Sir – I saw with interest Picture No 125 on the “150 Images” page (June 20). The picture was not taken “in the hidden recesses of Oxford Town Hall”, but in St Hugh’s College, where the Eckersley School of English, of which I was both the owner and the principal, was running a residential summer school for foreign learners and teachers of English.
The lady on the right of the picture was a Hungarian teacher with a very forceful personality.
On discovering that a troupe of Hungarian dancers was appearing that week at the New Theatre, she persuaded them to come to St Hugh’s one afternoon — complete with a cimbalom (a large stringed instrument played with hammers) to give a performance for our students and staff.
I am the cheerful fellow with his arms round two of the girls. I recall that the dancers complained that the wooden floor of the dining hall was too smooth for them to dance safely, whereupon the Domestic Bursar, entering into the spirit of the occasion, immediately ordered that an area should be scrubbed to roughen it.
John Eckersley, Oxford
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