The Academy

Cloister arches of grey stone, round and low on stubby columns, frame a courtyard that served a monastery long before it served a school. Their flagstones are worn hollow down the middle by centuries of feet, and moss has crept into every joint between them. Across the yard a square of raked sand lies inside a kerb of dressed stone, swept smooth before the first lesson of the day. Opposite stands the assembly hall under dark shingle, its tall narrow windows laying long bars of light across scrubbed oak benches. Low in the cellar wall one course of stone is darker and older than the rest, cut in a way no later mason ever matched. Where the cloister ends, a small oak door stands ajar onto long grass, and beeswax, dust and cut hay hang in the cool shade of the arches.