LETTER:There's nothing new under the sun

From Mr Gerald Hinchliffe

Sir: In 1591, an Elizabethan gentleman, John Kay of Woodsome in Yorkshire, wrote this in his commonplace book:

This summer, anno domini 1591, was the driest sommer that hath been within memoryed man, for betwixt the XXXth day of March and Michaelmas was not two hole days of Raine whereby ensued great scarcitye of grasse the former years being droughtye also and yet greate plentye of corne this year.

Nothing is new, only man's perception of it differs.

Yours faithfully,

Gerald Hinchliffe

Nottingham

18 August