30 OCTOBER 2004, Page 42

Alight in the gloom

From Mike Knowles

Sir: 'A single phrase often makes my day', wrote your columnist Theodore Dalrymple (Second opinion, 23 October). How true that can be! 1 was in London last Thursday. I took the District Line and as it pulled into Westminster station a woman's voice announced, 'Alight here for the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.' Not an abrupt and rudimentary 'get off', but 'alight'. A lovely word. A sweet word. Ancient, delicate and mellifluous. Conjuring up images of carriages and horses and times past.

Michael Knowles

Congleton, Cheshire