Sir – Please permit me to leap to the defence of King Canute, compared by Harry Watts (last week’s Gazette Letters) with those who ignore the risk of flooding.

Canute was a wise man whose response to his flattering courtiers was to demonstrate that he did not have the powers they claimed and could not control the winds and waves.

I am sure he would have been an excellent adviser to the Environment Agency.

Gordon Elliot, Orchard Rise, Burford