Sir, Oxford certainly deserves a memorial to its Catholic martyrs. Your readers may not be aware of how many of these there were. Thomas Belson (Exeter College), George Nichols (priest, Brasenose College), Humphrey Pritchard and Richard Yaxley (priest) were hanged in the Town Ditch, which is the site of the current Broad Street, just outside the town walls on July 5, 1589. The two priests were also drawn and quartered. Ironically, the Protestant memorial is just a few yards from the location of the Catherine Wheel Inn, where these Catholic martyrs were arrested, on what is now the site of Balliol College.

The innkeeper, a lady whose name is unknown, was imprisoned for life, having had all her possessions confiscated.

Approximately 70 Catholic martyrs in the 16th and 17th centuries are known to have been students or teachers at Oxford University.

Some like George Napier had connections with both the Town and the University. He lived at Holywell Manor, becoming a student at Corpus Christi College in 1566, but was expelled for being of the Catholic faith in 1568. He later spent nine years in prison for his faith. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in Oxford in 1610. His quarters were placed on the four city gates, and his head on Tom Gateway (Christ Church). Most of Oxford's Catholic martyrs, however, were not tortured and executed in Oxford. Edmund Campion, for instance, a fellow of St John's College, Oxford, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in 1581.

As to the assessments of your correspondents, Valerie Barnish and Nicholas Wilson, on Elizabeth I, I refer them to the words of John Wesley, that she was "as just and merciful as Nero, and as good a Christian as Mahomet".

Ian Logan, Eynsham