County punchlines

SIR: I was delighted to see the photo of Barbara Pym outside her cottage in the Oxfordshire village of Finstock and to learn what fun Barbara and her sister Hilary were as young women (Prue Anderton, Literary Lives, January issue). I am not surprised; when I spent a brief period in Finstock twenty years ago, I met Barbara’s sister Hilary at a supper party. She asked me if I lived in Finstock or in the neighbouring (and rather prettier) hamlet of Ramsden. She said it was important to know as ‘one meets one’s friends in Ramsden and one’s servants in Finstock’. To this day, I don’t know if she was joking or being serious. Kathy Walton, Chorleywood, Herts