TCG Letter #888

Humphrey Carpenter writes to Sir Patrick Browne thanking him for his letter, with an enclosed copy of a letter from Tolkien. That letter was used in the published letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as Carpenter #336: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Sir Patrick Browne • 23 May 1972 (#430). Carpenter remarks that "the postscript in particular is delightful" but subsequently did not distinguish it as a footnote in the published book. The portion of the letter beginning "But the nose of even a very modest idol..." continuing to the end of the short quote was added by Tolkien as the mentioned footnote.