3 OCTOBER 1998, Page 36

Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne (England don't arise!', 19 September) states that

the loss of Scotland 'would be like the loss of a leg'. Not to this Englishwoman it wouldn't. It would be more like scraping the barnacles off the hull or cutting the ivy away from a healthy tree. After all, once we are rid of the Scots, anyone who wished could still go on reading the vastly overrated Burns or the grotesquely outdated Scott.

Once they are off our backs, we can real- ly move ahead!

A.E. Howarth

95 The Cliff, Wellington Road, Wallasey, Merseyside