Received wisdom is that Mr C's bark is a lot worse than his bite and, as the issuer of both, I can subscribe to that opinion. However, both were delivered with considerable severity last night as we had a rather silly incident wherein three Newtonians decided that they would throw stones at other members of the lodge as they made their way to their term-time home. I was not pleased, to put it euphemistically. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for the perpetrators of this ridiculous and unacceptable behaviour (and the latter were left in no doubt as to what I thought about it), Mr Lagden happened to be passing by, on his way to see me about another issue. When he learnt about what had been happening, he was horrified, and wasted no time in adding his disapproving voice to mine, resulting in a double-barrelled salvo which had an appropriately chastening effect. Put it this way: I don't think any more stone-throwing will happen again. It had better not.

After all of that, as you can imagine, there was a slightly muted atmosphere in Newton and there was a certain amount of moving gingerly and brief hesitation before asking the Lodgemeister any questions. The residents, ever respectful, realised that their Leader's displeasure had been incurred and there was little reluctance when invited to make their their way upstairs to silent reading.

No, not the best Newtonian evening. Still, it doesn't do any harm, from time to time, to show that both bark and bite are there when they're needed.