VERBAL FLY FISHING
Sir,-I am becoming a little wearied of "Neutral’s" broadsides on the subject of ancient writers, snobbery, culture, etc. But I was amused to see that he claims a semi-royal ancestry dating back over 2,000 years. This sort of thing strikes me as being snobbery of the worst kind. A branch of my own family is affected with the same genealogical bug, and one member of it once spent months establishing the fact that he could be
traced back to a ninth century queen of some long since obliterated European country. It is all very silly, and I hope that in the new order which will emerge from this war there will be not a vestige left of such family consciousness. If "Neutral" is interested I may say that my own immediate line can be traced back about 170 years to a French shoemaker who came to England via the Channel Islands. If I were a snob I could make much of the fact that great-great-great grandfather Jean Pierre was a bachelor, but had been a favourite of a certain lady at the French court, As for his challenge to write a sonnet on the subject "Summer Night,’ I am engaged on it at the moment. May I suggest that if his family dates back 2,000 years (not forgetting the semi-royal tradition), he should himself produce me a 17-lined Pindaric ode on the suhiect of
"Tomato Blight"? cio
WINCHESTER
(Auckland).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410207.2.9.9
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 85, 7 February 1941, Page 10
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242VERBAL FLY FISHING New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 85, 7 February 1941, Page 10
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