House rules

Sir, – I refer to Ian d'Alton's letter (July 31st) that took Frank McNally to task for referring to Peterhouse, Cambridge, as "Peterhouse College" (An Irishman's Diary, July 30th).

I purchased a house from Peterhouse when it was disposing of some of its property in Cambridge. Soon after, I started to receive letters from the utility company addressed to “Mr Peter House”. A phone call from the company followed where the caller asked to speak to “Mr Peter House”. I clarified the error but was asked why Peterhouse wasn’t called “Peterhouse College”. I explained that that would rather be akin to calling the college “Peterhouse House” – as “house” meant “college”. The caller was clearly a young women with a sense of humour. Having used my name (Theo) several times, she ended the conversation by saying “Thank you, Peter!” – Yours, etc,

THEO SCHULTE,

Cambridge,

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England.