Letter: Trollope tip for Abbey charges

Sir: An article on 21 March states that Westminster Abbey could charge visitors admission an admission fee "for the first time in its history".

In Trollope's The Warden (published 1855), the Rev Septimus Harding, having to get through a long day in London, "determined to take sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, so he again went there in an omnibus, and finding that the doors were not open for morning service, he paid his twopence, and went in as a sightseer". (Chapter 15).

Trollope would not have invented such a charge. The Westminster authorities can claim that a precedent has been established.

A TILLOTSON

Cambridge