3 OCTOBER 1970, Page 16

Communion capers

Sir: It is difficult to credit Christopher Booker's stories about the Communion Service. But here are two others.

Soon after my Kenyon grandmother's mar- riage she was shocked by seeing the villagers curtsey to the family pew on the way to the altar. She persuaded my grandfather to transfer to the north aisle. I had this from my eldest aunt, who had been told by her mother.

In 1947 at an 8 am Communion Service the officiating clergyman paused as he reached me, then bent down and I heard him hiss to the kneeler he had just served: 'Swallow it'. She had apparently intended to smuggle the wafer away.

Folklore witchcraft?