Postscript

In Fellows Garden there is a table and bench placed in the bastion of the city wall with a commanding view across Christ Church Meadows. It is a very popular place for everyone to sit and I don’t recall it having any name while I was at Merton but since that time it has acquired the name ‘The Tolkien Table’ because this was, not unsurprisingly, Professor Tolkien’s favourite place to sit. In 2021 Merton College wished to replace the worn-down Bastion Bench  and launched an appeal for a small number of donors. I replied within ten minutes of receiving the email and was fortunate to reserve the last place. Our family has the extremely unusual honour of having three generations study at Merton College. My father matriculated in 1942, but his studies were interrupted after one year by a call up to the Army. After the war he lost out in a lottery for which students could resume their studies immediately, and rather than wait another year he went elsewhere (Swansea University) to complete his studies. I studied at Merton from 1969-74 and my daughter Siân studied from 2011-15. In recognition of this the College kindly agreed for all three of our names to appear on a plaque on the Bastion Bench around the Tolkien Table which was officially opened in 2022.

-Brian Witherden (1971)