Pocket watch

SIR – My husband’s mantra for leaving the house was: “Cigarettes, lighter, glasses, chequebook, pen” (Letters, September 2).

In just two decades, all of these necessities have become obsolete. Narguesse Stevens

Gloucester

SIR – Peter Gardener (Letters, September 2) asks how many pockets a gentleman’s suit would have had.

The last tailored suit I had made in the 1980s had two side and two hip pockets in the trousers, and four pockets in the waistcoat. The jacket had two side pockets, an external breast pocket, two internal breast pockets and two poacher’s pockets.

I never felt the need for the optional external ticket pocket.

Charles Francis

St Ewe, Cornwall