Father Owen has left Cotton to be a parish priest. The picture, we hope, is only half-painted. May his work be blessed for another twenty-five years with colours undimmed and form as cleverly contrived. Now he must forgive what we have left unsaid; twenty years is too much for a few hundred words, but the picture needs a frame. Let my forgetful silence be golden.

FATHER THOMAS DENNISON

How does one assess the work of a priest who has served on the Staff for ten years without allowing the result to sound rather like a premature obituary notice? One can but pick out the odd incident here and there and skate over the character traits revealed, and hope that not too much injustice is done in the final picture.

Fr Thomas Dennison, at Cotton as a boy for eight years joined the Staff in 1959. His room soon became a centre for minor social gatherings. It was not surprising, even though the domestic staff may have faced it with less than their customary calm, that it proved to be an immense source of joy to the average boy, Its attraction; were manifold: half-finished radios and tape-recorders, a gigantic telescope, tools and mechanical gadgets of every kind. Later the radio 'hams' became official and moved up to 'Creepers' where a benevolent eye was directed at them from downstairs. Others came for photographic materials which somehow or other were obtained at an extraordinarily cheap rate, for advice on cameras, lenses, equipment of all kinds, as well as never-ending requests for films to be developed and for passport photographs. Later on Fr Dennison organised them too and designed and furnished the Dark Room where many boys have spent a few hours and a few boys many. They came to have their watches mended or to learn how to play bridge or for advice about their future or to listen to music which moved from the somewhat recherche atmosphere of the Noah's fludde type to the Coons. If at times the parties were a little noisy, the boys (and Fr Dennison) were happy at the outcome. He considered that his job on the Staff as a priest was to serve, and this he did in a typically generous way.

In Class his patience on occasions was sorely tried

at the reluctance of B Form Mathematics classes to learn even elementary principles. However, his clear explanations of subject matter, be it the molecular structure of substances or the correct relationship between Science and Doctrine, did much to help many, not always appreciative, pupils through General Science Ordinary Level examinations and in a sense, more importantly, to face the problems of daily life. The hours he spent on Lower Field initiating the new boys into the mysteries of rugger gave him much pleasure, as did the weeks he spent some years ago down the Valley building his famous den. His readiness to help the boys, his gentleness in understanding them, became even more apparent in his final year on the Staff as Challoner House

Master, and more than just the denizens of the ground floor of the Faber Block benefited from his tolerant regard for human nature and his wise appreciation of problems brought to him.

His colleagues on the Staff will miss his ready wit as well as the practical help he gave them with their injured cars, cameras, watches or radiograms. The parishioners of Caversham will, for sure, benefit from the many qualities he has shown here. In expressing our gratitude to him for all that he has done, we pray that God wit) continue to bless him in his future work.

WITHOUT THE PRINCE' 13 December 196£

During the examinations life becomes unreal and the Christmas play simply has to be a comedy. We are again beholden to Milner House for providing us, as usual, with something to laugh at.

'Without the Prince' is set impossibly deep in the country. This gave many of the cast an opportunity to re-introduce us to their native dialects: Guyler, McLoughlin and Kinsella treating us to the best of rural Birkenhead, Birmingham and Coventry, as father, mother and son of a - presumably - cosmopolitan family. These were so moulded by the characters they assumed that whether they were indeed acting or just being natural became open to doubt; Guyler: dour and monosyllabic; McLoughlin: a veritable dragoness in matriarch's clothing; Kinsella: exuberant with the irreverence of youth. In this same category one must include Conry, the Prince who came in from the Cold, his mind a blank and his memory gone, apart from the lines of 'Hamlet'.

With the advantage of coaching from their Housemas- ter, Milner plays always have their comic parson: this year Hughes, as Derek Nimmo playing the Rev Simon Peters, gave a sustained and entertaining portrayal of a man doomed to failure - in this case due to the loss, through drink, of the principal actor in his production of 'Hamlet'. Connolly, Ophelia-to-be, permitted himself a non-dialect part: very efficient, as expected.

Of the other female characters, Sheppard, as a professional actress resplendent in Fr Stewart's wig, and McGill, the vicar's self-effacing wife, were also good: though Sheppard found little in his part to enthuse over. I was relieved to hear that stronger elastic was provided before the Saturday - open - performance: I do not know what a real lady would do if embarrassed by suspension trouble: Sheppard did at least retire behind the furniture to effect adjustments - a tip he might care to pass on to Connolly.

Browne, as the village constable, was adequate. His eager grin, which lasted throughout the performance, could, with benefit, have been replaced from time to time with expressions more in keeping with his supposed emotional states. The same criticism could be made of Kinsella whose grin, if anything, was even