10 DECEMBER 1965, Page 15

Senility

SIR,-Attempting to find a companion to sit (at 55. 6d. per hour with expenses paid) with an eighty- nine-year-old woman in the geriatric wing of a well- known private mental home an agency told me that they had invited no less than three eduCated women to sit for three hours or so, and all had declined as they were 'too frightened.'

One wonders what Hogarthian scene they expected and perhaps they would be well advised to accustom themselves to facing what may very well be their own fate in ultimate senility, should their sort of attitude remain widespread among an enormous British mentally ill population.

CAROLA SHEPHARD

8 First Street, SW3