Fresh 'air fiend
Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Diary, 7 July) was rather less than kind to quote Jorrocks in describing Mr Hese!tine as that `Hossifer in the Ninety-fust regiment wot looks like an 'airdresser' (but I do see!). However, the immortal words from Handley Cross brought a breath of fresh air, and a reminder of my childhood delight in that incident concerning the "airdresser on the chesnut 'oss', and indeed an enduring delight in Surtees and John Leech.
Thank you for transporting me out of the so familiar world of The Spectator and its windmills for a blissful moment. I wonder which Surtees character Mr Wheatcroft would pick to impersonate Mr Ridley, a scion of one of the grander Northumbrian families — the county, incidentally, of Jorrocks's shabby, indomitable huntsman, James Pigg. 'Ar niver gits off', said he — sadly poor Mr Ridley had to do just that.
May Scott
The Old Almshouse, Weekley, Kettering, Northamptonshire
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