The three worthy Cumbrian chaps (Gazette, October 8, 'Never a dull moment for boring trio') are models of a condition to which we should all aspire - the possession of an abiding interest and I hope that this letter is but one snowflake in a blizzard of resulting applications for membership of the Dull Men's Club.

My claim for recognition as a bore rests on my interest in the wherabouts and sundry uses of Shap granite.

Did you know, for example, that Portpatrick, near Stranraer, sports very superior Shap granite kerbstones that incorporate guttering?

And are you not gripped by the knowledge that Penrith cemetery accommodates over 600 Shap granite headstones?

Furthermore, at Ravenglass very large chunks of Shap granite are the rock armour that protects its residents from the gnawings of an angry sea.

Moreover, the churchyard of the Yorkshire village of Atwick, a stone's throw from the North Sea, sports a memorial that incorporates a boulder of Shap granite whose transport to east Yorkshire was provided free by a glacier that carried across the Pennines.

These examples are but the teensiest tip of the iceberg of Shap granite features I have recorded for a no doubt largely unappreciative posterity.

If you feel that a journey to check the veracity of my observations would be too tiresome to contemplate, then save yourself the bother of travel and next time you're passing Kendal war memorial have a glance at the two sets of granite bollards guarding it against the unwanted attentions of careless drivers. The darker, shorter set are Shap granite.

My credentials are, I think, hereby established. I rest my case and await the prompt arrival of my membership card.

Geoff Brambles

Kendal