19 MAY 1967, Page 26

Sir: It is interesting to know that the dean need

not be a priest; just as the Lord Chancellor need not be a peer, and that any ordained priest is eligible to be Pope—he need not be a cardinal.

A slightly more positive definition was once, I was told, contributed by Dean Rashdall on hear- ing that the choice at St Paul's had fallen on 1)r W. R. Inge: 'Just the man for a dean—he's Buddhist, and he hates the poor!'

Alan Colingridgr

The Grange, Neasden, London NWIO