Last Post

The AGM is over and Chris Darnell (M 1965) has been duly elected as President and the medal handed over. He will be a great President for the school's 150th anniversary and we all wish him well. Meanwhile hearty congratulations are due also to Catherine MacLeod-Smith (Alb & L 1979), who has become the Chairman of the Trustees of the Society, the first woman to hold this office, as she was the first woman President. The President Elect for 2013 is Jane Everard (Alb & L 1976). Joe Davis, the Master, was elected an honorary member of the Society, as was Paul Wilkinson, the Bursar. Both have been great supporters.

This will be the last regular post on the blog now that the Presidency has been handed on. I hope you have enjoyed the miscellany of things. There are some posts which never quite made it, and I still have ideas, but 301 posts (including this one) in sixteen months has been quite busy. Of course the quality has been variable, and sometimes just a picture has had to do. The original idea was to post once a month or so, but I got enthusiastic and it has been much more than that. Sometimes I have had time to post daily, whereas over last summer the rate dropped down to less than once a week for a while.

Readers have come from all the continents except Antarctica, and at the time of writing there have been just under 25,000 page views. The busiest month was February 2011 with 1,645 page views from 1,020 unique visitors. People have stayed on the site too. At any one time according to the tracking software about 15% of my readers stay on the blog for more than 20 minutes, which is a long time for a website.

My family will be pleased that will not be forever taking pictures of Haileybury related things to put up on the blog. I have a set of pictures which did not get used for a series on 'nooks and crannies,' which was rather scorned by a friend who, seeing a photo of the urinal at the back of the pavilion on Lower Pavilion on my phone wondered whether people really want posts on 'places where I urinated when I was a teenager.'

Thank you all for reading. I shall leave the blog on the internet, and you can use the links on the right of the page to read the old posts. I am investigating how to make Haileyburiana available as a book using Print on Demand and will put up a notice if that can be done.

Finally, the Master said in his address to the AGM that in the 150th year he would ask the Director of Music to teach the school the Vivat, which has not, I think been sung at Haileybury for 20 years (the hymn Lift up Your Hearts, having largley taken its place). Here is an attempt at a Sesquicentennial verse:

Now we've been here thrice fifty years

Vivat Haileyburia!

Living out our hopes and fears

Vivat Haileyburia!

Girls have come to join the boys,

In other lands they share our joys,

And still this song our tongue employs

Vivat Haileyburia!

I fear it is not as good as AG Butler's original:

Then close your ranks and lift your song!

Vivat Haileyburia!

That life is short, but love is long;

Vivat Haileyburia!

And all through life, where'er we be

School of our hearts, we'll think of thee

And drink the toast with three times three

Vivat Haileyburia!

Handing Over

The AGM is later this morning and Chris Darnell (M 1965) will take over as President. For the last few years the AGM has included a ceremony, the handing on of the President's medal.

The medal was made by James Thompson (C 1953) when he was President in 2007, the Society's fiftieth year. The obverse of the medal shows the family tree of the alumni societies which came together to form the Haileybury Society.

I have worn the medal a lot as I seldom wear a tie. The Dean of S Paul's gave me permission to wear it during the liturgy for my installation as a Canon of the Cathedral last January.

It has been a huge honour to be the President of the Society and to wear the medal. I wish Chris great blessings in his year.

11.11.11

The ninety third Armistice Day. Last Sunday we went off to church in Frankfurt. The Alter S Nikolaus Kirche in the Lutheran town centre parish had a service at 1115 which seemed like a good time to those who were having a weekend off. We were in for a bit of a surprise as the service took the form of hymns and prayers surrounding a talk and a discussion. The parish calls this sort of service a Gesprachsgottesdienst - 'a conversation-liturgy' and was in many ways what we would think of as a Christian study group. It was a bit of a challenge for our German language skills!

Frankfurt Old Town before WW2

The talk was given by a visitor from a charity called Zeichen der Hoffnung which works in Germany to foster better relations and understanding between Poles and Germans, healing the wounds which remain after the Second World War. The work began in a practical way, sending money and help to survivors of outrages, but now it seeks to work to foster good relations and understanding.

The discussion in church was in many ways courageous, raising issues of reconciliation in the light of the siting of concentration camps in Poland and the other horrors of the war.

In the small group present the four of us from England were noticeable, and the Pastor was kind to translate for us some of what was going on. Frankfurt was the subject of a massive raid by the RAF on March 22nd 1944 which destroyed the medieval old town and in which over 1,000 people died.

Wartime destruction
 

Sitting in a church which had, along with many other medieval buildings been subsequently restored or rebuilt, one was acutely thankful for the work of reconciliation. We prayed together for that to continue also between our countries. Thanks to my teachers that I was able to respond to the Pastor's graciousness in praying in English with a word of prayer in German. 

How much those who gave their lives for freedom, and suffered so much in the European wars of the last century, would rejoice to think that Haileyburians, German and English, had met over the weekend and celebrated together their common roots in the school and the society, and that things are now so much changed. 

Haileyburians of today continue to play their part in the conflicts of the world. The tragic roll of those who have paid for their commitment with their lives has grown in our time.  Our prayer must be that the conflicts of today will similarly come in the end to the triumph of peace and reconciliation over the forces of hatred and violence.

The Cloister tablets have recently been cleaned and restored
partly with a grant from the Society 

In the first 100 years of Haileybury, ISC and USC, 9% of Old Boys
lost their lives on active service 

Alumni Treffen

The Frankfurt Dinner was a splendid way to spend the last weekend before handing on the baton. Thirty two gathered at the Hotel Intercontinental by the river Main just outside the old city center. It was a young gathering. Four OHs only left the school this August; the oldest German present left Haileybury in 1997.

My German has had thirty years of disuetude, but the company was delightfully generous in speaking in English, and conversations flowed between languages.

The pictures tell the story more than thousands of words.

The General Secretary first thing on Saturday with the OH umbrella which had been specially ordered and had to come in the 'bulky luggage'. He got it safely to the person who had ordered it!

Haileybury Reunion Alumni Treffen

How to say "Old Haileyburian Dinner" in German. The welcome board at the Hotel Intercontinental.

Dinner was a buffet - lots of different things to try and each one beautifully presented. Wine and conversation flowed.

The function room was high up on the top floor of the hotel and had a balcony from which were stunning views over the city. My camera was not up to a picture to do justice to what could be seen. Frankfurt is a delightful mixture of old and new, Medieval and Modern.

Homeward bound on Sunday. 

Interim Report

The last couple of days have been wall to wall and no time until now even for a brief post. Germany was wonderful and I shall report properly either late tonight or in the morning. Frankfurt was bathed in Autumn sunshine.

View of the Main from the hotel window

Travelling Tomorrow

I have not been to Frankfurt before, but tomorrow we are off to the OH German Dinner there, the last engagement before the AGM and the end of my year as President. It seems extraordinary that the time should have flown past already. We are due back late on Sunday and I may or may not manage to report on the events of the weekend before then.

Remember Remember the 12th of November

The notices for the AGM have been dispatched and members will have had their Haileybury Society News for a little while. It is beautifully produced, and thanks to those who do a lot of work to get to all together and sent off. I have just found my booking form under a pile of things on my desk. I expect they know I am coming, but don't forget to send yours.

Seem Familiar?

The Haileybury half term is two weeks, so yesterday I took the boys to Portsmouth to go round the historic dockyard.

This is the gun deck of HMS Warrior.

Seem familiar?

Changing Fashions

The HM of Lawrence has sorted out some new House strip for Rugby and Soccer. The difference of the new shirts is pretty striking.

Here are the old ones

And this is the new model.

This is not the first time that the strip has changed. Trawling for a picture from the past I found the online Museum of Rugby with a picture of Jim Unwin (L 1926) in a Lawrence team in 1930. It may be copyright so I have not pasted it into the blog, but you can see it here. The rest of his story with a section on his time at Haileybury is here.

Meanwhile at the end of half term the girls house hockey tournament was going on and there were some shirts which gave me a double take. The blue and magenta quarters of the old Hailey rugby shirt have become blue and pink.

Not as pink as the athletics tops mind. Here is a picture plundered from Haileybury's own website of a competitor in the House athletics in 2010. Quid Forteous Leone!

Lift Up Your Hearts

The news this week has been full of the sorry business at S Paul's Cathedral. That our economic system brings great benefit is true, as is the fact of terrible inequalities. Yesterday evening the Bishop collated and  I inducted the new vicar of S Paul's church in north Tottenham, serving the Northumberland Park ward where youth unemployment is higher than nearly anywhere else in the country. It is less than sixteen miles from Haileybury.

Writing in 1908 Lionel Milford (L 1867; Staff 1879 - 1919) quoted a speech made by Thomas Hughes in Big School in 1880. Hughes was the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and was a friend of Dr Bradby's. Hughes sent his own sons to Haileybury. After making mention of the upheavals in Europe in 1848, Hughes went on:

England has come grandly through that shaking of the nations. But, by all the signs of the time, another great crisis is upon us in these days. How will our country come through it? For myself, I am more and more convinced that that question must be answered in these great Schools. If they are sending out a constant stream of young men, not only of high intelligence because that goes without saying but simple in habits, strong in principle, who have learned that lesson, so hard to learn in this luxurious and self-indulgent time, to say the words 'No' and 'I can't afford,' then I have little fear of our country losing her great place among the nations. If, on the other hand, they are sending out a stream of young men of many wants, hungry for enjoyment of all kinds, greedy of change, without simplicity, without true manliness, then indeed, for my part, I have little hope that the sceptre will not pass as so many say it is already passing from English hands. On which side is Haileybury going to stand ? I hope and believe it will be on that which she has held so staunchly hitherto, during her short life of eighteen years. And how is it to be done ? How is this ground, so well won in the past, to be held well in the future ? Only in one way, only by the old method.  Read your grand motto, which faces you there at the end of this room ' Sursum Corda.' Boys ! Up with your hearts ! Act up to that, be true to that. Lift up your hearts for the strength and help which never fails them who will lift them up honestly and humbly, and you will answer that question in a way which will do honour to your School, and make your country glad and grateful that it has risen up in our midst.

Sunset

This picture seemed to come out well. 

It Is Not Just The Houses

Yesterday I attended a conference for those who work in community ministry projects in the inner city parts of London. Titled 'A Passion for the City,' the conference took place at the church of Basil Jellicoe (BFr 1912), S Mary's Somers Town. The work and example of Fr Jellicoe was very often adduced by all the participants as we considered how we work in the inner city today.

Jellicoe insisted the new flats in Somers Town should have community spaces where neighbours could meet and talk, and public art. These coloumns are for clothes lines. These principls inform puplic housing design to this day. 

There are many themes. Internally, the focus on the inner city and its needs which was so much part of the life of the church in the 1980s in the wake of the Faith in the City report, has somewhat waned. The Bishop of Stepney reflected on the reasons for this and what we should be doing about it.

Fr Caster and the tour of the S Pancras Housing Association blocks materminded by Jellicoe

One of the fruits of that report was the Church Urban Fund, which is 25 this year, moving to renew its grant making capability and continuing to work to provide start up funding for innumerable community projects run from and by our churches. Tim Bissett, Cheif Executive of CUF was there.

The Diocese of London, whose churches are growing in attendance and in number has over 700 community projects running in our 400 parishes. Jellicoe recognised the pressing urgent need to do something about the physical condition of his parishioners who lived in some of the worst slums of the day. But he would say 'it is not just the houses.' The physical needs were only a part of the needs of the whole person and Jellicoe was at least if not more concerned with souls. The Bishop of London preached at the Mass in the middle of the day, celebrated where Fr Jellicoe himself  brought the physical and spiritual needs of his people together in the simple meal in which body and soul are fed.

The Magdalene Club at S Mary's, home of a drop-in lunch club replaing a provision which has been cut by the local authority. Fr Jellicoe's portrait looks on

Over lunch there were walking tours in which Fr John Caster, Fr Jellicoe's successor as priest in charge of S Mary's showed us the results of the work of slum clearance by his predecessor.

Today government is taking the church seriously as a partner, but the 'Big Society' is, no more than any other political system, entirely without challenge for the church or subject to questions from us. Jellicoe looked to the building of the New Jerusalem, and that is not, ultimately, a Kingdom of this world, though it requires us to work to make this world a better reflection of the Kingdom of God. A panel in the afternoon helped us to reflect on the Government's agenda and our response to it. Chaired by Fran Beckett OBE, it featured Paul Goodman of Conservative Home, Francis Davis fellow of Blackfriars in Oxford, The Rev'd Dr James Walters , chaplain of the LSE, and the Bishop of Stepney.

Man of the Match

What a splendid surprise to be given an envelope yesterday with a note from Nick Courtney (M 1960). Robin Bishop (Staff 1985 -) (General Secretary) passed it, still sealed and with the contents a mystery, to John Palmer (E 1962) (Chairman of the Trustees) with the instruction to shake my hand and offer congratulations. John did so, both he and I mystified. When I opened the envelope there was a note and a medal, announcing that the Haileybury Veterans' Rifle Club have made me Man of the Match for the shooting at Bisley in July.

Thank you Nick - I am not sure I have ever been Man of the Match for anything before, and I am honoured and chuffed. Everyone else shot straighter than I did, but it was great fun to be included. Thanks also to Humphrey Nye (Staff 1961 - 1994) who guided me to Bisley and showed me round.

There are some pictures of the day here, and in the Haileybury Society News 2011, my copy of which arrived today.

Thanksgiving for Rodney

There was a fine Haileybury turn out for the Thanksgiving service for Rodney Galpin (M 1945, President OHS 1987-88) this afternoon. Past Presidents Michael Freegard (BF1947), John Palmer (E 1962)  and Donald McLeod (A 1950) were there, as was Edward Walker-Arnott (B 1952). Jean Ross, Chairman of the Education Committee of Council (and Donald's wife), was also present, as were the General Secretary, Robin Bishop (Staff 1985 - ) and the Assistant General Sceretary, Roger Woodburn (Staff 1978 -). The Rev'd Chris Briggs, (Chaplain 2000-), was with us, together with Paul Wilkinson, the Bursar, Debbie Wright his deputy, and Pauline Cassidy from the Haileybury Society Office. (I hope I have not missed anyone.)

S Peter's Church Knowle 

Edward Walker Arnott and John Palmer both wore the 'town' OH tie which was Rodney's choice. He never, apparently, wore the bright magenta or the Hearts and Wings ties.

It was a fine thanksgiving and the church, of which Rodney had been both churchwarden and treasurer in his time, was packed. The balcony where many of us ended up gave a good view, but while the seats were beautifully designed to kneel to pray, they were a bit cramped for sitting.

Our prayers for Syliva and the family and for all those who mourn Rodney.

Haileybury was mentioned as just one of a great number of Rodney's interests and commitments, but on the back of the service paper were printed the words from The Pilgrim's Progress which are round the dome in Hall:

"My sword I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my rewarder." So he passed over, and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

Best Shooting Ever?

Mr Massey worked at Haileybury for a couple of years on a scheme from the University of Virginia. He was a House Tutor in Highfield so I knew him a bit. Rooting around on the web I found this video. He is very good at basketball!

(For older OHs this is all going on in the Sports Hall on the end of XX Acre)




For those who feel this is a rugby term (correct) here is a clip of a Junior House rugby final on Terrace. It says 'unfinished,' which it is - the annoying music goes on for some time after all the Rugby has finished. I should turn the sound off if I were you!

We Know The Answer, But What Was The Question?

Yesterday at match tea after the Saturday games there was quite a Hailey reunion. Peter Ansell (Ha 1976) was there with his sister and nephew who is at Merchat Taylors and who had been playing in the matches against Haileybury. Also there was Peter's father, John, (Ha 1945). We showed the chaps from Merchant Taylors that, yes, you can speak into the corners of the Hall and be heard by someone standing in the diagonally opposite niche, and reminisced about the New Guv's test.

Pete remembered a question about the obelisk. Something about 'where will you find a needle?' Neither of us could remember what the question was, but were sure the answer was the Boer War memorial. Can anyone remember the question?

Lift Up Your Hearts

The four roundels or tondi in the pendentives of the chapel dome represent Government, Industry, Learning and the Fine Arts. They are by Sir Charles Wheeler who worked with Sir Herbert Baker on other projects, including the Bank of England and South Africa House.

Government

This Sunday's lectionary readings give as the Gospel Matthew 22, the trap set by the Pharisees and Herodians: is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? It is the great dilemma of all those who would live according to God's Law, or any other set of principles for that matter. Does one follow the Herodians, those who supported the Roman puppet ruler Herod Antipas, and accommodate to the world, follow the dictates of realpolitik and sacrifice one's principles in detail in order to follow them in general? Or is the answer to be scrupulous like the Pharisee: refuse to do anything which compromises the Truth as we understand it, but at the cost of real engagement with the world and the separation into a sect? 

It is a constant struggle to get this right, and the church is guided by her Lord to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." That is, neither to retreat to the false certainties of pure sectarianism, nor to cease to care about the means in the cause of the ends. 

Industry

Haileyburians are influential in Government, Industry, Learning and the Arts. Where they engage in the struggle to balance the demands of Caesar and God they do well; to stand on either extreme of the dilemma posed by the opponents of Christ is to risk ruin: not perhaps material ruin, but spiritual ruin. 

A lovely email from John Homan (ISC E 1941 & K) and Past President (1995 - 1996) who has found the blog. John writes:

I was particularly surprised and pleased when you posted so much about the Imperial Service College. It was well timed to put this on record while still a few of us OISCs are about and able to get nostalgic about 'The Coll'.

    I was at Windsor for just two terms before the two schools amalgamated at Haileybury, so I have little that I can add to your Blog accounts. I will try shortly to put together and post a few personal recollections but for the moment I just want to write that I found the description of the demolition of the school buildings and re-development of the site very sad but enlightening. [That of course is not my work, but from a Windsor Historical Society website -  L] Almost total obliteration, just one building remaining, Camperdown House, and that of no architectural distinction! Visiting the site about ten years ago after a long gap I found it quite unrecognisable and could not even work out where the old buildings had stood. Was it not a shame that, presumably to balance the books in 1942, the whole site had to be sold at its wartime value. That was a small fraction of what could have been achieved if delay had been possible. The sale of the much smaller Clewer Manor site when the Junior School moved to join up with Lambrook showed this and, I believe produced a more substantial, if belated, dowry for the 1942 amalgamation.

   

Indeed the 'dowry' from the amalgamation helped to pay for the building of the new Houses required when the school went co-educational. Lawrence, which recievd the boys from the ISC House of the same name, and Kipling, John's Haileybury House, once Le Bas, but renamed for Rudyard Kipling (USC 1878) remained in their original Haileybury buildings. Melvill and Edmonstone moved to new sites.

Former members of Kipling may like to visit the House Website here. I pinched from it the 1942 - 2011 house photo montage at the top of this post.

Comfy!

You are supposed to call it 'The Health Centre,' but as we all know it is the San. The modern San is pretty much unchanged from when I was at school - even the fading school photos in the waiting area are the same. I rather like that! Of course we all know that Albans was originally the San, and that is a much nicer building (if you happen to like Victorian red brick, which I do) than the low flat roofed modern San built onto the side of Highfield.

That building is still there, but it has now been improved by being obscured. For ages it has been clear that the Lower School girls' boarding facilities were not up to it, and an extension has been built onto the side of Highfield to provide dormitories, a common room and a Tutor's flat. The new building wraps round the San and hides it from view.

The result is a first for Haileybury: a House with accommodation - suitably segregated - for boys and girls. I gather that when the school went fully coeducational it was decided that separate Houses would be necessary. That has always seemed to me a shame. Maybe the new Highfield points the way to a more thorough integration of boys and girls in one school.

Just enough to annoy

On my travels around the archdeaconry there are sometimes links with Haileybury.

I have noted before the (pre amalgamation) Haileybury arms in one of the stained glass windows of S James's church Muswell Hill.

Goodenough College is a hall of residence for graduates in the University of London on my patch. The building is by Sir Herbert Baker who was the designer of the Hall at Haileybury. The tables and benches in the dining hall at Goodenough are by Robert Thompson, signed with the carved mouse, just as at school. It is a strange experience to be in a place which is so similar, but so different.

Baker also worked at Downing College Cambridge where he completed the North Range of the college buildings, which were by William Wilkins, who was responsible for the Quad and Terrace at Haileybury. I know Wikipedia is a dangerous thing, but the article there on Baker reports the unattributed remark that Baker's work at Downing 'changed the original design just enough to annoy.'

All this allows me to quote from what remains my favourite book about Haileybury, Wilfred Blunt's Haileybury Buildings. Blunt tells us that Baker's first plan for the Memorial Dining Hall was for

"a Hall at right angles to the Terrace block at the corner opposite Bradby Hall. His design, although it continued in the Portland stone ionic character of the facade, and performed a useful function by obscuring the Bradby [which Blunt hated], proclaimed its superiority to Wilkins too loudly, and it was wisely decided to use the site behind Clock House."

HYT

The Haileybury Youth Trust is the successor to the Haileybury Club in Stepney.

Russell Matcham (HM of Kipling) is the link at Haileybury for the HYT, and writes:

Trev helps HYT

The work in KIZIGO, the second beneficiary of our 'One Village at a Time' project, was completed on time and in budget. I hope you agree the results are impressive. Increasing numbers of poor Ugandans have their lives improved by HYT, with Haileyburians and Ugandans working in partnership. There are now dozens of young HYT-trained Ugandans who have construction skills that will improve both opportunity and prospects. HYT's work is sustainable and life-enhancing for Ugandans; life-enriching for Haileyburians.

The third of our 'One Villages', Namaganda, lies deep in the Ugandan bush. Even by Ugandan standards it is very poor indeed. Although its school buildings were condemned as unsafe some years ago, children are still taught here. Namaganda really is off the beaten track but its people are determined to help themselves out of the poverty trap into which they were born.

With your wonderful support, HYT will transform this impoverished village, its schools and the lives of its people.

Children aged 7 at Kizigo primary school in the new school room

Russell has also forwarded news of Sam Edwards, a current gap year student whose work has been highly commended, describing him as 'a wonderful ambassador for his old school and the [Haileybury] Society'

You can donate to the HYT here:

www.justgiving.com/hyt

Or use one of the methods described here.

Rodney Galpin RIP

Rodney Galpin
President OH Society 1987-88

Rodney Galpin (M 45) has died at the age of 79. He was chairman of Standard Chartered 'the bankers to the Raj,' after having been a senior regulator at the Bank of England. When I was on the General Committee in the early 90s as a representative of recent Haileyburians he was incredibly kind and thoughtful to one who knew nothing about money. Others have said how he thought of them and have spoken of his kindness. He was President of the Society in 1987 - 1988.

In 2007 Rodney commissioned a centenary artwork for the Scout HQ at Gilwell Park in memory of his father, Sir Albert Galpin KCVO.

May he rest in peace.

Cars

I still walk quickly because there were only five minutes to get from, for instance, the Art School or the Whatton Block to the Science Labs or Bradby. I have never been good in the mornings either, and the payback for maximising time in bed was the rush to get to breakfast on time from Hailey.

We have learned this week that visionaries are thinking about rocket - planes to cut the travel time from London to Sydney to two hours.

It is noticeable how many cars there are nowadays around Haileybury. There are many more day pupils than once there were, and many of those who, like my boys, board, go home most weekends. Parents come to watch games in large numbers and attend things at school much more than in the days when we were dropped off for eleven weeks of no contact except by post. Many senior pupils have cars. Car parks are springing up: on the corner of XX Acre; on the lawn outside the Batten entrance to the KBM block; by the mini range on the edge of Hailey Field, and anywhere people can park a car.

With the cars come notices and yellow lines and so on. I suppose it is inevitable, but it does seem a shame.

Reading

Returning to the 'Proud Father' theme from Sunday evening's post, seeing No3 reading in chapel as the youngest boy in the school (he will not be 12 until next August), I was put in mind of the reading I did as one of the youngest (my birthday falls in June) in my first term at Haileybury.

London Weekend Television broadcasted the Remembrance Sunday service from the Chapel in November 1979, and I was asked to read the scripture passage (it was the Beatitudes in Matthew Ch5). It was all a very last minute arrangement and I was whisked out of lessons to be drilled in getting it right. I remember the Chaplains (Peter Lewis and Jim Pullen) were pretty stressed.

I decided not to tell anyone in House that I was doing the reading; not sure why, I suppose I thought I might not be believed and that I might be thought to be showing off - a sure way to get taken down a peg or two. I remember sprucing myself up to be all neat and then having to help tidy up the VI From corridor kitchen ready for Sunday House inspection, and getting all messy in the process.

When the moment finally came I was put on the end of the row in Chapel, and the prefect sitting next to me thought I had gone mad when I got up to go and read.

It was the days before video recording was common. I seem to remember seeing a recording once some years later, but I don't know if it is anywhere preserved.

Harvest

The Indian Summer is keeping the grounds staff busy. The whole place looks immaculate as always, but it has a feel of Summer about it even as the leaves turn on the trees.

On Saturday they were mowing the grass.