Much as I appreciate you featuring a photo of Littondale’s River Skirfare with the print-edition version of your article (Drought likely in Cumbria and Lake District, government committee told, 29 June), I would like you to appreciate the fact that a section of the river above Litton has dried up every year for 75 years to my personal knowledge. The river continues to flow underground and reappears further down the dale.
Gordon Balme
Oxford
• “Boil in the bag funerals” sound so disgusting, I couldn’t even read your article (‘Boil in the bag’ environmentally friendly funerals arrive in the UK, 2 July). If you want environmentally friendly, try a woodland burial site. Our local one has a carpet of wildflowers, and skylarks flying overhead – and yes, I do have my name down already.
Becky Carter
Didcot, Oxfordshire
• The Rt Rev John Saxbee is rightly proud that his old school, Cotham Grammar in Bristol, produced three contemporaneous England cricketers, and three bishops (Letters, 30 June). He might have mentioned, also, two Nobel laureates for quantum physics, Paul Dirac and Peter Higgs. But, alas, not a single president of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
ACH Smith
Bristol
• Some years ago a friend was asked to play the organ for the funeral of a member of his Scottish dancing group. A medley of appropriate songs was requested, and he realised too late that he had launched into Haste Ye Back (Letters, 30 June).
Jo McDonough
West Mersea, Essex
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