Obituary: Mary Moorman

FURTHER to the obituaries of Mary Moorman (by Jonathan Wordsworth and Park Honan, 1 February), tribute should be paid to her role as principal's wife at the overwhelmingly masculine theological college at Chichester, writes the Rev EF Taylor.

She did not often appear in the college outside the Principal's flat except in the garden, for dinner Monday to Friday and for worship on Sunday mornings. But her mixture of kindness, encouragement, witty conversation and undemonstrative piety helped to keep us all sane and to demolish pre-priestly pomposity in the inevitably somewhat intense atmosphere of a small community's life. Nobody as formidably gifted and as accustomed to speaking her mind could expect always to be liked by all, but few failed to value her contribution.

The difference of style between her and her husband was illustrated on the publication of the first volume of her Wordsworth biography. She eagerly scanned the inner pages of the Times Literary Supplement and, finding no reference to it there, exclaimed her disappointment. He chuckled quietly at her expense - 'It's on the front page.'