Stuart Heritage’s article on nude dating shows (theguardian.com, 25 July), in which he says “now we find ourselves at a terrible new dawn, where desirability is judged by genitalia”, brings to mind the story told about Parson’s Pleasure, the now-closed, all-male naked-bathing spot on the River Cherwell in Oxford. According to legend, a group of dons and students were swimming and sunbathing naked on the riverbank when a punt full of young women came by. All the swimmers and sunbathers covered up their genitals except one – Maurice Bowra, the sometime professor of poetry, and John Sparrow, the warden of All Souls, have both been identified – who put a towel over his head, explaining afterwards: “I, at least, am known in Oxford by my face.”
Mark Redhead
London
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