Letter: Border incidents

Sir: Space may well be the final frontier, as Captain Kirk used to say, but the River Tamar surely can't be the "oldest frontier in Europe", as the errant Paul Vallely would have us believe, if its borderline credentials were only established in the 9th century ("A Journey Around the Whole Island of Great Britain", 6 August).

"Iacta alea est", quoth Julius Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon - and the boundary dividing republican loyalty from imperial ambition - and that was in 49BC. And, while we're talking crossings, what about the time the Red Sea divided for those fleeing Israelites. Another international border incident surely?

KATIE TEARLE

Lewes, East Sussex