5 SEPTEMBER 1987, Page 23

Educated person

Sir: It was ingenious of you to print in the same issue of your magazine (29 Septem- ber) the noble letter of Messrs Jones and Spooner calling on the Secretary of State to exercise a proper regard for the survival of classical education and, by way of warning, Paul Johnson's candid article explaining how he had had to rummage in the dictionary to discover the origins of com- mon words, such as oblivious, blatant, epitome, holocaust, jargon, irony, sar- casm, meticulous, which would be known to any educated person. Verb. sap. Let us hope that the Secretary takes note.

Colin Haycraft

Gerald Duckworth, The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1