Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Katharine wrote:Carolyn - .

Er, ahem, that would be Caroline, KathArine

Sorry Caroline I do try to spell names correctly but .... I thought there was a smiley of someone kneeling in contrition, but I can't find it.

Katharine wrote:Carolyn - I agree the Grace after the meal seemed very long when we were at school and looks quite short written down. It is impossible to read it quickly and get your tongue around all the words. I remember we used to hope for the Reader to say OIL the Royal family - one or two did the first time they read in Dining Hall.

There was also the infamous "charitable benelephants".

Those were the Graces used throughout my time - and are still used at Horsham whenever Grace is said. I've read myself, more than once, from the Lectern in Dining Hall (in our day we had to memorise the Graces, today they are laminated and stuck on the Lectern). We also use them at Singing Old Blues and at West Sussex Old Blues.....

I remember reading grace for the first time after I got my buttons. It seemed a bit nerve-racking at first, but it didn't take long to get used to it. Best not to pause for breath between 'refresh' and 'our souls', though......

And if you are selected, as an Old Blue, to read the Grace After Meat, NEVER drink wine with your meal beforehand for fear of making a mess of 'charitable benevolence'.................

Who read grace in the dining hall at Hertford? I vaguely remember it rotating around the houses but I don't remember ever reading it myself. Was it prefects? Head's mons? Or just a random mon from each house and I never got a turn? I can't for the life of me remember.

In my time, Jo, DR chose School Readers from the VI form and they each read for half a week at a time - Sunday to Wednesday (?) and Thursday to Sunday - that meant there were two readers for the two lessons at Mattins and Evensong. If I remember correctly, everyone who was staying on to the VI form had to read to her in Chapel and she made her choice of Readers and Deputies. One year she chose someone who stayed then down in the Upper V as a Deputy - there were comments about someone reading in hall who wasn't in the VI form - but it was DR's choice!

I think the head Girl always became a Reader is she hadn't been one already - including Isobel Robertson my second year with her lovely Scottish burr. Not all Prefects were Readers - I wasn't!

Ah, that rings a bell, Katharine. School readers - yes - that would explain why I never did it.

I was a chapel reader and also read Grace at mealtimes. I don't remember when I started doing it - but it seemed longer than two years. Was it really only 6th form?

I too was a reader, but I think only in sixth Form. I know DR picked us but no idea how many and how much we read.

I remember being a Reader - and again my fuzzy memory thinks it was for longer than two years. DR teaching me to project my voice (without shouting) has stood me in great stead over the years, including when I used to visit her and everyone else complained that she was stone deaf and would not wear her hearing aid. She always heard what I had to say!

kerrensimmonds wrote:I remember being a Reader - and again my fuzzy memory thinks it was for longer than two years. DR teaching me to project my voice (without shouting) has stood me in great stead over the years, including when I used to visit her and everyone else complained that she was stone deaf and would not wear her hearing aid. She always heard what I had to say!

I was a School Reader! One of the few positions of responsibility I ever held. I based my interpretation of the Graces on the laconic and elegant style of the first Grace Reading I ever heard - that of Head Girl Kathleen Dale (who clasped her hands under her GA as she read). Oh, she was stylish.

I think there were about eight approved Readers. I never had coaching from DR though. We had a reading-in-Chapel trial. DR sat at the back. We each read, and she gave a brusque nod at the end of each girl's effort. Oh, the thrill of seeing my name on the list of Readers in the Cloisters at the beginning of the next term!

(Caroline)"did a bit of googling and came up with a CD that includes The Hertford Grace, an organ work composed by (I read) Jean Taverner, but when I googled it again later found that it was composed by John Taverner"

No, it was Miss T, I'm sure - we sang it at the DR Memorial Service! It must have been composed after I left CH. Sorry to say... imho... it was a very dull unoriginal effort. A John Taverner Grace would have been superb!

Did the Graces teach me kindness and sharing with others? No! It was my generous father; who always supplied me with masses of tuck and fruit and reminded me that I must share them when anybody else didn't have enough - or just for the pleasure of sharing. It was he that sent me Lindt Chocolate Bunnies to slip under the pillows of Sixes Juniors. What a lovely man he was.

I was a school reader too. I remember the trial in the Chapel. The other thing I remember is that being somewhat vertically challenged, in order to see the bible on the lectern I needed a box to stand on. So when it was my turn to read, I had to find the box (can't remember where it was kept) and manoeuvre it into position before chapel. So very dignified.
But like others, I have found being able to read properly and confidently in public, including at the funerals of my father and step-father, very useful. Often people who aren't used to or comfortable with doing it read too fast and swallow words. Much better to take it slowly and use punctuation marks as an opportunity for a bit of a rest.

Su
5s 1967-73