Sir,—May I make this criticism on your valuable article that it should have for title “Manna of the Rich,” not of the Poor; and by rich I mean those who have sufficient wealth of mind to know that there is no walk more thrilling than that which takes one over greensward and coppice with the purpose of picking your own supper from the many edible fungi which, in our strange country, are not classed as “mushrooms,” though they are in many cases just as good and in some much better, than the orthodox variety?
For over fifty years I have enjoyed this opulence; and though old age has now lessened my abilities for it, I always play the Rich man when I can; in fact, I read your article just after I had visited the South Downs for no other purpose than to collect a few puff-balls and other kinds. “Those are not mushrooms” is often the kind advice of the golfer or passer-by. Pitying his poverty, I pass on, collecting my wealth; but it must be owned that a chalk soil is not the best for the discovery of it, and that the last two summers have been very deleterious to the pursuit.—Yours, etc.
Henry S. Salt
68, Ashford-road, Brighton
The Observer, October 3, 1937, p. 12