[John Whitworth]

In the Adjectives Competition Bill Greenwell was top dog and Janet Kenny also in the money. Martin Parker and Melissa Balmain just missed out. Congatulations all round.

We are back to poems at last. Here is this week's.

No. 2611: Holding fourth
You are invited to provide a poem to be recited on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square (16 lines maximum). Entries to Competition 2611 by midday on 26 August or email lucy@spectator.co.uk

I take it even bloody foreigners know about Trafalgar Square but you may not be sure about the significance of the fourth plinth. As well as Nelson's Column and attendant Lions, Trafalgar Square boasts three other statues, mainly if I remember, of generals and such. There is also a fourth, empty plinth, which has been host over the last few years to temporary modern art works, usually not, I might hazard in the military celebratory mode. The last art work, by the sculptor Anthony Gormley, consists of a large number of people,chosen I don't know how, who appear serially on the plinth for an hour at a time. And this represents... well, don't ask me.

So you b can get up on this fourth plinth and recite your up to sixteen lines on .. well I don't know.. Get to it, Sphereans.

Does anyone know whether Nelson faces the channel? In other words could he see France from where he is, given terrific vision, a large telescope, and no buildings or natural features in between. Similarly, could Napoleon, from his column in Paris.. well you see where I am going..