Fear, and pity, the bulls
From Mr Nicholas Luard Sir: In his engaging description of a visitor's view of the corrida, Daniel Hannan (Bullfighting, 17 May) makes a couple of common mistakes: that the Spanish fighting bull is an indigenous European mammal, and that there are cowardly bullfighters. The bull is, in fact, a selectively bred hybrid with a tangled and centuries-old genetic inheritance, a mixture of the ancient Iberian race and stock imported by the Carthaginians. It is about as indigenous and natural to Europe as a poodle. As for cowardly toreros, that's a contradiction in terms — there aren't any. Ask anyone who has ever confronted a torn bravo, even a very young one, at a ranch testing. No wonder Manolo Sanchez was white with terror. Good for him in not leaping for the barrier as soon as he saw his animal. I did the first time that I faced a bull, and mine (one of the fabled Pablo Romeros) was barely a yearling.
And Manolete the greatest bullfighter of all time? I wonder. Mr Hannan may be too young to have seen Belmonte or Joselito, but surely a passing stranger must have whispered the name of Ordonez in his ear. As for the Miuras, sadly, as Taki might say of the conquests of his youth, they just aren't what they used to be.
Nicholas Luard Ystrad Meurig, Dyfed
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