No Rest

To the Editors:

Alas, Lord Annan is wrong when he writes, “The Webbs bequeathed their home to the L.S.E. as a rest place for sociologists; but such is the resilience of the staff that none has ever been known to go there.” (NYR, November 21, 1968)

It is not that we are resilient, but that L.S.E. in a Webb-like mood of puritan austerity immediately thrust the gift from itself lest the green pastures of Surrey prove too great a distraction. It would be nice for us and for our American guests if we had been less puritanical but then perhaps we would no longer have been the L.S.E…

Donald G. MacRae

Professor of Sociology

London School of Economics

and Political Science

London