Which side do you dress?
SIR: I write in respect of the article ‘Gentleman’s Relish’ by Mark Palmer (Spring issue).
I too was brought up in Reading in the 1950s, though not, as I suspect in Mr Palmer’s case, as a scion of the excellent company that manufactured biscuits right next to Reading Gaol.
However, I have to question Mr Palmer’s memories of a bespoke tailor asking the question ‘And which way do you hang, sir?’ Any respectable bespoke tailor or gentleman’s outfitter of the time would have asked, ‘Which side do you dress, sir?’
An issue never addressed by Levi Strauss, I imagine.
Ian R A Brown, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Black Country blues
SIR: Jonathan Meades’s article (April issue), headed ‘Lucky Brummies’, is excellent all round – particularly in bringing attention to the new Pevsner. But it is wrong to elide Birmingham and the Black Country (my country). They are mutually exclusive. The Black Country is defined by the coalfield on which it is set. Birmingham stands outside.
The elision was particularly unfortunate
