If I were the letters page editor of a national paper, especially one of the ‘heavies’, I would always be sure to study what’s on the pages of my rivals. The Daily Telegraph’s clearly doesn’t do this.

On Saturday, February 14, following criticism of a number of Anglican bishops for still having chauffeurs, Mike Thomas, of Iver, Bucks, wrote to The Times to tell of a visit that Michael Ramsey made, as Archbishop of Canterbury, to Liverpool University in the mid-sixties.

“He arrived, driving himself, in an elderly and battered Morris Traveller. When we discussed his programme, it became clear that his knowledge of Merseyside geography was not sufficient for him to continue alone – so I offered to drive him around for the rest of his visit. After I had spent two days in his delightful company, he hopped back into the driving seat and headed for Lambeth Palace. Blessed are the meek.”

The Monday following, The Times carried a follow-up letter from the Dean of Peterborough, the Very Rev Charles Taylor. He wrote: “Given his penchant for drifting off into profound theological reverie, the very thought of Archbishop Michael Ramsey attempting to pilot a Morris Minor from Lambeth to Liverpool and back is the strongest argument I’ve yet heard for bishops being driven by a member of their staff.”

On the day after, I had a distinct sense of déjà vu when The Daily Telegraph’s letter page carried a missive from the same Mike Thomas telling the same story about Ramsey, couched in almost identical terms. There was no “blessed are the meek” this time. Cut perhaps from the original.

So far there has been no reply from Dean Taylor. Perhaps he doesn’t read the Telegraph.

Seriously, it always used to be the case that the broadsheet newspapers – as they used to be called – expected any letter to be exclusive. Indeed, this stipulation was spelt in the panel giving information to prospective correspondents. This no longer seems to be the case.

Perhaps, in these days of dwindling circulations, newspaper editors are glad to hear from anybody.

It is certainly noticeable in recent years how the same names crop up at the foot of letters over and over again. That of Lord Lexden (or before his ennoblement, Alistair Cooke) is perhaps the most widely seen. His expertise is on historical or constitutional matters, and his interventions are couched in terms so authoritative as rarely to require modification or correction.

A regular Telegraph letter writer – his rather unusual name does tend to leap out at you – in the Rev Richard Haggis, of Littlemore. Another is Bill Hollowell, of Peterborough, who is also occasionally mentioned on the radio as one of Terry Wogan’s ‘TOGs’ (Terry’s Old Geezers). Thus am I made aware – to my pleasure – of the continuing existence of an excellent gentlemen with whom I enjoyed many a convivial pint in my days as a cub reporter in Peterborough (Bill worked on the rival newspaper).

One of my jobs at that time was a weekly meeting at Peterborough Cathedral to learn the latest news from one of the Very Rev Charles Taylor’s predecessors as Dean. He was the Very Rev Richard Wingfield Digby, a man properly credited with safeguarding the future of this great Norman building. Much of what he had to tell us at press briefings concerned the progress on various restoration appeals.

My involvement in the reporting of church affairs continued when I moved to work in Oxford. Early in 1977 I drove over to Cuddesdon – at the wheel of my 1964 Morris Minor Traveller, as it happens – to interview Lord Ramsey about the abrupt, and somewhat surprising end to his retirement there.

A year earlier, he had been looking forward to seeing out his days there. Then he was up and off to Durham, telling me: “We have a great many friends there and want to be back there.”

The somewhat uneasy exchange between us was recorded in print at the time, leading one to suppose there was some hidden motive for his departure.

“Asked if he had not intended to spend the whole of his retirement in Cuddesdon, Lord Ramsey replied: ‘We have now made a new plan.’ “And would he be sorry to leave Oxford? ‘In some ways, yes . . .

“Were there, them, things he would not be sorry to leave? ‘I think I have said enough about this.’.”

In fact, Lord Ramsey was destined to return to Oxford 10 years later, to live with his wife at St John’s Home, in St Mary’s Road. He died, aged 83, on St George’s Day (April 23) 1988.