A nice letter in the July 2 Spectator:
Sir: Roger Scruton suggests that the British would never emulate the 30,000 who followed Sartre’s coffin or Beethoven’s. In fact, 30,000 followed Newton’s headed by the King and Queen. Voltaire remarked how typical this was of us: we killed our kings and gave our mathematicians a state funeral.
I think it shows excellent judgment on the part of the English. Of all the Englishmen who have lived these past 500 years, few have been more deserving of a state funeral than Sir Isaac.