8 SEPTEMBER 2001, Page 32

Miss Austen's fruit and veg

From Mr Michael Grosvenor Myer Sir: Simon Courtauld, in his interesting piece on apricots (Arts, 1 September), has misremembered the conversation at dinner in Mansfield Park. Dr Grant does not. as Mr Courtauld remembers, say that Moor Park apricots have no more flavour than a potato, but denies that the ones on the tree in the garden he has inherited from Mrs Norris's late husband are Moor Parks as Mrs Norris insists, adding, 'These potatoes have as much the flavour of a Moor Park apricot as the fruit from that tree.'

Michael Grosvenor Myer

Haddenham, Cambridge