer and his like 'as others see us '. Remember how Daninos's' Major Thompson compared the "Feeling better, George" of his first (English) wife with the "Are you pleased with me, darling?" of his second (French) wife after copulation in either case. Once upon a time there were love affairs. They were poetic, wonderful, human. I suppose the new line would be, "I could not have sex with thee dear so much, copulated I not with honour more ", that is if honour itself is still recognised, which, in the context of Mr Palmer's article, seems doubtful!
For the fact remains that it is still worse than bad form to snipe at someone who cannot hit back and impertinence at the expense of Royalty falls into that class. Nor will cheap old-hat insinuations about Royal ignorance of unemployment justify the vulgarity of the article. One suspects that neither you nor Mr Palmer would have published that kind of question about their next-door neighbour. Whatever the Courts might say, and one suspects that it would be damning, no one can hurt another without it coming home to roost. At attack on a young and attractive member of a Royal House has no doubt an ulterior motive. It is intended to take a rise out of those whose social conscience is certainly not less but whose standards of taste are different. Thank goodness that they are. Such people will know the concern of the Royal family when, unemployment was so bad in the thirties. They know that Royalty has not changed, nor will their loyalty be changed by the views of ' hoi polloi.' They, and they are still the majority, would still not particularly wish to see those guilty of vulgarity of this kind either hung, drawn, and quartered for lese-majeste or even dropped on a midden or in a horse trough. Their reaction will be the cold shoulder rather than the club of martyrdom. One regrets that you, sir, should be the recipient. What a pity!
Cosmo Russell Stuccles Farm, Sayers Common, Hassacks, Sussex
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