Letter: Centuries old

Centuries old

Sir: Correspondence on past longevity (Letters, 22, 26 August) reminds me of an ancestor, Elizabeth Hobbs, who, as recorded on her tombstone at Little Wilbraham, near Cambridge, had lived in three centuries, the 17th, 18th and 19th, when she died in 1803 at the age of 104. What was a rare achievement 200 years ago will doubtless be celebrated by many on the turn of this century.

DAVID BUTLER

Oxford