What is the correct etiquette for walking down a busy pavement in the city when there are a pair of you, please?
Ann Mackay, Notting Hill Gate

Do not obstruct those coming in the opposite direction. Do not insist on holding hands across the tide. Go single file when it becomes inconvenient to walk abreast. The antique etiquette is for the man to walk on the outside, nearer to the traffic. This was to reduce the risk of his lady being splashed by passing horse traffic. Well, that still applies to malignant buses. But do not make a fetish of man taking the outside lane. Think of other walkers on the crowded pavement. Do not dash or lose your patience. Others have just as much right to the crowded pavement as you, and may have as urgent business. (Surely not? Ed)

Is it always correct form for the man to open a door and let a woman go through first?
Derek Drury, Bury St Edmunds

This is not just a matter of sex. It is the act of a gent to open the door for companions and fellow-travellers whatever their sex and age, in order to let them pass through first. That echoes on a pygmy scale the heroic generosity of Philip Sidney (author of Astrophel and Stella) on the battlefield of Zutphen in 1586. He gave his water bottle to a dying soldier, saying: “Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.” The only occasion when the man might lead through the door is when there is a blizzard blowing outside. He goes first in order to open his umbrella and order a taxi for those coming behind him.

We are going to a wedding of good friends next month. Must I wear a hat? Must my husband?
Ruth Lambeth, Bristol

Must? Fussed? Just? It is conventional and traditional for women to wear hats in church and for weddings. To flout convention is ostentatious. This year a lot of women are wearing feathers in their hair as virtual hats, like Apache squaws. Are they called fascinators? Also huge flying saucer hats are trendy, making social kissing (prolific at nuptials) hazardous — nay, impossible. The principal rule is to dress your best in honour of your friends, but not to outshine the mother of the bride or attract attention by outrageous eccentricity. Man can carry a top hat (black rather than grey, purlease), but it is just one other item of kit to leave behind or sit on. Optional extra.

Please explain the correct etiquette for signing off letters.
Mary Davis, Lancaster

Pompously, to the Editor of The Times or one’s commanding officer: “I have the honour, sir, to remain your obedient servant” (an economy with the truth). To business firms: “Yours faithfully.” To private persons: “Yours sincerely.” To a person known slightly: “Yours truly” or, more cordially, “Yours very truly.” To a friend: “Yours ever.” For Scots: “Yours aye.” Variants: “Best regards”, “All good wishes.” To good friends: “Lotsa luv and kisses.” There is considerable variation in these formulae. The post-modernist trend is towards informality and self-referential irony.

Even The Times cartographers, in their map of Hull, show Paragon as a “train station”. For most of my 75 years a station has been — just a “station”. Why do younger people use the term “train station”?
Neil Inkley, Preston

We now have not just railway stations, but bus stations, work stations and even Play Stations. The change is making the shifting language more precise. When travelling by train or bus to a station, idiom rules that we go UP to London, even from John o’Groats, and DOWN to Penzance.

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