I was fascinated to read about the wartime safe-keeping of National Gallery paintings (Canaletto masterpiece returns to Wales 80 years after it was hidden in slate mine, 7 May). I remember my mother taking me and my sister to the gallery early on in the war to see the one painting remaining for people to see, and she told us then that all the others had gone to be safely stored within caves in the mountains of Wales. Also, we went to a piano recital there by Myra Hess, so we did not lose everything to war.
Julia Hooper
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire
• Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of the king (15 May) is excellent, but, apart from the obvious, why choose a monarch butterfly to flutter by his shoulder? It is rarely seen in this country. The purple emperor (colloquially known as His Imperial Majesty) or even the peacock would have been far more appropriate.
Melanie White
Reading, Berkshire
