LETTER:Glass warfare at Sherborne

From The Rev Eric Woods

Sir: As an exercise in spleen-venting, James Fenton's piece on Sherborne Abbey's west window is superb (24 July). If you will give me five columns too, I will gladly - and courteously - answer him point by ill-informed point. That way I would also avoid being "quoted from memory" from a conversation I do not remember at all.

If Mr Fenton had been in earnest about wanting to discover the facts of the matter, he would have made an appointment to see me during his visit to Sherborne. He could have had copies of the conservation reports and the witness statements, and of the learned Chancellor's 69-page judgment.

But then, serious journalism wouldn't have been nearly as much fun as this knockabout stuff, would it?

Yours faithfully,

Eric Woods

Vicar of Sherborne

Sherborne Abbey

Dorset