15 OCTOBER 1977, Page 18

Sir: Through the welter of John McEwen's wit (above the

Beano and Dandy, say, but beneath Jilly Cooper), one discerns an assortment of unexplained antipathies towards, e.g., cultural analogies, sunshine and flowers, and needlepoint. His strictures on Ian Hamilton Finlay's show at the Serpentine operate on the assumption that his readers share these antipathies. Poor readers! Nowhere in his review does one find that judgement of quality rather than category that alone can validate the criticism of art.

Lesley Bratten Fox House, Blackness, Linlithgow