22 DECEMBER 1984, Page 33

Eros

Sir: While Eros is being 'relocated', the sight of Piccadilly Circus without him brings to mind Lawrence Durrell's in- accurate but possible prescient epigram:

At the hub of Empire little Eros stands Warming his testicles in chilly hands; They dare not take him down before They pass the anti-masturbation law. But when at last the nation's purity Is one day locked in firm security They'll shift the Roman exile for to be The patron saint of our psychiatry.

Warming testicles in chilly hands? Roman exile? But could Durrell, by any chance, be correct about the nation's purity? I think we should be told.

Dhiren Bhagat

4 St Luke's Road, London W11