IN response to Mr MacAllister’s letter (February 7), evidently he has not heard the old Oxford rhyme:

At North-Gate and at South-Gate too St Michael guards the way,
While o’er the East and o’er the West St Peter holds his sway.

Oxford certainly did have a South Gate and there was a St Michael-at-the-Southgate Church, which had to be demolished to make way for Christ Church.

Medieval Oxford sensibly stayed well clear of the rivers: it stretched from Cornmarket in the north to half-way down St Aldate’s in the south and in the other direction from the Eastgate Hotel to the Westgate Centre.

STEPHANIE JENKINS
Kennett Road
Headington
Oxford