MERRILY ON HIGH
BY COLIN STEPHENSON

John Colin Stephenson (1915-1973) was an English priest. His memoir Merrily On High: An Anglo-Catholic Memoir was published by Darton, Longman & Todd in London in 1972. Presented here is everything in it of Greek love interest.

3. Cranleigh

On first attending chapel at Cranleigh School, the boarding school at Cranleigh in Surrey, where he was sent in 1928, aged thirteen:

We were not, however, taught monastic “custody of the eyes” and I could not think why an older boy in another house kept winking at me for I had yet to learn about many aspects of school life. […]

Various alterations were made in the chapel during my time at school mainly as a result of installing a new organ in the ambulatory behind the altar. This involved the moving of the old instrument with its gurgling water pump and dark recesses where many unsalutary friendships were consummated, for it did not take me long to discover what the winking had been about. Perhaps this was why at the same time as the old organ was removed a rather frightening text reading: “Be sure your sin will find you out” also disappeared from above the door by which we left the chapel.

From the first moment that I saw the demure line of surplice-clad trebles glide into the chapel I determined to join them and succeeded in disguising my tone deafness when we were tested so that I was soon imploring the deity for the wings of a dove in honied tones which drew admiring glances from older boys who were starting on that romantic quest which was likely to lead to an invitation behind the organ. [pp. 38-9]

On being confirmed soon after his arrival at the school:

The Headmaster of Cranleigh took very little part in my preparation for the sacraments except for a private interview on the night before the confirmation, when he asked if I had any problems and gave me an obscure warning about older boys which I did not yet understand. [p. 41]

It was not long before I got myself made a chapel server for the senior member of the fraternity was in my house and was a particularly dirty-minded boy who used to make lewd gestures in the sanctuary with a deadpan face when he thought the masters were not looking. He was reputed to drink the communion wine ‘on the quiet’ which I discovered was true as he invited me into the vestry to have a nip which I was much too prudish to accept. [pp. 45-6]

On a master who had just got ordained:

He once preached to us about Platonic friendship, in which he was much interested, from the text: “See that you love one another.” This caused a great stir amongst the house-masters who spent a lot of their time and energy in trying to ensure that we did no such thing. The fact that there were those on the staff who underlined the romantic nature of these attachments and encouraged them to come out into the open meant that Cranleigh was morally better than many other schools at that period where such things were rigorously suppressed. [p. 46]