Letter: Old speech of New England

Old speech of New England

Sir: Serena Mackesy writes: "If we ever went to war with the States, all we'd have to do to spot their spies would be to get everyone to read out the word 'Leominster' " (In my week, 3 May). Well, she would then misclassify the very people whose forebears started the process of opting out of the then British Empire: the citizens of Massachusetts and other New England states.

There is a town by the name of Leominster (Leh-minster) and a Worcester (Wooster) in the state, and New Englanders laugh about the "hicks" from further west who don't know how to pronounce them.

T M PICK

Budapest,

Hungary