Letter: Protesters who saw the wood and the trees

Sir: The bulldozing of the great horse chestnut on George Green ('Treehouse falls to M11 bulldozer', 8 December) put me in mind of a passage by W. H. Auden:

A small grove massacred to the last ash,

An oak with heart-rot, give away the show:

This great society is going smash;

They cannot fool us with how fast they go,

How much they cost each other and the gods.

A culture is no better than its woods.

Yours faithfully,

LIZ ELLIOT

London, SW15

(Photograph omitted)