...A study by the Cambridge Classic Project has discovered that there are now 459 state secondary schools teaching Latin. That is not very many, out of a total of 4,000, but in 2003...Latin was available in only 200 state schools.

It is a rare bit of good news for those who worry about the chronic decline of classical education.

There was a protest yesterday outside the House of Commons by sixth-form girls from Godolphin and Latymer school, in Hammersmith. Dressed in ancient costumes, they were complaining about the abolition of the last remaining ancient history A-level. A petition posted on the Downing Street website has attracted more than 4,000 signatures to the cause.

But those who hold that Latin is condicio sine qua non of a rounded education can take heart that it is now being taught in racially mixed inner city comprehensives in places such as Tower Hamlets and Kilburn.

Another sign that Latin is not quite dead is the extraordinary success of a book by the former Daily Telegraph journalist, Harry Mount, called Amo, Amas, Amat and All That: How to Become a Latin Lover which sold 70,000 copies in the UK. Mr Mount has now been paid a £125,000 advance for a new edition being produced, mutatis mutandis, for the US market.

[*What goes around comes around.]