High table

At Oxford, Cambridge and some other prestigious universities it is the custom for senior members of the college and their guests to eat at a table that is raised on a platform above the main dining hall. Conversation here is also assumed to proceed at a more elevated level.

In a flock of chickens there is often one that stands out as more intelligent than the rest. When I used to grow vegetables, Mary, a modest brown hybrid layer, would always arrive at my side as soon as I broke the ground. She would stand much too close to the spade with her beady eye trained upon the soil, ready to dart in and pluck out any earth worms that were exposed. Mary has long gone and now it is Griselda the 'Bluebell' hen who demonstrates her superior intellect by perching right on on top of the cotoneaster bush in order to make the most of the ripe red berries that exactly match the colour of her comb. The other hens just wait below for the few that drop to the ground.

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