I, too, was a Scott who travelled to school on the Flying Scotsman and knew Alex Hope nee Crabbie when I lived in Scotland. She was senior to me at PF.

I feel a need to salvage the reputation of Miss Lemaitre’s cottage, as described by Alex Hope in Field Notes 2018! It was not all “purgatory” for me! I spent two terms there and found it rather a sanctuary! I came to PF outside the normal starting year - as I had been happy at my boarding school in Yorkshire and begged my parents to let me stay and complete my time there with my friends. So I arrived at PF as the only new girl in my class (I think!) a year after everyone else had settled in.

I shared dormitories with various friends including the Duncan twins, Rosie Stewart (another Scot from the train!), Nicola Hawke, and Susie Kerr. My best friend was Catriona Mackenzie whom I saw on my recent visit to England in 2017. I remember spending a term in a room over the science lab - and somehow we managed to climb down and enter a window and make a welsh rarebit on the Bunsen burners!  

So, back to the cottage. One of my terms there was during the summer and I enjoyed being away from the noise of the main school. Upstairs, the tree branches were close enough to the window at the back to see the world of the birds. The walk across to the cottage was almost like a walk in the country! Something I enjoyed as I came from rural Scotland and loved my walks. I am still a keen walker and do one 5 hour walk a week. I also remember requesting one of the single rooms over the covered way - which I was lucky to get for two terms - a treat for me but one to which the six formers normally got first option. Catriona was next door and I remember having chats with her through the windows. 

I remember loving English with Miss Sumpster. I simply loved literature - hence my enjoyment of a single room and the cottage! I could escape to other worlds in my books. Piano was a frustration I just remember endless scales - I longed to be taught by Miss Bedlington but I was not good enough. I loved her music appreciation classes - I sat and listened in awe.  Choir was another joy - it gave me the chance to interact with a best friend from Scotland Lavinia Ferguson (nee Clark) who at school ended up a year ahead and in the A stream. The school put on Gilbert and Sullivan but this is a less fortunate memory as I believed I was going to sing the Judge in Trial by Jury and then found I had been demoted! For a term, a group of us sang choral works - another thing I loved - but this group did not last as there were too few enthusiasts. 

I was not always on the right side of the teachers, even though I cannot remember doing outrageous things. However, one Sunday my Uncle turned up unexpectedly. This was supposed to be a happy surprise for me. He was not allowed to take me out and was told I was in detention. He considered this too severe a punishment and left furious. I cannot remember what I was supposed to have done - but I do remember the hurt of the punishment.

My sister was successful 7 years ahead of me. She was clever at maths and made it to be a prefect. I left at Christmas with 7 O-Levels so it cannot have been all bad!